In the novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles written by Thomas Hardy, Thomas Hardy challenges the ideas that the Victorians had. He does this through themes and the three main characters, Tess,Alec and Angel.
The two main themes that challenge the Victorian ways is the idea of the perfect woman and social criticism and the main characters that challenge the ways of Victorian ways is Tess, Angel and Alec.
The perfect idea of a woman was that they do what men want them to do, stay at home and look after the house. However Tess at a young age had to help the family as her father was an alcoholic and her mother was very lazy. Tess in the novel was seen as a passive victim as all the things that happened to her she was asleep. When the horse Prince dies it was because she fell asleep, when she got raped by …show more content…
Tess is a lower class girl who is forced to go to Alec D’Urberville to get the surname D’Urberville and marry Alec for the sake of becoming an upper class. When Angel and Tess meet however, they disregard the idea of class and they both fall in love. Although it seems as if Tess does not love Angel because she would not marry him, it was just because of the fear she had of her not being in the right social class and not being pure. Angel even starts working in the farm to show that he does not find the work you do or your working class a reflection of who you truly are. Angel says to Tess showing what he thinks about class, “Distinction does not consist in the facile use of a contemptible set of conventions, but in being numbered among those who are true, and honest, and just, and pure, and lovely, and of good report – as you are, my Tess.”
With my essay you can see that the three main characters, Angel, Alec and Tess are the characters that add to the challenges of the Victorian ideas. They are the ones who break many rules and challenge the