What literary elements are addressed in Tess of the D'Urbervilles?
Important literary elements in Tess of the D'Urbervilles are the pathetic fallacy, synesthesia, tragic irony, and omniscient narrative. A good starting point is examining the way Hardy's use of the omniscient point of view portrays Tess as a helpless victim of destiny, doomed to a tragic fate. Like Wessex, Tess is despoiled by the inevitable forces of history and progress.
How is Tess of the D'Urbervilles a social or industrial tragedy?
Tess of the d'Urbevilles is a social tragedy in that it shows how, at that time in English history, one's fate was inextricably bound up with one's class. Tess may fondly imagine that she has blue blood coursing through her veins, but in actual fact she's trapped by her lowly status in society. Therein lies her tragedy: no manner how hard she struggles to break free from her humble background, she will never be able to do so.
The book is also an industrial tragedy in that it shows how...
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the burgeoning industries of nineteenth-century England do not provide a means of escape for those born and raised on the land; they simply replace one form of crushing poverty with another.
Tess's ancestral land has been scarred by the Industrial Revolution. The land now exists purely and solely as a resource for the growing towns and cities. It is no longer something to be valued in and of itself; it is there to provide goods and commodities for the rapidly expanding urban settlements. That being so, the poor folk of the countryside are caught between a rock and hard place. They can either stay and work the land or move to the towns and cities to toil long, hard hours in the factories. Either way, they'll be exploited and impoverished by the new industrial economy.
How is Tess' story in Tess of the d'Urbervilles considered tragic?
I struggle to see how this story could not be viewed as anything other than a tragedy. Throughout the novel, Hardy makes it clear that the life of Tess, and the lives of all of us, are dictated by forces much bigger and more powerful than humans. However, certainly, the life of Tess is an extreme example of how humans become the playthings of fate and live their lives against the backdrop of impersonal forces that wish them ill. Consider the ways in which Tess is "doomed" to her fate. Marlott, as her home, perhaps indicates the bad "lot" in life that Tess will receive. There is a sense of the inevitable or the unavoidable in this novel, as in chapter after chapter, something goes wrong and fate intervenes to ruin the best intentions of the characters. The biggest example of this perhaps is when Tess writes Angel a letter describing her past, but pushes it under the mat so that it goes hidden. The tragedy of this novel is that Tess is reduced to a plaything of fate. The quote you originally included in your question makes this clear:
'Justice' was done, and the President of the Immortals, in Aeschylean phrase, had ended his sport with Tess.
The sense of tragedy is exacerbated by presenting Tess as a helpless creature in the hands of forces much stronger than her. Her tragedy has nothing to do with her own actions or character, but is the responsibility of fate, which is presented as a malignant force that exists in an evil world.