Tess was a
simple, innocent, guileless and hypersensitive girl, trapped during a
historically bound society. She visited the D’Urbervilles to hunt help for her
starved family. Where she met Alec who seduced her and ruining her life. She
came back and narrated the whole story to her mother truly that both Alec and
she or he or he were seduced. When her mother asked her to make the only of
this, she refused. Later, she met Angel who rebuffed her on learning her of
being unchaste. However, later, realizing his own mistake, he came back to her,
but, meanwhile, she had started living with Alec as her mistress. The last
significant event was Alec’s murder at the hand of Tess.
The critics
accuse Tess of impurity on two accounts. Firstly, the seduction scene
presupposes Tess’ implied consent. She never showed any sign of disapproval as
she did when Alec first tried to kiss her. Secondly, being the wife of Angel
and Alec’s being an improper person, Tess-like girl would never have
surrendered to Alec, only to provide the family with a living.
On the
Victorian standard of purity, i.e. the loss of chastity is that the loss of
purity, Tess would appear to be impious, because, firstly, she lost her chastity,
and secondly, alongside her consent. But, to Hardy, it is the foremost faulty
and narrow concept of morality. To him, chastity is of two types – one is said
to the mind and therefore the other to the body. Chastity of the body is
claimed to virginity, whereas that of mind is that the purity of the mind and
soul. consistent with Hardy, real chastity is that the chastity of the mind and
soul. One could even be bodily unchaste; still, he is often chaste, if he's
chaste by his soul and mind. people who have impure soul and mind aren't ‘pure’
despite the chastity of their body. So within the eyes of Hardy, Tess is pure
during this regard, though she lost bodily chastity she never lost purity of
the soul.
Tess stands
as a logo of unflinching and pure love. She loved for the sake of affection
only with none consideration. She went on loving Angel despite his being
unfaithful.
Tess had a
purity of dealings and warm feelings for everyone with none personal gain.
After the incident of losing her chastity, she never tried to delude anyone.
She told all her painful story to her mother and Angel, about her seduction.
She was a
logo of self-sacrifice and emotional self-control. She never behaved
hyper-sentimentally and always kept her passions under the control of her intellect.
She never raised hue and cry and never cry before anyone to urge sympathies.
She went on sacrificing herself for the sake of Angel, her family or anyone she
found. She proposed to Angle that he should marry Eza, Heely or Marian for she
considered herself subscript to anyone of them.
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All of the
above proves that Tess is pure, both in soul and mind. Had she been impure, she
could have narrated a one-sided story to her mother that she was raped by Alec.
She could have blamed her mother or her fate. Had she been impious, she could
have killed ‘Sorrow’ at its birth to avoid disputation, but she loved him and
baptized him herself after the refusal of a priest. Had she been immoral, she
wouldn’t have resisted Angel’s love for an extended time. But, she was a woman,
having a passion to be loved; so she yielded to Angel’s love, but she had
throughout been trying to unveil her secret to Angel. She wrote him a letter,
explaining the entire situation, but the letter was misplaced. She came to know
this when their marriage had been solemnized, because of his unchanged
behaviour, she was satisfied, that he has forgiven her. Yet she had no
intention to deceive Angel. Had she been impure and selfish, she would have
blamed Angel when he left for Brazil deserting her. But she accepted things for
she knew she was equally responsible. Many incidents are crying at the very
best of their voice that Tess was a pure woman.
The charges
levelled against Tess are often negated promptly. She didn’t have implied
consent within the seduction, for seduction could also be a sort of
intoxication. nobody is willfully seduced. As Tess fell a victim to seduction,
anyone would are seduced under such romantic circumstances. She was too
innocent to gauge Alec’s intentions for it had been her first contact with any
man. Then Alec intentionally rode the horse so fast that throughout the way,
she kept feeling the close and warm touches of Alec. once they reached the
appointed place, she slept. The romantic atmosphere, darkness and thus the silence
prevailing everywhere also contributed to making her seduced. So we'll not
blame her for having been seduced alongside her consent.
The second
charge looks, rather, valid and undeniable. Still, before blaming Tess, we must
consider the inevitable and bitter conditions, leading Tess to easily accept
such a slur on her fair name. Tess had been suffering throughout her life until
the saturation arrived. She tried her best to contact Angel, but failed; she
aimed to urge some job, but vainly. Her family was at the sting of starvation
after her father’s death and thus the intense ailment of her mother. Then Alec
assured her that Angel wouldn’t return. So she ventured to live with Alec as
his mistress. She did it because it had been the urgency of your time, not for
lust or any personal end. But she never accepted Alec from her heart. Alec’s
murder proves this fact. it's getting to be an error, yet it alone can never
prove her unchaste. aside from the last incident, she is undoubtedly pure. So
pure and honest she was that she didn’t conceal from Angel the fact of her
living with Alec as his mistress.
Tess was
that completely a pure woman who accidentally lost her chastity and kept
playing a toy within the hands of fate. Hardy remarks on the death of Tess:
"Justice
was done and thus the President of the Immortals, by Aeschelylian Phrase, had
ended his sport with Tess."
This also
reflects the innocence and purity of Tess, who, despite a prodigious number of
sufferings never lost the purity of her mind and soul, and, therefore, was
titled ‘A pure woman’ by Hardy
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