Tess Durbeyfield, is a timeless heroine portrayed with qualities which Thomas Hardy felt to be most perfect, admirable, and ultimately tragic in womankind (Hardy 80-85). In Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Tess, the most memorable of all his characters, is described throughout the novel with essential purity(80). In writing this novel, Hardy asked that she should not be judged by her label of 'fallen woman', but instead be seen in her entirety of her unforturnate tragedy (83). Contrary to society's opinion of Tess Durbeyfield, Hardy portrays her as a pure woman.
             Thomas Hardy was born on June 2, 1840 in Higher Bockhampton, Dorsetshire, England. He was educated at local schools and left formal schooling at the age of sixteen to
             become an architect's apprentice (1579-1580). Although he never attended college, he continued to read and teach himself. In 1862, he went to London to work in an
             architect's office but returned to Dorsetshire in 1867 to begin a career as a writer. He married in 1874 to Emma Lavina Gifford, which lasted twenty-eight years until Emma's death in 1912. He remarried in 1914 to Florence Emily Dugdale. He wrote twelve novels and a book of short stories and several poems. He died on January 11,1928(England "Hardy").
             Victorian Literature is comprised a body of works written in England during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) written in the era called the Victorian Age. Innovations, change and increasing efforts to achieve political, social, and economics reforms marked the Victorian Age. The literary writers in this time were conveyed as "prudish", "repressed", and "old fashioned" They felt compelled to accept social responsibilities. This influenced the Victorian writers to both try to enlighten,
             by suggesting new solutions to current problems and also to inspirit, by moving the heart to new hope(England 547)
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