Tess of the d'Urbervilles

13 Pages 3297 Words

Life Loves Me; It Loves Me Not: Interpretations of Fatalism in Tess of the d’Urbervilles

Hardy writes Tess as a victim of fate. This disallows the reader to blame her for the things that happen to her. Much of the critical debate surrounding Tess centers on 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? Could Hardy have written her out of her troubles or did his fatalistic approach to the novel force him to ultimately sacrifice Tess? Further, is Hardy’s approach to the novel and its main character truly fatalistic? In this essay, I will explore these questions according to the doctrine of fatalism by showing that fate is present through chance and coincidence, and the manifestations of nature, time, and woman.
Fatalism is defined in Webster’s Dictionary as “the doctrine that all things take place by inevitable necessity.”(175) Fatalism is the idea that all actions are controlled by fate, a primitive force that exists independent of human wills and outside of the controls of power of a supreme being such as God because God ultimately has no power; he is a creation of man who granted him his power. Since He doesn’t truly possess those powers, he is left without the ability to alter circumstances. In short, if one subscribes to this doctrine, they believe that fate controls how things happen and that God can do nothing to save them.
I believe that Thomas Hardy is a fatalist. I get the feeling that through Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Hardy is able to explore some of his feelings on the society in the Victorian era. R. H. Hutton, co-editor of the Spectator writes that in Tess of the d’Urbervilles Hardy “illustrates his conviction that not only is there no Providence guiding individual men and women in the right way, but that, in many cases at least, there is something like a malign fate which draws t...