In the final paragraph of Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Hardy emphasizes his central theme with a directness that some critics have criticized for lacking subtlety: the "President of the Immortals, in the Aeschylean phrase, had ended his sport with Tess." In the serialized version, this was expressed even more bluntly: "'Justice' was done, and Time, the Arch-satirist, had had his joke out with Tess." Hardy is referring to Tess's execution for the murder of Alec D'Urberville. Through this powerful statement, he revisits the theme of determinism that runs throughout the novel. While this statement serves as an effective exaggeration to emphasize how Tess, an innocent woman, becomes a casualty of a hypocritical and oppressive society, it also inadvertently raises questions about individual responsibility. If Tess's fate was truly directed by the "President of the Immortals," who is clearly one of the "purblind doomsters" from Hardy's poem "Hap," her story only evokes sympathy for her undeserved misfortune. Despite the fact that misfortune shadows Tess at every step, and both events and people seem to plot against her happiness, Tess of the D'Urbervilles remains a classic tragic exploration of the relationship between personal responsibility and unavoidable fate.