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name teacher English IV 20 March 1998 Tess of the D? Urberville's Thomas Hardy was considered a fatalist. Fatalism is a view of life which insists that all action everywhere is controlled by nature of things or by a power superior to things. It grants the existence of Fate, a great impersonal, primitive force, existing from all eternity, absolutely independent of human wills, superior even to any god whom humanity may have invented. The power of Fate is embracing and is more difficult to understand than the gods themselves.
The scientific parallel of fatalism is determinism. It acknowledges, just as fatalism, that man? s struggle against the Will behind things, is of no avail, but does decree that the laws of cause and effect must not suspend operation. Determinism seeks to explain conditions which fatalism is content to describe. The use of fatalism for furthering the plot was a technique used by many Victorian authors, but with Thomas Hardy it became something more than a mere device. Due to his fatalistic outlook of life, Hardy presents the character of Tess as having a variety of forces working against her efforts to control her destiny.
Fate approaches Tess in a great variety of forms. Fate is present through chance and coincidence, and the manifestations of nature, time, and woman. The fundamental basis of Thomas Hardy? s fatalism is seen embodied in his youthful actions and the very first works he wrote, and there is evidently a gradual development up to the day of his death. He had a fatalistic outlook throughout his whole life.
In fact, even his birth seemed to be caused by a mere twist of fate. When Hardy was born, the attending surgeon pronounced him dead. He was thrown aside until Fate stepped in and summoned a nurse to realize that Hardy was in fact alive. Probably stemming from this, never in Hardy? s whole life did he look upon existence as being much worth while. He felt that his stoically born life was a record of unhappiness.
He believed that Fate maintains a disinterested attitude toward man. Hardy incorporates these feelings into the novel Tess of the d? Urberville's. Fateful incidents, overheard conversations, and undelivered letters symbolize the forces of Fate working against man? s destiny. Hardy?
s tender sympathy with nature and his belief in her as an instrument of Fate, is to be explained that his entire childhood was spent close to the soil. Growing up in the countryside of a small village of Egdon Heath, he could carefully observe the relentless regularity of natural changes. It is evident that Hardy considered Egdon Heath a personality, and likewise thought of it as an agent of Fate. Hardy lived in an age of transition which added to his natural disposition toward a melancholy view of life.
The industrial revolution was in the process of destroying the agricultural life and the nature around him that he was so fond of. Subsequent shifting of population caused a disintegration of rural customs and traditions which had meant security, stability, and dignity for the people. It was a period when fundamental beliefs religious, social, scientific, and political were shaken to their very core and brought in their stead the? ache of modernism? . Hardy? s early struggle with religious problems was an important factor in shaping his fatalistic nature.
As a child, it was Hardy? s dream to become a parson. He had several clerical relatives who supported him in his goal. His grandfather, father, uncle, brother, cousin, and two sisters had been musicians in various churches. As a young man, he frequently read church lessons and became curious of the different religions of Christianity. He couldn?
t understand that if each religion believed in the same god how they could practice their faith so differently. This was very bothersome to him and eventually resulted in his conversion to a fatalistic approach to life. Hardy? s loss of religious belief was very painful and was accompanied by deep struggles, but his new belief of fatalism enabled him to write many great works. Hardy?
s fatalistic philosophy is expressed the most in Tess of the d? Urberville's, than in any of his other publications. Actually there is similarities between Tess? s life and Hardy? s life. The use of chance and coincidence is given mostly a negative effect in Tess.
Throughout the novel it is often realized that coincidences could have taken place but did not. Meetings which might have saved many lives are missed by a few moments. A good example of this can be found in the beginning pages of Tess. Angel Clare and his two brothers, passes through Tess?
s village and sees her and her companions dancing on the green. He looks on for a while and then chooses a partner. He? took almost the first that came to hand? , but he didn? t take Tess. After dancing a short time he left, not having noticed her at all.
The reason Hardy probably introduces this episode is to make his readers realize that if Angel had selected Tess for his dancing mate, both of them would have escaped their tragic end. In fact, almost every chance that Tess takes and every coincidence she encounters, brings her sorrow in the long run. For example she took a chance to aid her parents by going to the market for them, but she ended up killing the family? s horse. A like desire sends her to her fatal position at the d? Urberville's.
In her desire to escape from a group of vulgar women, she is thrown coincidentally into the clutches of Alec d? Urbervilles. Subsequently, her baby dies of cold and hunger, because she, for the sake of honor, refuses to take another? chance?
with Alec, by refusing the aid he offers. Her marriage with Angel Clare is wrecked because by her code of honor she must take a? chance? and tell him of her affair with Alec. What a different story this would have been if Angel had not caught sight of the d? Urbervilles lady outside Tess?
s chamber. He probably would have weakened and entered the room with all together results. If Tess had not overheard the conversation of Angel? s brothers and had instead followed through on her plans to visit her parents, she probably would not have met Alec again and her entire life would have been changed. Nature as a conscious agent, usually for evil is often found in Hardy?
s works. Fate appears in the form of nature, endowing it with varying moods which affect the lives of the characters. It? s chief function is to show man? s defenseless condition before the devices of Fate. Nature usually gives the impression of being content, but as Hardy displays, nature can also take on sinister aspects, becoming more of an actor than a setting for an action. ?
