Tess of the d'Urbervilles

I am a sinful reader, a sort of, an author may desire or not, at the same time.

If Wuthering Heights is my favorite novel, undoubtedly, Thomas Hardy is my favorite author. Hardy is a brilliant author, who stands at the crossroads of Victorian Literature and Modern Literature. Critics , rightly count him as a Modern writer, or if I may say, the first major Modern Writer and also the first Major writer who faced censorship. Of his all three novels that I have read , 'The Mayor of Casterbridge', 'Jude the Obscure' and 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles', I found the last one most moving and poignant tragedy, without the melodrama of 'Jude..' and the overdoing of coincidences in 'The Mayor...'.

There are two things that the title convey - 1. Tess is the protagonist of the novel and 2. Her fate is unwittingly  connected with her ancestry - d'Urberville. The story begins with the discovery on Tess Durbeyfield's father's part that they are actually of the descent of famous and ancient knightly family of the d'Urberville who came from Normandy with William the Conqerer in 1066. After this Great discovery they have become ironically attached to the Dark fate of d'Urbervilles.

In the due course, Tess as well as readers are informed of a rather haunting tale of d'Urberville's non-existent coach(the tale goes as- one of the family of d'Urberville abducted a beautiful lady, who tried to escape from the coach in which he was carrying her off, and in the struggle he killed her , or something like this happened...), whose voice can be heard by one of  d'Urberville blood, and it is held to be of ill-omen to the one who hears it. It has to do with a murder, committed by one of the family, centuries ago. This haunting tale serves as a Foreshadow in the novel. But can one not just Reverse the tale in Tess' case and see it in a light that Tess be the beautiful lady who was abducted and d'Urberville whom Tess killed is the abductor ? But coming out of this ghostly tale, the novel means Much more.

Though Hardy's philosophy be the same in all his major novels, that, 'Happiness is just an interlude in the general drama of pain', here he brutally satirizes the hypocrisy and social conventions of rural Victorians. Tess who was raped by her rich Cousin d'Urberville at an early age of sixteen (or so) , it is she actually who is labelled a criminal and whose execution is demanded to restore justice. Hardy attacks such Irnoy in the last paragraph of the novel -

 'Justice' was done , and the President of the Immortals, in Aeschylean phrase, had ended his sport with Tess.

Hardy is called a Pessimist. But to me he is not a Pessimist. The one who is fighting with God, he at least believes in the existence of God. And his spirit of fighting only indirectly suggests how eagerly he wants to reconcile with God. He is more frustrated at the hypocrisy of Victorian society. Hardy's sympathy is completely with Tess. He shows Angle Clare as a gentleman who is confused with his Religious beliefs. He sympathizes with him at some length but mocks at him behind his sympathy. He shows him regretting his act of leaving Tess behind in England while he has come to New Zealand. And finally strikes a blow at him when he tries to reconcile with Tess :

His had been a love, 'which alters when it alteration finds.' 



Thus inverting Shakespeare's famous line, love ' does not alter when it alteration finds.' Can one call it pessimism? I have a better name for it - Realism. The more extreme form can be traced in his another inversion , that of Browning's famous line - 'God's in his heaven; and all's right with the world'.  "God's Not in his heaven; and all's wrong with the world."  But again I would rather call it Bitterness than Pessimism.

An artist is also a seer, a visioner, a man with sensibilities, a man who has a big picture of the Universe in his mind rather than just seeing what the eyes see and hearing what the ears hear.

Hardy's tragedies reach up to the level of Shakespeare's tragedies. But instead of an 'error' on character's part. which is a hallmark of a Shakespearean tragedy, in Hardy's tragedies, the characters fall at the hand of merciless Society and disinterested Divine Power. Though they are not of Royal lineage in Hardy as they are in Shakespeare but they are humble and with " more sinned against than sinner ". They win our sympathies in their fight with all Powerful Fate and win our heart in showing their Grace even at the worst moments.

Tess makes all the more a gripping tale because it has universal relevance. The way d'Urberville rapes her and laughs away his mistake, the way Angle disowns her although it was he only who persuaded her to marry him, the way d'Urberville blames her to attract him again with her beauty, the way d'Urberville succeeds to persuade her and so on... 

But the most beautiful and perhaps unexpected part for a Hardy's reader is the ending of the novel. In spite of its gloomy ending , it surprisingly leaves us light hearted (shall I call it a Cathartic Effect?). When I finished it, it instantly reminded me of 'Gunaahon ka Devta', by Dharmveer Bharti. There can not be any comparison between the two books though. Again , of the three novels I read of Hardy, Tess is most realistic and balanced one. Tess gets what she deserves at the end at least. And it is much due to the 'changed' Angel Clare, who gets rid of his state of confusion and does not judge Tess. 

P.S. - Some tragedies have enlightening effect, they do not leave us hopeless but more hopeful, for ' what has to come will come', there is only one thing you can live by and that's Hope.