Tellurium Of D`Urbervilles Essay, Research Paper
If written today, Tess of the vitamin D & # 8217 ; urbervilles by Thomas Hardy may hold been called
Merely Name Me Job or Tess: Victim of Fate. Throughout this frequently black novel, the
reader is forced by Tess & # 8217 ; s circumstance to sympathise with the heroine ( for deficiency
of a better term ) as life deals her blow after dismaying blow. One of the
grounds that the reader is able to make so may be the fatalistic attack Hardy
has taken with the life of the chief character. Hardy writes Tess as a victim of
Fate. This allows the reader to non fault her for the things that happen around
her. Much of the critical argument environing Tess centres around this really
point: Is Tess a victim? Are the things that happen to Tess beyond her control
or could she hold fought her manner out of her fortunes? Better yet, could
Hardy have written her out of her problems or did his fatalistic attack to the
fresh force him to finally sacrifice hapless Tess? Further, Is Hardy & # 8217 ; s approach
to the novel and its chief character genuinely fatalistic? In this essay, I will
explore these inquiries and the philosophy of Fatalism as it applies to Tess.
Fatalism is defined in Websters Dictionary as “ the philosophy that all things
take topographic point by inevitable necessity ” ( 175 ) . Fatalism is the thought that all
actions are controlled by Fate, a crude force that exists independent of
human volitions and exterior of the controls of power of a supreme being such as God
because God finally has no power ; he is a creative activity of adult male who granted Him His
power. Since He doesn & # 8217 ; t genuinely possess those powers, he is left without the
ability to change fortunes. In short, if one subscribes to this philosophy,
you believe that Fate controls how things happen and God can make nil to salvage
you, even Tess. Overall, Tess seems to travel through life sing one negative
event after another. Fateful incidents, overheard conversations and undelivered
letters work against her ability to command the way her life takes. Tess & # 8217 ; s
hereafter seems locked up from the beginning of the novel. As the narrative opens, we
foremost run into her male parent and learn of Tess & # 8217 ; s lineage: “ Durbeyfield & # 8230 ; are the
direct representative of the antediluvian and knightly household of the vitamin D & # 8217 ; Urbervilles & # 8230 ; that
renowned knight who came from Normandy & # 8230 ; if knighthood were familial, like a
barony & # 8230 ; [ John ] would be Sir John ” ( 4 ) . Somehow the reader knows about
instantly that this cognition International Relations and Security Network & # 8217 ; t needfully traveling to salvage the hapless kin,
particularly one time we learn of the Fate of Tess & # 8217 ; s ascendants: “ Where do we
vitamin D & # 8217 ; Urbervilles live? ” asks “ Sir ” John to the curate who responds,
“ You don & # 8217 ; t live anyplace. You are nonextant ” ( 5 ) . If one believes in the
construct of natural choice, they likely realize instead rapidly that this
International Relations and Security Network & # 8217 ; t the best household from which to fall. Tess seems to feel her lost
province. This is evidenced in her designation with the vitamin D & # 8217 ; Urberville kin.
Examples of this are her ability to see or hear the vitamin D & # 8217 ; Urberville Coach and her
realisation of her resemblance to the vitamin D & # 8217 ; Urberville adult female of the farmhouse at
Wellbridge: “ [ Tess ‘s ] mulct characteristics were unimpeachably traceable in these
overdone signifiers ” ( 277 ) . These eerie events suggest that the doomed
vitamin D & # 8217 ; Urberville blood doubtless flows through her venas. Another illustration of
Tess & # 8217 ; s consciousness of being sick fated is when she meets Alec. Tess plaints about
her destiny: “ Had she perceived this meeting & # 8217 ; s import she might hold asked why
she was doomed to be seen and converted that twenty-four hours by the incorrect adult male, and non by
some other adult male, the right and desired one in all respects ( 75 ) . She may non hold
known what to name it, but she decidedly applies the philosophy of Fatalism to
herself which harmonizing to author Leonard Doob is a revealing mark of a individual
who feels fated: “ When the principal is judging himself [ in this instance,
herself ] and believes that destiny is impacting him, his perceptual experience is normally
direct: he introspects, thinks, or meditates. But he may react indirectly when
person else, an perceiver, , gives him information about himself & # 8230 ; Fatalism by a
principal, hence, is a pessimistic inevitableness philosophy applied by him
about himself to himself ” ( 7 ) . If Tess didn & # 8217 ; t get down life feeling as though
Fate was working against her, there are plentifulness of incidents which could easy
convince her: the decease of the household Equus caballus because of her carelessness, the
missive of confession that slipped beneath the rug and caused her to come in
into matrimony as a misrepresentation, the decease of her male parent, and the return of Angel
merely excessively late. Incident after incident seem to indicate to merely one thing: Tellurium was
non meant to hold a happy being. So does Tess believe that God can salvage her?