The night came in, and took up its place there, unconcerned and indifferent; the night which had already swallowed up his happiness, and was now a thousand other people with as little disturbance or change of mien? (Chapter 35). Nature also takes on the sinister effect when the wind sighs mournfully when sorrow threatens Tess: ? The occasional heave of the wind became the sigh of some immense sad soul, conterminous with the universe in space, and with the history in time. ? (p. 31) At other times nature cannot so easily reflect the moods of its people: ? July passed over their heads and the Thermidorean weather which came in its wake seemed an effort on the part of nature to match the state of hearts at Talbothay?
s Dairy. ? (p. 166) In these instances of Nature a kind coincidence as well as Fate are manifested. In employing the Nature motif in his works, Hardy used it with affection and understanding. He felt at home in the great outdoors, and he interpreted it only as one could who had dealt long and thoughtfully with it. Hardy has shown very clearly in Tess that he considers Time a principal manifestation of Fate. Hardy has two chief uses for the motif of Time: the tremendous importance of the moment, and the disillusionment and change which come with the years. The first emphasize how much may depend on a few seconds; the other how little really matters in a thousand years or more.
There is tremendous importance placed on the moment, for time is a great series of moments. Moments of joy may be turned into bitterness by time. Love may be changed by time. For example, when Angel and Tess knew that? though the fascination with each had exercised over the other would probably in their first days of separation be even more potent than ever, time must attenuate that effect when two people are once parted new growths insensibly bud upwards to fill each vacated place; unforeseen accidents hinder intentions, and old plans are forgotten? (Chapter 36).
To be summed up, this means reason should triumph over passion. When Tess meets Alec: ? Had she perceived this meeting? s import she might have asked why she was doomed to be seen and coveted that day by the wrong man, and not by some other man, the right and desired one in all respects? (Chapter 5). Time is used as an arch instrument of Fate, but as such it operates within the bounds of credibility and as a powerful aid to distinction in Tess. Woman is Fate?
s most important instrument for opposing man? s happiness. Hardy believes that woman is helpless in the hands of Fate and carries out Fate? s work. Hardy unifies his action around a central figure, usually a woman. In search for love, the motivating passion of her life, woman becomes an agent in her own destiny.
Tess and the dairy maids are a good example. ? The air of the sleeping chamber seemed to palpitate with the hopeless passion of the girls. They writhed feverishly under the oppressiveness es of an emotion thrust on them by cruel nature? s law an emotion they neither e expected or desired the differences which distinguished them as individuals were abstracted by this passion, and each was but portion of one organism called sex? (Chapter 23). Tess sees no harm in deceit, if there? s anything to be gained by it.
Deceit suggests a motif which leads unfailingly to tragedy: a woman? s secret. Had Tess told Angel of her secret affair with Alec, both, perhaps, would have been spared. She was undecided about telling him, and waited until her confession led only to disaster. It is in the combination of these characteristics that most often destroys man. Helpless herself in the hands of Fate, woman acts as an agent for Fate in carrying out its work with man in Tess.
Fate is also revealed by means of many omens and signs. Joan d? Urbervilles lives by her fortune-telling book, although she is afraid to have it in her house when she sleeps. Almost everything has significance. For example, the cows will not let down their own milk, the butter will not come in the churn, the cock crows in the afternoon. The vision of the d?
Urbervilles coach is a bad omen, as is the stone of the? Cross-in-hand. ? Fate is a part of life, and much can be explained by it. Angel chooses Tess, but it is really fate which has made the choice; therefore the dairy maids do not blame Tess for any part f it. Marian says it must be something outside both Angel and Tess which has caused their separation, for she knows neither of them has any faults. It was to be that Alec should seduce Tess, that is, she is not to blame.
Fate motivates all Joan Durberfield does. The death of the horse, the knowledge off Tess? s bad luck with Alec, even the failure of her marriage with Clare, her mother accepts as though some high and uncompromising hand is dealing out these disappointments. Tess of the d? Urberville's is a novel about Tess from the time she is sixteen to the age of about twenty-one. Above all the characters in the short, Tess herself is the fullest expression o fatalism.
She, from the beginning is hopelessly resigned to her doom. There is a continuity of events from the time she is introduced until she dies. We are told of her actions, her qualifications for them, her trials and tribulations, and her efforts to overcome the fatalistic will against her enjoyment. The novel is divided into seven phases. At the end of each, a fateful incident has changed Tess? s life.
I feel that she begins each phase of her life with an altered view of her life and her destiny. I have seen that Hardy? s conception of Fate as an artistic motif divides naturally into a series of distinct yet related themes, which run through Tess of the d? Urberville's. Tess? s character seems to be a mirror image of Thomas Hardy.
Works Cited Bjork, L. A. (1987). Psychological Vision and social criticism in the Novels of Thomas Hardy. Stockholm, Sweden: Almquvist &# 038; Wiksell International. County, W. L. (1955).
Vision of Thomas Hardy. Stockholm, Sweden: Almquvist &# 038; Wiksell International. Elledge, S. (1965). Norton Critical Editions, Tess of the D? Urberville's. New York: WWNorton &# 038; Co.
Force, L. M. (1966). Cliff Notes on Hardy? s Tess of the D? urberville's. Lincoln, Nebraska: Cliffs Notes, Inc.
Hardy, T (1980). Tess of the D? Urberville's. New York, New York: The New American Library, Inc.
Maxwell, D. (1928). The Landscape of Thomas Hardy. London, The London Press. Wright, T. (1987).
The Critics Debate Tess of The D? Urberville's. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press International.
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