Tess of the DUrbervilles by Thomas Hardy Essay - 1070 Words

The term culture comes from cultura animi,† or â€Å"cultivation of the soul.† One’s culture is a manifestation of where they come from, a huge part of who one is. However, when one must fight against one’s own culture, it’s like fighting against oneself. This is what Tess Durbeyfield had to do in Tess of the Durbervilles by Thomas Hardy. Tess’s strength develops as she contends with two cultural issues; the cultural expectation for women to be pure, and the cultural system of a social hierarchy. In Tess of the Durbervilles, there is a double standard for women, for Tess. Women are expected to be pure because without their pureness, they are soiled and unsuitable for marriage. Therefore, when Tess was taken advantage of by Alec†¦show more content†¦. . . How can forgiveness meet such a prestidigitation as that?† (223). This reveals the injustice for women, that women must actively guard their purity with their lives while men ha ve the luxury of making mistakes. Furthermore, for women, it matters not if she is a victim of a crime, as long as a woman is bereft of her purity, she is unworthy to be wed. In fact, the title of the fifth phase is â€Å"The Woman Pays,† suggesting that there is a debt for which Tess must be atoned. However, this debt is not inflicted upon Angel who was corrupt, nor for Alec who defiled Tess. This shows that punishment is reserved solely for women, which reflects on the cultural expectation of a woman’s purity. Despite all that Tess went through, she was able to become stronger because of it. As she told Angel of her woes, â€Å"Tess’s voice throughout had hardly risen higher than its opening tone; there had been no exculpatory phrase of any kind, and she had not wept† (222). The composure that Tess keeps as she recounts her tragic tale is an attestment to to how strong her experiences have made her. Another way in which Tess’s strength is reveale d is through the aloof distance which she keeps while working in the fields with her child, even though her peers judge her because of her illegitimate child and impurity. Her maturity of strength is also revealed in the murder of Alec D’Urberville. For the first time, Tess stands up for the women in her culture and actively defiesShow MoreRelatedTess of the DUrbervilles by THomas Hardy Essay718 Words   |  3 PagesTess of the DUrbervilles is a movie based on a novel by Thomas Hardy. The story involves a young girl named Tess who will be the victim, the prey, and sometimes the lover of many men. She will go through this without ever understanding what it is that those men want of her. The first man in her life is her father, whose name is John Durbeyfield. He was a drunken farmer. John discovers from the local parson that he is related to the noble local family of dUrbervilles. After finding out this informationRead More Analysis of Tess of the DUrbervilles by Thomas Hardy Essay3684 Words   |  15 PagesAnalysis of Tess of the DUrbervilles by Thomas Hardy The depth of artistic unity found in Thomas Hardys Tess of the DUrbervilles pervades every chapter of the novel. No one chapter is less important than another because each is essential in order to tell the tragic tale of Tess Durbeyfield. There is never an instance in Hardys prose that suggests frill or excess. Themes of the Industrial Revolution in England, the status of women during Victorian England, Christianity vs. Paganism, mattersRead MoreEssay about Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy 1483 Words   |  6 Pagesimmense achievement was the increasing encroachment on the previously untouched natural world. Many great minds grew weary of such advances and conveyed their apprehension through the popular literature of the time. The pivotal novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy explores the impact that industrialists with access to technology had on the pastoral countryside and lower classes. Conan Doyle expands on this message in his novel The Hound of the Baskervilles, by examining how the well-educatedRead MoreThomas Hardy- Tess of the D’urbervilles (Non-African)1366 Words   |  6 PagesTHEMATIC PRE-OCCUPATION, DICTION, SETTING AND PLOT, ASSESS THOMAS HARDY â€Å"TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES AND MORAL†. THOMAS HARDY- TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES (NON-AFRICAN) Pre-Occupation Thomas hardy first in his career became an apprentice to John Hicks. A Dorchester Architect for several years, his practice architecture in Dorchester, he also simultaneously studied Greek and Latin. It was during this period that he began written poetry. In 1862, Hardy moved to London ad worked as a Architect for ArthurRead More Injustice in Tess of the DUrbervilles by Thomas Hardy Essay1800 Words   |  8 Pagessomeone or something, but often this blame is misplaced, which is unfair in itself. In Tess of the DUrbervilles, Thomas Hardy depicts the injustice of life and the effects of mislaid blame through his use of imagery and diction. Hardy uses imagery throughout the novel in order to explicitly define the ways in which life is unjust. This injustice is first displayed at Prince?s death, then again at his burial. Hardy chooses specific words to enable the reader to see exactly what is happing. He describesRead MoreTragedy in Tess of the D’Urberville by Thomas Hardy Essay893 Words   |  4 PagesHardy’s novel Tess of the D’Urberville is based on the tragedy of Tess’ life. Throughout the novel Tess goes through numerous amounts of suffering .Traditionally, it was believed that tragedy was due to hamartia. Aristotle described hamartia as a flaw that leads to the fall of the protagonist caused by mistake in a person’s behaviour. However, Tess does not have a flaw but she still suffers despite the fact that she did not do anything wrong. Hardy demonstrates that Tess is a woman in a patriarchalRead MoreReinvention of Self in Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy880 Word s   |  4 PagesTess D’Urberville, the protagonist of Tess of the D’Urbervilles, must ask herself this very important question as she navigates the complexity of her life. Although she must provide for her family by running errands, taking care of her younger siblings, and managing her unruly parents Tess is a product of her culture. She is unintentionally passive in dire situations – such as when she drifted into a reverie and killed the family horse, or when fell asleep and was raped. Tess is also a symbol ofRead MoreTess of the dUrbervilles by Thomas Hardy: An essay on the characters representing social class and social change2232 Words   |  9 PagesThe author Thomas Hardy lived and wrote in a time of difficult social change, when England was making its slow and painful transition from an old-fashioned, agricultural nation to a modern, industrial one. Businessmen and entrepreneurs, or new money, joined the ranks of the social elite, as some families of t he ancient aristocracy, or old money, faded into obscurity. Hardy s novel Tess of the d Urbervilles clearly illustrates his views on the harsh social changes in his time period, which wereRead MoreTess of the DUrbervilles5394 Words   |  22 PagesTess of the DUrbervilles Quotes Tess of the DUrbervillesbyThomas Hardy 62,218 ratings, 3.62 average rating, 3,301 reviews Tess of the DUrbervilles Quotes (showing 1-50 of 88) â€Å"A strong woman who recklessly throws away her strength, she is worse than a weak woman who has never had any strength to throw away.† ― Thomas Hardy, Tess of the DUrbervilles tags: strength, woman â€Å"Did you say the stars were worlds, Tess? Yes. All like ours? I dont know, but I think so. They sometimes seem toRead More Thomas Hardys Use of Fallen Women in His Writings Essay examples544 Words   |  3 PagesThomas Hardys Use of Fallen Women in His Writings Thomas Hardy sheds new light on the idea of the fallen woman. Throughout several of his works, he portrays the fallen woman through her own eyes, and, in doing so, presents a different perspective. Three of his works which establish this new perspective are the poem, The Ruined Maid, and the novels Far from the Madding Crowd and Tess of the dUrbervilles. In The Ruined Maid, which he wrote in 1866, Hardy focuses on one womans recent