“Tess of the D’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman” Novel by Thomas Hardy.

Name                             :         Bhaliya Uma H.

Roll No                          :         01.

SEM                               :         04. M.A. part -2.

Paper No                        :         E-C-405-A.

Paper Name                             :         A study of special Author:

                                                Thomas Hardy as a novelist.

Date                               :         26/03/2012.

Topic Name                             :         Assignment on.

“Tess of the D’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Novel by Thomas Hardy.”

Dept                               :         Department of English.

Submitted To                 :         Dr. Dilip Sir Barad.

                                                Department of English.

                                                Bhavnagar University Bhavnagar.

v “Tess of the D’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman” Novel by Thomas Hardy.

Thomas Hardy Novel “Tess of the D’Urbervilles” is first published in 1891. In this novel is a story of sexual seduction though anyone who goes to it in the hope of finding pornography is going to be sadly disappointed. Hardy was certainly being provocative when he added the subtitle ‘A pure Woman’.

Ø Introduction of Thomas Hardy.

Thomas Hardy was a great novelist. He was born on June 2, 1840, in Higher Bockhampton in Dorset, A rural region of southwestern England that was to become the focus of his fiction. He was the eldest of four children. His father made his living in a building and Masoning business which his grandfather had started. He was sent to the village. School when he was eight, and the following few years were spent in the Dorchester day school, A nonconformist school for its day. He began the study of Latin at the age if twelve and continued it along with his other studies for several years. When he was sixteen years, He become a student of John Hicks’, A Dorchester Architect and church restores, with remarkable self=discipline he developed his classical education by studying Greek between the hours of four and eight in the morning. During this period he became acquainted with two men of letters who were to influence him. The Reverend William Barnes, A Dorset poet and philologist, who “kept school” next to Hicks’ office and Horace Moule, of Queen’s college, Cambridge, an author and reviewer. Hardy began to write poetry when he was seventeen and mule’s. Serious but kindly criticism meant much to Hardy. In 1862 Hardy went to London to work for an Architect, Arthur Blonfield. And he wrote some poetry, which he could not get published, and read a good deal. But After a few years ill health forced him to leave London and in 1867 he went back to work for Hicks. About this time He began writing prose, and his first novel, “The poor man and the Lady” was respected by the publishers, because it brought encouragement. In 1870 Hardy’s last job as an Architect, the restoration at St.Juliot in corn well, brought him a wife, for it was there he met Emma Lavinia Gifford. Whom he married in 1874. Hardy died January 11, 1928. A great many honors came to Hardy during his lifetime, including degrees and honorary fellowships bestowed by oxford and Cambridge. In 1910 the king awarded him the order of merit. A volume of tributes by living poets was presented to him in 1918.

Ø Hardy as a Novelist.

He had become the greatest English Novelist of His time. He was a regional Novelist presenting the country-side life of Wessex. Which he knew quite well-rather he was pessimistic and had doubt in religious matters.

·        Novels:

(1)    “Far from the Madding crowd” - 1874.

(2)   “The mayor of Casterbrige” – 1886.

(3)   “Tess of The d’ urbervillles” – 1891.

(4)   “Jude the Obscure” – 1895.

(5)   “The Return of the Native” – 1878.

Ø Novels: “Tess of the d’urbervilles.”

Tess of the d’Urbervilles is a Novel about Tess from the time she is sixteen or seventeen to the Age of about twenty-one. Using what has been termed an epic. Form, Herdy has described her life during this period. We are told of her actions, her Justifications for them, her trials and tribulations, and efforts to overcome the circumstantial will Against Enjoyment. Other characters must, of course, come into the story, but only what is important to Tess is told us. There are no subplots which interweave with the main story: only Tess’s story is important. She as a human being is explored thoroughly, both emotionally and intellectually. Those events which have significance in her life are examined carefully. The Novel is divided into seven phases. At the end of each a fateful incident has changed Tess’s life. She begins each phase of her life with an altered view of herself and her destiny. At last in this Novel. Hardy’s [resent real tragedy of Tess and her Great suffer in this Novel.

