Fatalism in Tess
If written today, Tess of the d'urbervilles by Thomas Hardy may have been called Just Call Me Job or Tess: Victim of Fate. Throughout this often bleak novel, the reader is forced by Tess's circumstance to sympathize with the heroine (for lack of a better term) as life deals her blow after horrifying blow. One of the reasons that the reader is able to do so may be the fatalistic approach Hardy has taken with the life of the main character. Hardy writes Tess as a victim of Fate. This allows the reader to not blame her for the things that happen around her. Much of the critical debate surrounding Tess centers around this very point: Is Tess a victim? Are the things that happen to Tess beyond her control or could she have fought her way out of her circumstances? Better yet, could Hardy have written her out of her troubles or did his fatalistic approach to the novel force him to ultimately sacrifice poor Tess? Further, Is Hardy's approach to the novel and its main character truly fatalistic? In this essay, I will explore these questions and the doctrine of Fatalism as it applies to Tess. Fatalism is defined in Websters Dictionary as "the doctrine that all things take place by inevitable necessity" (175). Fatalism is
There will most likely never be agreement on Tess's and Hardy's ability to change the outcome of the novel. Somehow the reader knows almost immediately that this knowledge isn't necessarily going to save the poor clan, especially once we learn of the Fate of Tess's ancestors: "Where do we d'Urbervilles live?" asks "Sir" John to the parson who responds, "You don't live anywhere. In short, if one subscribes to this doctrine, you believe that Fate controls how things happen and God can do nothing to save you, even Tess. One point that I feel must be made. Other characters seem to buy into the idea of Fate as well. Now we turn to the question of whether or not Hardy could have saved Tess or if he believed that Fate had determined his choices. ' But the critical linking is never made and one remains uncertain about why Tess's fate is inevitable" (135). Critic Dorothy Van Ghent supports this idea writing that "Hardy has, with great cunning, reinforced the necessity of . In fact, It is actually rather easy to argue the other side of the coin.
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Acceptance Essays
