Classics Corner: Hardy-har-har

By: Michelle Anstett
Editor-in-chief

A common historical misconception is that the Victorians were a bunch of prudes who avoided anything sensual and blushed at the sight of a female ankle. However, this perception is untrue, especially when reading the work of a preeminent Victorian novelist such as Thomas Hardy.

Hardy had a long, productive literary career in which he began as a novelist and short story writer. Following the scathing criticism of his final novel, “Jude the Obscure,” Hardy vowed never to write a novel again, and turned to poetry.

One of his most well-read novels is “Tess of the D’Urbervilles.”

This happens to be one of my favorite novels, which I read begrudgingly after four years of avoiding it after an unfortunate experience in a high school literature class. It is widely acclaimed as a beautifully tragic depiction of English country life, and is read in a lot of high school English classes.

“Tess” tells the story of Tess Durbeyfield, a beautiful, humble milkmaid in rural England. Her parents, whose aspirations reach beyond the walls of their overcrowded shack, send her off to “live with relatives,” the snobbish D’Urbervilles.

Alec D’Urberville, the handsome and cruel lord of the D’Urberville manor as a result of his mother’s blindness, takes a liking to Tess. He finds every opportunity to get her alone, pleading her for some sort of physical affirmation of what he believes are her internal longings for him.

However, Tess consistently refuses to have any physical contact with him, asserting her maidenhood and her desire to be left alone to do her job.

One night while on a drive, Alec savagely rapes Tess, causing her to become pregnant. As a result of her pregnancy, Tess runs away from the D’Urberville manor and returns home, giving birth to a son. A few weeks after his birth, the little boy dies, being christened “Sorrow” by Tess right before he passes.

The shame brought upon the Durbeyfield family causes Tess to set out from home yet again, finding work in a dairy. There she makes a life for herself away from the eye of her town, and she meets Angel Clare. He is a young, handsome and intelligent man, having come from a family of clergymen, but who has decided to strike out on his own and learn the dairy business.

Clare, like D’Urberville, takes a liking to Tess, and makes advances toward her. Wary of the attention of men after her experience with D’Urberville, Tess pushes him away for several months, denying her own growing fondness for Clare. In the end, however, Clare proposes marriage and Tess accepts, believing she will finally find happiness.

Her joy turns on their wedding night, when the newlyweds decide to have a time for coming clean about their pasts. Clare reveals he had an affair with an older woman in London, and Tess reveals her past with D’Urberville.

After Tess forgives Clare, she expects him to do the same; however, he does not know what to do and ignores her.

Shortly after the wedding, Clare leaves for Brazil and sends Tess home to live in her misery once again. After working sporadically at dairies around her home and doing everything she can to make herself unattractive, Tess comes into contact with a preacher who Clare’s father supposedly “saved.” It is none other than Alec D’Urberville, who implores her to marry him, claiming he is remorseful about what he did and he wants to make it up to her.

Desperate to save her family’s home following the death of her father, Tess agrees and enters into the world of society.

A short time later, Clare returns to England after receiving an imploring letter from two of Tess’ friends, telling him of her plight. Clare finds Tess with D’Urberville, more unhappy than ever before. She sees him and makes a decision.

Angry with D’Urberville for convincing her that Clare would never return for her, Tess begins an argument with him in their apartment, during which she stabs him to death. She and Clare flee in secret, spending several days in an abandoned house hiding from the authorities.

Finally, while Tess sleeps on a rock at Stonehenge, the authorities arrest her and sentence her to death. Tess Durbeyfield’s tragic life is at an end, when she believes she has finally found happiness.

Hardy’s fatalistic view of life is evident on every page of this book, as the reader feels an immense amount of sympathy for Tess, but knows her fate is sealed.

By placing his novel in the bucolic setting of the English countryside, Hardy is able to juxtapose the beauty of nature with its cruelty and lack of care for what happens to humanity.

Tess is, thanks to Hardy’s lengthy, wordy descriptions, a fully-drawn, beautiful character.

The reader’s heart breaks for her every time she finds happiness just within reach, but has it cruelly snatched away from her.

Anyone who enjoys Hardy’s poetry, or any of the other Victorians, will love this novel. I know that I plan to read all of Hardy’s other novels after avoiding them for so long and crying out so vehemently against them.