Interpretation of Tess of the D'urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

"Tess of the d'Urbervilles".

The extract under the consideration is written by a classic English writer Thomas Hardy. The works of the English novelist, poet, and dramatist Thomas Hardy unite the Victorian (c. 1840–1900) and modern eras. They reveal him to be a kind and gentle man, terribly aware of the pain human beings suffer in their struggle for life. He was a Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth. He examined the social constraints on the lives of those living in Victorian England, and criticized those beliefs which were relating to marriage, education and religion, that limited people's lives and caused unhappiness. So many of his novels concern tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances, and they are often set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex. The title of the presenting extract is "Tess of the d'Urbervilles".

The story takes place in the field where Tess is working. The story begins with her inner monologue where she is thinking of her life but she is interrupted by a strange sound. But only then the day has came, she has found a flock of pheasants, some of which have died and others that are in agony and pain. She suspects that hunters have shot them and will return to collect them. She feels an affinity for the birds in pain that is why she decides to kill them by breaking their necks in order to put them out of their misery.

I have found this extract well-written because of the way of narration which is full of descriptions of place which, in my opinion, describe Tess life. Such way of narration may be considered as the successful one because this landscape always seems to inform us about the character’s emotions which are caused by her life experience. For example, the description which is presented at the begging of the story, the foliage personifies Tess who is also as dense enough as this foliage, because she is alone against this cruel world.  And also, with the help of descriptions of surroundings and using such a stylistic device as epithet: the fall of a heavy body, shows the unstable life of Tess, because she has also experienced such flies which can kill her. It is enhanced by such a stylistic device as repetition: sometimes it was a palpitation…” Hardy shows that she always struggles against all kinds of difficulties. Using personification “day at length broke in the sky…” I think, that Hardy just wants to show that sometimes she has been happy.