Tess of the D'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman | Themes
In the final paragraph of Tess of the D 'Urbervilles, Hardy reiterates his principal theme with an overtness that has caused some critics to regret his heavy-handedness: the "President of the Immortals, in the Aeschylean phrase, had ended his sport with Tess." In the serial version, the statement was even more overt: "'Justice' was done, and Time, the Arch-satirist, had had his joke out with Tess." What Hardy is describing is of course Tess's being hanged for murdering Alec D'Urberville, and with this portentous clause he revisits the question of determinism that has been woven in...
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