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Thomas Hardy- a labyrinthic novelist

Prof. coordonator, Elev,

Ciurea Karin Voiteanu Florina-Raluca
Clasa a X-a F

MAI 2009

Thomas Hardy- a labyrinthic novelist

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 “Although Hardy creates a fictional universe based on the conventions of Realism, with a
documentary precision, addressing contemporary issues, his vision assumes tragic as well as ironic, poetic
undertones. The typical Hardyesque novel reveals a character trapped in a world of determinism, pessimism,
religious scepticism. This vision reduces plots to a melodramatic level, the human being allowed only a
marginal position.” (G. D. KLINGOPULOS)
In his own time Thomas Hardy was better known as a novelist rather than a poet, though he
abandoned fiction and dedicated the last three decades of his life to poetry.
Hardy was born in Bockhampton, Dorset in the third year of Queen Victoria’s reign. In 1870,
encouraged by a friend, he began a career as a novelist with "Desperate Remedies”, and one year later
"Under the Greenwood Tree”, which was a great success. It was followed by the masterpieces "Far from the
Madding Crowd” and "The Return of the Native”. Next he published "The Mayor of Casterbridge”, "Tess of
D’Urbervilles” and "Jude the Obscure”.
Hardy’s novels bring into literature a very rare combination of influences and gifts. In his work a
more than personal richness, which might easily have gone unrecorded, found expression.
Man’s struggle and the conflict between instinct and reason take place in a world dominated by
unhappy coincidences and accidents. He has been compared to Greek dramatists. The background suits the
character’s, suggesting some of his predispositions: <<Man’s character is his personal destiny or daimon>>.
His novels have a dramatic intensity. Themes of sin, guilt, responsibility and remorse are typical for his
novels.
"Tess of the D’Urbervilles, A Pure Woman” reunites the basic themes of Hardy’s work. From the
beginning of the novel, the relationship man-collectivity-cosmos is emphasized; the local festivity of May
Day is reminiscent of the old Roman agricultural fertility rites. Tess’s destiny comes to the reader as an
accumulation of coincidences which are interpreted in terms of folk superstition through symbols: the pillar
with the hand print - This pillar symbolizes Tess’ guilt of adultery and murder. Alec says that it was
erected by the druid’s for some punishment, while others say it was a cross. Tess was arrested after sleeping
by it; Tess’ baby - This baby symbolized Tess’ bad circumstance which was out of Tess’ control. It
symbolizes innocence in a sense since this baby was innocent having done nothing wrong, but it was
punished by society for coming from such an evil act. Having been raped, Tess was also innocent of the
crime, but she was still punished and pushed aside by society. So Hardy’s village does appear as not idyllic,
but rather as a sum of fatal conflicts and destructive passions.
Fate has the role of a cruel and capricious force that plays with the lives of mortals. There are many
conflicts between man and his fate. "Human beings appear to be killed by a superior force: first of nature,
then of society or their own errors.” (EDMUND BLUNDEN)
The story of this novel is simple, but fulled with symbols. The father of the Durbeyfield household is
wandering home when he is told that he is of the ancient line of the d’Urbervilles, a once powerful family.
Knowing this, he returns home happy and relays the news to his family. Although being from a once great
family, his current family is in need and decides to seek help from relatives by the name of d’Urberville.
The family sent Tess to ask them for help. Tess went and began working for them. However, she finds out
that they are not truly of the d’Urberville line and simply changed their names to d’Urberville. Also, she
finds out that the son of the house, Alec, is not of good character. He rapes her and she gets pregnant. She
leaves for home in a bad mood. Gives birth, and works with the other girls in the fields. The baby dies and
Tess decides to look for a new life elsewhere where no one knows of her and the incident after promising
herself that she would never get married. She ends up at Talbothays working as a milk maid. There, she
meets three girls and a man, Angel Clare, working there. She and the other three girls like Angel, but Angel
picks Tess out of the three. They fall in love, and get married. However, Tess never told Angel about the

