Ilustration of Tess on hilly pink terrain with trees and clouds in the background

Tess of the d'Urbervilles

by Thomas Hardy

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Student Question

How does Thomas Hardy portray man's cruelty to woman in Tess of the d'Urbervilles?

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Thomas Hardy portrays man's cruelty to women through Tess's experiences with Alec d'Urberville, who rapes and impregnates her, and Angel Clare, whose hypocrisy leads him to abandon her for not being "pure" after confessing his own infidelities. Tess also suffers societal cruelty when a priest denies her child's burial. Hardy highlights the double standards and victimization Tess endures, emphasizing her innocence despite societal judgments, which challenged Victorian norms.

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First, the beautiful and innocent fifteen-year-old Tess is raped and impregnated by her employer, Alec d'Urberville, who she trusted as a relative—although he simply adopted the d'Urberville surname because it sounded good.

After the baby is born and dies, the priest inflicts another cruelty on Tess by refusing the infant burial in the church grounds because it is illegitimate.

To get over her shame and grief, Tess goes to work on a dairy farm where nobody knows her. There, she lives an idyllic life close to nature and falls in love with the middle-class farmer Angel Clare. He falls in love with her too and marries her although she is a working class dairy maid.

Angel perhaps inflicts the worst cruelty on her after their wedding. He feels compelled on their wedding day to tell her he is not a virgin and to confess his infidelities. This persuades Tess it is safe to confess her own story of rape and childbirth. But while she can readily forgive Angel for his transgressions, he cannot forgive her. Even though he has been no saint, the double standard comes into play. He can't get over the fact she isn't "pure" and leaves her. He is a hypocrite: he condemns Tess for doing what he did, but he gives himself a pass.

Hardy illustrates clearly that Tess is the victim of men's sexual appetites and expectations. She has done nothing wrong but pays the price because of the cruel way men treat women in her society. Hardy subtitled the novel "A Pure Woman," which outraged Victorian audiences. We can see today, however, how nothing that happened to her was her fault.

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