Throughout the novel, we see Tess traveling off from God. She is appalled by the
evangelical sign-painter warning of damnation and tells him that his instructions
are “ atrocious & # 8230 ; cussing & # 8230 ; killing ” declining to “ believe that God
said such things ” ( 97 ) . Later, recognizing that God can & # 8217 ; t assist her, Tellurium
prays to Angel squealing her new faith in a missive: “ It has been so
much my faith of all time since we were married to be faithful to you in every
idea and expression ” ( 127 ) . Even Angel seems cognizant that God won & # 8217 ; t salvage Tess,
thought as he left, “ But, might some say, where was Tess & # 8217 ; s guardian angel?
Where was the Providence of her simple religion? Possibly, like that other God of
whom the ironical Tishbite radius, he was speaking, or he was prosecuting, or he was
in a journey, or he
was kiping and non to be awaked ” ( 93 ) . Other
characters seem to purchase into the thought of Fate as good. At the dairy, Angel
chooses Tess over the other milkmaids who love Angel every bit much as she does, but
the milkmaids can & # 8217 ; t be huffy at Tess because it is Fate which has made the
pick: “ & # 8217 ; Are you sure you don & # 8217 ; t dislike me for it? & # 8217 ; said Tess in a low
voice & # 8230 ; & # 8217 ; I don & # 8217 ; t know & # 8211 ; I don & # 8217 ; T know, & # 8217 ; murmured Retty Priddle. & # 8216 ; I want to detest & # 8216 ; ee ;
but I can non! & # 8217 ; “ That & # 8217 ; s how I feel, & # 8217 ; echoed Izz and Marian ” ( 12 ) . Now
we turn to the inquiry of whether or non Hardy could hold saved Tess or if he
believed that Fate had determined his picks. There were opportunities throughout the
novel for Hardy to give Tess a interruption and throw her a bone. He chose non to make
so. Critic Arnold Kettle see this determination as a necessity: “ Tess & # 8217 ; s decease is
artistically every bit inevitable as Juliet & # 8217 ; s & # 8230 ; She is up against a societal state of affairs
that she can make nil to decide except tragically, with drastic homo
loss ” ( 23 ) . It seems that if Hardy was to hold been true to his art, he had
no pick but to kill hapless Tess. It would be an mistake in unfavorable judgment, nevertheless, to
claim without a uncertainty that Fate is the cardinal participant in Tess & # 8217 ; s death. In fact, It
is really instead easy to reason the other side of the coin. Hardy & # 8217 ; s fatalism is
highly flawed. When in a pinch, he frequently relies on happenstance to foster
round Tess down: Alec demoing up to salvage Tess after the party ; his reappearance
as sermonizer ; the missive stealing under the rug ; Angel sloging a adult male that
turns up subsequently as Tess & # 8217 ; s foreman. One could reason that this is all a spot excessively
convenient. Critic Dorothy Van Ghent seems to hold stating, “ We have all
read or heard unfavorable judgment of Hardy for his inordinate trust upon happenstance in
the direction of his narrations & # 8230 ; he appears to be excessively much the puppeteer
working wires or strings to do events conform to his & # 8216 ; pessimistic & # 8217 ; and
& # 8216 ; fatalistic & # 8217 ; thoughts ” ( 56 ) . Hardy finally plays God in a novel where God
is losing and throws negative fortunes in topographic points where they may non hold
been without his use. But you still have to acknowledge, on the whole, our
hapless Tess still seems rather fated. So is Tess and finally Hardy responsible
for the things that happen to our heroine or is at that place something larger working
against her? Critic Leon Waldoff writes that “ It seems impossible to read