Ø Content of the Novel.

Tess parents John and Joan Durbeyfield is a poor and ignorant couple. Dyrbeyfield is a farm worker. Yet he knows that he is a direct descendant of the formerly powerful d’Urbervilles family. Tess leaves home, goes to work for a remote relation, Mrs. D’ urberville’s son Alec, whom she hates and despises. To escape his Attentions she returns home and gives parents accept the situation with little complaint, and the baby is adored by Tess’ little brother and sister. Soon however the child falls ill. Tess wishes to have it baptized but when the vicar calls at the cottage her father, in a moment of drunken obstinacy, refuses to Admit so Tess decides that she herself will baptize the brother and sisters who all share the same room In the Durbeyfield cottage.

After the baby’s death Tess, hoping to escape from the memory of her troubles, goes to work at a farm called Talbot hays. A young man called Angel Clare, with whom she falls in love. Clare is the son of an evangelical clergy man and, by the conventions of the time much above to her social position. He has not followed his father and two elder brothers into the ministry because he can not accept orthodox Christian. Beliefs. Nevertheless his ideas on morality are highly convehtial. He is working as a pupil on the Tallbothays farm and intends eventually to buy a farm of his own possibly abroad.

Tess begins to love by keeping Angel at a distance, though she knows he returns her love and in spite of her Admiration and respect for him. When he proposes marriage she at first refuses, feeling that her past misadventure though no fault of her own makes her unworthy of him. Angel’s persuasion and her great love for him eventually break her resistance and she Agrees to marry him. Before the wedding, she tries on several occasion to tell him of her past ‘sin’ but each time she is prevented, either by some trivial circumstance or by A failure of courage. Sometime before the wedding Tess Writes A confession and explanation, seals it in an envelope, and pushes it under the door of Angel’s room. When they meet next day his Attitude is unchanged and Tess conduces that he has read the letter, still loves her and intend s never to mention the matter she has revealed to him. In fact, Angel has never received the letter, which had lodged under the carpet of his room.

Tess discovers this only an hour or two before the wedding and is too over. Mad with Grief and Anxiety to mention it until they have started their honeymoon, which is spent in an Ancient mill house, here, the evening of the wedding day Tess summons up enough courage to reveals the secret of her husband. She tells him the story as they are sitting together in the Ancient Parlors of the mill house, illuminated only by the flames of a wood fire Angel is at first incredulous, then profoundly shocked that the Apparently pure girl he married is not in fact A virgin. Tess is also shocked, but for a different reason. She simply cannot believe that Angel’s love for her, and her own devotion to him, could be married or destroyed by a past event in which she has been no more than an innocent victim. The first few nights of their married life are spent in separate rooms and Angel than announces that they must part, at least for a time. So that he can think thing over. He plans to go to Brazil for A year or two with the idea of studying form conditions there. Tess is to stay at home either in loadings or back in her parent’s cottage. Her material needs are husband leaves her or in any imagery, by help from his father the vicar.

Desert by the husband whom she still loves with her whole heart, and too proud to apply for help either to his parents or her own. Tess returns to work on land. Many months pass and Clare does not write. Tess own imploring letters are ignored and gradually she becomes convinced that she will never see her husband Again. At this point she once Again meets her seducer Alec d’ urbervilles. Somewhat surprising he has been converted and has become a preacher, but seeing Tess Again revives his passion for her.

A mixture of passion and genuine regret for the suffering he has caused her in the past prompts him to pursue her relentlessly and at last wearied by his importunity, moved by consideration for her now widowed mother and her young brothers and sisters to whom d’Urbervilles offers a home and security. Tess gives way. Convinced by now that her husband will never return. In fact however Angel Clare is Already on his way back from Brazil, broken in health and spirit by the tough conditions he has encountered there and now convinced that he loves the wife he has treated so harshly.

