Book report of Tess of the D’Urbervilles
I. Introduction
Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented, also known as Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman, Tess of the d'Urbervilles or just Tess , is a novel by Thomas Hardy, first published in 1891，which proved to be successful.
1.1 The Author
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), novelist and poet, is one of the representatives of English critical realism at the turn of the 19th century. He was born in Dorset, a southern county of England, which he called Wessex in his books. His father wanted him to become a builder as he was. At the age of 22, Hardy went to London, where he studied architecture for five years. But at the same time, he also becomes interested in literature and philosophy. On his return to his native countryside in 1867, Hardy worked as an architect for several years. His first attempt at literature proved successful. So he gave up architecture and made literature his profession.
1.2 The author’s times
Thomas Hardy lived in the Victorian Era. At that time, there was a very strict morality, particularly concerning the relationship between men and women. A woman was still the property of her husband or father. In the late nineteenth century, the British invaded the capitalist mode of production in agriculture in remote areas, which brought agricultural workers misfortune and bad luck. In that period, the British Empire was going through a few bad turns, it was
maintained in the world of industrial monopoly position in the gradual loss of the capitalist world because the outbreak of severe economic crisis in the seventies. After two decades, Britain was almost constantly in a crisis and depression. In rural areas, a outbreak of a serious crisis happened. Based on this time background, Thomas Hardy wrote Tess of the D’Urbervilles ，in which the peasants of Wessex are oppressed and squeezed by farmers, thus reflecting the changes of Victorian Era during the Industrial Revolution and women are subsidiary to men, which reveals the fact that morality at that time was strict. This book can be seen as reflection of Thomas Hardy‟s time. .
II. The Story
2.1 The background of the story
Tess of the D’Urbervilles presents complex picture of both the importance of social class in nineteenth- century England and the relationship between men and women. The D‟Urbervilles is really nobility and the Duebeyfields truly are authentic nobility. But Duebeyfields family has fallen down, which leads Tess to seek help from D‟Urbervilles and finally results to her tragedy.
After Tess confesses to Clare, he leaves her. In the novel, we can see that women should keep virginity at that time in society, and she would be denounced by the people if she lost her virginity. It is unfair, but this is the fact.
2.2 A Summary of the Book
Tess of the D’Urbervilles, a Pure Woman Faithfully Portrayed, tells the tragic life of a beautiful country girl, Tess Durbeyfield. Tess is the daughter of poor
villager who at the beginning of the novel, discovers that he is the descendent of the ancient family of the D‟Urbervilles. So Tess is encouraged by her parents to seek out the old noble family. Yet, she is seduced by Alec D‟Urberville, the son of a rich merchant who has bought his title into the class of gentry. Tess gives birth to an illegitimate child, thus scandalizing the narrow-minded people around her. The child dies soon after its birth, and she is considered a sinful woman. Trying to build a new life for herself, she leaves home and works at a distant farm as a dairymaid. There she meets Angel Clare, a clergyman‟s son. The young couple fall in love and are engaged to each other. On their wedding night, Tess confesses to Angel her affair with Alec. Angel, who has had some affair with a bad woman, casts her off. Soon he leaves for Brazil. Misfortune and hardship come upon poor Tess and her family. Her father die and the whole family members are threatened with starvation.
Now Alec has become a preacher, still rich and still influential. Tess has made some pathetic appeals to Angel Clare to come back from abroad but in vain, and Alec tells her that Clare will never come back and presses his attentions upon her. She is driven to accept his protection and lives with him. Clare, returning from Brazil and feeling regretted for his harshness to Tess, finds her in such a bad situation. Maddened by this second wrong done her by Alec, she murders him in a fit of despair. After hiding with Clare in a forest for a short time, Tess falls into the claws of law. She is arrested, tried and hanged. At the end of the story, the author writes sarcastically: “„Justice‟ was done, and the Present of the
Immortals (in Aeschylean phrase) had ended his sport with Tess.”
III. My Views on the Book
Tess of the d'Urbervilles is set in the town of “w essex”, which is an imaginary world covering a large area of the southern and western countries of England. In this area, people face the collapse caused by mechanization of agriculture in the late nineteenth century. It is a fierce attack on the hypocritical morality of the bourgeois society the capitalist invasion into the country and destruction of the English peasantry towards the end of the century.
Thomas Hardy adopts the symbolism to polish the characters. Tess is the daughter of nature. When others see her, she will be nervous, just as domestic animals become upset when finding someone is seeing them. The author uses Tess to symbolize nature. Everything around Tess is quite calm and can live in harmony with her. She can ride the h orse “prince” to deliver bees and catch chickens in farms. What‟s more, the author use Angel Clare and Alec to symbolize human beings while Tess to symbolize nature. By developing the plot of Tess is finally hanged because of what the two men, the author wants to tell us human beings tends to conquer and destroy nature, which is also the reflection of changes happened in the 19th century.
Tess of the d'Urbervilles tells the tragic life of a beautiful, brave, hard-working country girl. By using the subtitle of “A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented”, the author tries to tell us that in his opinion, Tess is a pure woman although man criticism has been aroused. In my opinion, Tess is a pure woman.
First, Tess is beautiful not only in her appearance but in her heart. She was “a fine and handsome girl”. When their horse “prince” died, she becomes so guilty that she is willing to find work to support her poor family, which results in her seduction by Alec and losing her virginity.
Second, Tess is brave to pursue her own love. After she is seduced by Alec, she cannot stand being controlled by Alec, so she leaves. After that, she meets and falls in love with Angel Clare. On their wedding night, Tess tells Angel that she has lost her virginity because she doesn‟t want to cheat Angel. She has a strong desire to pursue true love, but Angel thinks Tess is no longer the one he loves, so he leaves Tess. In the beginning, if Tess is willing to be a mistress of Alec, she can go into upper class. But she doesn‟t. From this, we can say that Tess is a pure woman.
Third, when Tess is arrested, she doesn‟t protest. She obeys the law and is calm. In conclusion, Tess is a pure woman. Although she is not pure in body, she is pure in spirit. By creating the character of Tess, Thomas Hardy wants to show the good qualities of wessex people. The book reflects the spirit of human kind-hearted, hard-working, self-sacrifice, and the thirst for freedom. In a word, Tess is the artistic character who destroys herself in order to defend human dignity, values and virtues. It grabs all our compassion and sympathy
As to the novel‟s relevance to the present time, there are some prejudice against women and lower class people. It not only shows the problems of industrial revolution, but also reflects the social reality today. Nowadays, there still many
people live in lower class. Their fate is predetermined tragic, driven by a combined force of “nature”, both inside and outside. Mankind is subjected to the rule of some hostile and mysterious fate, which brings misfortune to human life. As to the humanity, we can see some good qualities from Tess. She is kind, brave and hardworking. Even though the fate and reality are unfair, she struggles and wants to find true love. Women nowadays should learn her good qualities. They should learn to be independent in economy, thus making them have a position in society.
After reading Tess of the d'Urbervilles, I have not only something form Thomas Hardy, such as his writing skills and ideas, but I have also learn some good qualities from Tess. She is a pure woman, who is brave, hardworking and kind. Her spirit will last forever in the literature world.