Tess of the D'Urbervilles
... marry the satanic like d’Urberville, Alec. Society has made it so her parents feel they have a lot of control over Tess, especially in big decisions like who she is to marry. Tess’ parents have been brought up with the idea that if one is to have a name of high stature, they deserve the utmost respect and the aristocracy only settle for the best: “I won’t sell the body, when we d’Urbervilles was knights in the land, we didn’t sell our chargers for cat’s meat. Let ‘em keep their shillings!”(Tess,29). Here John Durbeyfield speaks of his famous past name; he gloats that he doesn’t need to money because he is a d’Urberville, while in truth, he is impoverished. John believes that society has shown that a rich name can get one anything and any station in life, when really as Hardy shows it can’t. Tess’s parents know little of the world and because of this ignorance Tess is brought up to not truly see what society is like. This leads to Tess to make bad decisions because she was never taught what society can do to a person and how it can destroy one’s perception on life and their future. Tess’ parents are not the only ones who use society to try and manipulate and destroy her life. Alec d’Urberville, the rich heir of the d’Urberville name also uses society to his advantage in his relationship towards Tess. Alec uses his name and male supremacy to try and muscle Tess into marriage. Unfortunately, a pure woman has no way of stopping such behavior and therefore Tess is often thrust into situations where she is the victim no matter what she does. As the book progresses we find out that Alec rapes Tess and gets her pregnant. Although rape is a horrible thing, society instead of looking down on the man, looks down on the woman for bearing a child without being married. This same idea has been seen in the book, The Scarlet Letter where the protagonist bears a child without marriage. Tess later in the book realizes the true evil nature of Alec and of men as a whole, “Why didn’t you tell me there was danger in men-folk?”(Tess,80). The pure Tess is never shown how men can treat women that way, and it leads to much heartache and tragedy in her life. This rape is especially looked down upon by her husband, Angel, who sees it as her fault and later leaves to Brazil after hearing the news. Since Tess was raped society put a hamper on her, she becomes a widow and would also fall into more tragedy because of it. She is later forced to marry Alec because she is a widow and is making very little money. This is because she is an outcast from society because she committed adultery. Alec sees her as he sees his servants at home. He takes pleasure in using his “god-like” power on Tess just as he uses on his servants. This power has only come to him through society. Alec is able to use society to not only ruin Tess’ life but also make her marry him instead. There are many parallels also found in the novel about the way society just so controlling of people. In one part of the novel, Tess comes upon two dying peasants that were shot my hunters. Being the good person Tess is she exclaims, “Poor darlings-to suppose myself the most miserable being on earth in the sight o’ such misery as yours!”(Tess, 274). Tess later goes on to put the birds out of misery by killing them. Oddly, these birds are very much like Tess. Both had been hunted, and wounded. Tess was hunted and wounded by Alec who wounded her with a baby, while the birds were hunted and wounded by hunters. Tess and the birds were then both driven to a safe place. The birds found refugee in the forest while Tess found refugee at Talbothay’s were she met Angel and her few female friends. Unlike the birds though, there is no one to put Tess out of her misery. Tess helps the birds by ending their lives while on the other hand no one comes to help fix Tess’. Angel left her and Alec is just going to destroy it more. This shows how very few pure creatures can leave in a society full of evil. The birds were unable to thrive in the environment they were place, and were hunted at all times. Tess too is hunted for her beauty and pureness. She is also brought up into a place where she could never thrive and would never be able to excel. Although there are many things working against Tess, her biggest weakness to society is herself. The ignorance that she brought made it nearly impossible to live in the world she did. Si...