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rape and the child until the night after the wedding. Although he had an affair before the wedding, he grows
furious and leaves her to go to America where he grows ill. In the meantime, Tess returns home distraught
and seeks to flee from her troubles. She meets Alec who still loves her and keeps pressing her to marry him
saying that Angel is never going to come back. Marian, one of the girls who liked Angel, finds Tess work at
the farm she works at. There she works for a year before deciding to live with Alec. She lives with Alec for
a while before Angel comes back expressing his continuing love for her. However, to leave Alec, she
murders him and leaves with Angel. They stay in a house on the way home for a week. However, when
they leave, Tess is arrested for murder and executed. Angel marries Tess’ younger sister as Tess’ last wish.
Tess’s future tragedy is foreshadowed by an episode early in the book- the death of Prince, the family
horse: "The pointed shaft of the cart had entered the breas of the unhappy Prince like a sword and from the
wound his life’s blood was spouting in a stream and falling with a hiss into the road. Tess immediately put
her hand upon the wound with the only result that she became splashed from face to skirt with the crmson
drops.” In this scene we can almost see Tess’s whole life; the death of the horse is a blow to the precarious
economic situation of her family and foretells its gradual degradation. The commentary of Tess’s family
regarding similar catastrophes reveals their fatalistic view: “It was meant to be.” Her blood stained image
suggests the murder of Alec D’Urbervilles in an access of fury and revenge as well as her final apprehension
by the authorities.
There are highly poetized descriptions of personified nature, which takes a symbolic, active part in
the dramatic events like the description of the sacrificial altar of Stonehenge, the Celtic temple dedicated to
the sun. Tess’s sleep on the huge rock at Stonehenge shows that she has the firm belief in the fair judgment
of law. Stonehenge, which is the ruin of a pagan Druid temple, is her spiritual home. The huge rock Tess
sleeps on is the altar and she is the sacrificial offering there. She quietly falls asleep at the end of her life
with a feeling of satisfaction in her several happy days with Angel Clare. After she wakes up from her sleep
in the morning light, she is really ready to be judged. A ray of the morning light shines on her making
her feel purified, and with calmness and quiet courage, she joins the pagan ancestors of human beings.
The loveliness of the green and sunny Talbothay’s farm, where she meets Angel Clare, is soon
contrasted to the somber barrenness of Flintcomb –Ash, a drab and desolate place. Angel has a refined
nature in comparison to Alec, the latter portrayed as a villain without scruples. Yet, “with all his attempted
independence of judgment, this advanced man was the slave of custom and conventionality.”
The novel also has a closely-woven pattern of unfortunate incidents and folk superstitions: Angel
Clare didn’t get the letter which she, in her haste, had thrust beneath the carpet and the crowing of the cock
in the afternoon was interpreted by Mrs. Crick as a sign of bad luck. When returning from Brazil, Angel
found Tess with Alec as she has been forced to accept his protection. Dorothy van Ghent believes the subject
of this novel is mythological as the human opposes “preternatural, inimical powers”. Stonehenge suggests
ritual sacrifice as she looked like an innocent victim offered to the gods on an altar.
However, there seems to be no ascent and cathartic purification in Hardy’s novels which leave the
reader frustrated and having a sense of the injustice perpetrated. There is rather a devastating projection of
man’s marginal position in the universe, being crushed by both fate and society. So “Tess of the
D’Urbervilles” seems a labyrinth, trapping character in a world of determinism, pessimism and religious
skepticism. We may therefore consider that Hardy is a labyrinthic novelist.

Bibliography:

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 1. Burgess, Anthony, "English Literature”, London, Longman, 1998
2. Ford, Boris, "From Dickens to Hardy. Vol.6 of the New Pelican Guide to English Literature”,
Penguin Books, England, 1990
3. Hardy, Evelyn, "Thomas Hardy: A Critical Biography”, London, 1954
4. Hardy, Thomas, "Tess of the D’Urbervilles, A Pure Woman”, Penguin Books, England, 1998