the novel with a complete neglect of the thought that Tess is someway responsible
for her destiny & # 8230 ; The narrative is everyplace buttressed by words such as & # 8216 ; doomed & # 8217 ; ,
& # 8216 ; destined & # 8217 ; , and & # 8216 ; fated. & # 8217 ; But the critical linking is ne’er made and one remains
unsure about why Tess & # 8217 ; s destiny is inevitable ” ( 135 ) . That minute of uncertainty
and the unsolved inquiry is where the statement of Fatalism in Tess additions its
impulse. One point that I feel must be made. Some argue, including my chap
schoolmates, that it was destiny that conveying Alec and Tess together. I would reason
that it is non destiny but Fate. Often used as a equivalent word for fate, Fate
differs somewhat but significantly from the thought of fate. Author Leonard Doob
explains in his book, Inevitability, the difference between the constructs:
“ destiny is associated with day of reckoning, which normally has the same negative
intension & # 8230 ; there can be no vacillation that the principal with a & # 8216 ; fatal & # 8217 ;
disease will gave a negative experience & # 8230 ; Destiny, on the other manus,
often & # 8211 ; once more by no agency ever & # 8211 ; suggests good luck and is herewith
assigned an association with positive consequence ” ( 7 ) . I think we can all hold
that Tess suffers from a lack of good lucks so it must be Fate, non
fate, that continues to cover her a losing manus. There will most likely ne’er
be understanding on Tess & # 8217 ; s and Hardy & # 8217 ; s ability to alter the result of the novel.
Not of all time truly burying his flaws really profoundly, Hardy seems to dispute the
impression that the defects were necessary and lend themselves to the books
readability. Critic Dorothy Van Ghent supports this thought authorship that
“ Hardy has, with great craft, reinforced the necessity of & # 8230 ; the common people
fatalism, and common people thaumaturgy & # 8230 ; Their doctrine and their accomplishments in life & # 8230 ; are
indestructible, their attitudes toward events magisterially urge a similar
fatalism upon the reader, forcing him to an inventive credence of the
doomrwrought series of accidents in the foreground of action ” ( 57 ) . It
appears that Hardy deliberately left uncertainty as to Tess & # 8217 ; s playing into Fate or if
she is playing against it. But that is why the novel still grabs the reader like
a good soap opera. Hardy, through his Fatalistic attack, invokes understanding and
concern for hapless Tess that keeps the reader turning each page in breathless
expectancy for what & # 8217 ; s following. Argument as we will, it can non be denied that Hardy
wrote a genuinely absorbing novel.
Doob, Leonard. Inevitability: Determinism, Fatalism, and Destiny. New York:
Greenwood Press, 1988. Hardy, Thomas. Tellurium of the vitamin D & # 8217 ; Urbervilles. New York:
MacMillan, 1991. Kettle, Arnold. Introduction to Tess of the vitamin D & # 8217 ; Urbervilles.
Twentieth Century Interpretations of Tess of the vitamin D & # 8217 ; Urbervilles. Ed. Albert
LaValley, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice-Hall, 1969. 14-29. Van Ghent,
Dorothy. On Tellurium of the vitamin D & # 8217 ; Urbervilles. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Tess
of the vitamin D & # 8217 ; Urbervilles. Ed. Albert LaValley, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. :
Prentice-Hall, 1969. 48-61. Waldoff, Leon. Psychological Determinism in Tess of
the vitamin D & # 8217 ; Urbervilles. Critical Approaches to the Fiction of Thomas Hardy. Ed. Dale
Kramer, London: MacMillan Press, 1979. 135-154.