On Arriving in Wessex Clare finds it impossible at first to find out what has happened to his wife. At last his enquires lead him to A hotel where she is staying with d’Urbervilles. They face each other in dining – room, and each is horrified Clare because it seens, that his own foolish behavior has driven his wife permanently into the Arms of another man, Tess because the husband she loved and waited for and finally given up for dead has returned. Worn out, ill and needing her help she realizes that she leaves him more than life and hates the man still asleep upstairs, who has tricked her into betraying her husband. The moment Angel has left her Tess seizes a carving knife from the waiting breakfast tray, kills the still sleeping d’Urbervilles and runs desperately away from the hotel and after her husband.

At last they are reunited and re conceited, but each knows it can only be a matter of hours before Alec’s body is discovered and only a day or two before Tess is hunted down and arrested. They make for the country of north Wessex and hide for six days and six nights in a deserted mansion where they are discovered, Asleep in each other’s Arms by the old care taker. Before she can rouse the neighbors’, the fugitive their flight across country. They reach Stonehenge and here Tess is over the Great plain and gilds the grim monoliths in whose shelter the innocent murderess lies asleep, the police at Last Arrive.

That Hardy should be called a pessimistic is not surprising to anyone who reads this magnificently tragic novel but a tragic Attitude is not necessarily a gloomy one and there is much in ‘Tess…’ that is far from gloomy, especially the essential beauty and goodness of Tess’ own character. Angel Clare is a typically tragic character in the Aristotelian sense- likeable, honest, Affectionate and intelligent: yet showing curious moral blindness which is the real cause of Tess’ and his own suffering.

If he had been able to rid himself of the ingrown and distorted notions of purity which he had been brought up with there would have been no suffering, but he had cast away Christian belief while unconsciously retaining mistaken ideas of Christian morality.   

Ø  Tess: A Pure Woman.

Tess Durbeyfield is heroine of the novel and her life exemplifies the clash between “the inherent will to enjoy and the circumstantial forces against enjoyment.” Intelligent, attractive, and naturally dignified, she was the eldest of the durbeyfield family and she is sixteen years old at the beginning of the story. And the subtitle of Tess of the D’Urbervilles also reflects “a pure woman faithfully presented.” And Tess is the central character of the book. But she is also more than a distinctive individual and hardy makes her into somewhat of a mythic heroine. Because her name formally refers to Theresa, recalls St.Teresa of Avila, another martyr. Tess represents the changing role of the agricultural workers in England in the late nineteenth century. She want to go work because for sake of her family poor condition. Her growth and development from a simple, country girl to a complex woman weaves throughout the novel. In this novel she hates and despises Alec but to escape his attentions she returns home and gives birth to a child. But after the baby’s death Tess decide to work at a farm called Talbothays. And after there she fall in love with angel Clare and Mary with Angel Clare. But before to married with angel she decide to tell her past and she write letter and seals it in an envelope, and pushes it under the door of angel’s  room. But angel has never received her letter. And after getting of truth angel decides go to Brazil to live Tess. Than after Tess mother died and she again meet Alec. But this time Alec nature was change he realizes his mistake and he love Tess and accept her. But at other side angel also realize Tess condition and again come In Tess life and he want to escarp Tess. So, in this novel Tess tragic suffer between two mail Alec and angel. And she also suffers for his family and tragic end of novel. So in this novel Tess character tragic.

Ø  Conclusion.

Tess of D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy The tragic story of a woman wronged by two men and by the harsh, repressive society in which she lives. Hardy's most striking and tragic heroine, Tess is a woman of intense vitality and innate goodness, and the author's favorite character. The chance discovery by a young peasant woman that she is a descendant of the noble family of d'Urbervilles is to change the course of her life. Tess Durbeyfield leaves home on the first of her fateful journeys, and meets the ruthless Alec d’Urbervilles. Thomas Hardy's impassioned story tells of hope and disappointment, rejection and enduring love.