Tess Of The D Urbervilles Fate

When readers look at Tess of the D’Urbervilles our first instinct is to feel pity for the girl who was forced into womanhood much too young. Tess’s story is certainly a tragic one that has garnered sympathy from some however there are many who consider Tess to have had a greater hand in her own downfall than previously thought.
During his first presentation of Tess, Hardy creates an image of a young country girl who is pure and innocent, as demonstrated through the symbolism of the colour white. Tess’s first description is as “a young member of the band”, by having this as our first impression of Tess, Hardy is already creating connotations of purity and innocence in the readers mind, reinforcing this idea as establishing her as part of the “white company”, again inciting ideas of the chastity and modesty expecting of girls during that era.
Another reading of this particular …show more content…
This idea of a “blighted star” could be Hardy’s way of pointing out that fate is not actually to blame for many of the misfortunes that occur, instead it is the fault of society as a whole and the impossible standards that are set for women especially. John Ruskin claimed in his essay “Of Queen’s Gardens” that a woman must “be incapable of error”, already it is clear that if this is the expectation of a woman she is doomed to fail even before having started. This clearly denotes the inequalities existing between the sexes in Victorian society as for men there is an “inevitable error” whereas the woman must be “incorruptibly good”. Hardy’s exposition of this inequality through the ideas of fate and “blighted stars” shows readers how he truly believes Tess to be a victim of her time and innocent of any