How do the forces of fate and social convention shape Tess’s tragedy? How does Hardy depict them?
... into one that was tragic and disastrous. “The white shape stood apart by the hedge alone. From her position he knew it to be the pretty maiden with whom he had not danced. Trifling as the matter was, he yet instinctively felt that she was hurt by his oversight. He wished that he had asked her.” The option of being forward and suggestive from Tess’s part was not considered which therefore steered her away from an easy life of true love. With the guilt of causing Prince’s death Tess as a social obligation to her parents, left for the Durberville estate and made it the most crucial, life-altering event of her tragic life. Fate succeeded to take her there with the announcement of her family heritage to her father, leading up to the point where she had been so naïve and unaware at her first visit to the estate. Hardy assertively presented a distinct image of Tess before her departure as a pure maiden. “As she walked along today, for all her bouncing womanliness, you could sometimes see her twelfth year in her cheeks, or her ninth sparkling from her eyes and even her fifth would flit over the curves of her mouth now and then.” This developed to become the focus point throughout the novel where Hardy questioned the social conventions of the 19th century against Tess’s purity and tragic fate from her perspective. Her minute knowledge of men and lower standing through class and gender with Alec allowed him to take advantage of Tess and even rape her. This produced a very dangerous situation for Tess in social standards and led to her departure from the estate with an unjust reputation with which she may never be accepted by another man. After the death of her child Sorrow, fate began to play her way and allowed her to work as a dairy maid at Talbothays Dairy where she met Angel Clare again after the dancing event. Hardy depicted Angel as an innovative character as he had no pleasure in large families with great titles and assets and had qualities of a decent, equal, and respectful man. This portrayal of Angel however was suddenly skewed after their marriage when Tess told him the truth about Alec. Angel was suddenly controlled by social conventions and refused to forgive Tess even though he had committed the same mis...