How Does Sleep Affect Tess Of The D Urberville

In the novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, sleep is a recurring motif that causes Tess, the main character, great harm throughout the book. In Phase I, Tess and Alec, a young man whom she meets while she is working, develop a friendship and talk frequently as she works long days. One evening they are riding through the woods and realize they have lost track of where they are, therefore Alec suggests he leave Tess by herself and search for a nearby cottage to ask for directions back home. As Alec is searching, Tess drifts off into a deep sleep and eventually starts to dream. Once Alex returns he finds Tess sleeping peacefully and begins to rape her in the woods. Hardy expresses the harm of the incident and states, “Why it was that upon this beautiful feminine tissue, sensitive as gossamer, and …show more content…
Another instance of sleep harming Tess is after she is assaulted. When Tess returns home word starts to spread, and soon the entire towns knows about the assault. Tess’s reputation begins to crumble and Hardy explains, “As Tess's own people down in those retreats are never tired of saying among each other in their fatalistic way: "It was to be." There lay the pity of it” (65). This furthermore explains that although Tess had no control over her innocence being taken and her body being used for Alec’s own personal desire, the townspeople still began to criticize and blame Tess for what had occured. Thus, all these events leading to a harmful and troubled future because of a short period of sleep. Finally, as Tess’s misfortunes and actions soon come back to haunt her, she is sentenced to execution. In hopes of escaping all of the troubles back home, Tess runs away with her ex-fiance Angel to Stonehenge. But, she does not make it far without stopping to rest and falls asleep on a rock. As she is sleeping, men from her town find the two and demand they take Tess away to be