Examine the statement Tesss life is damned from the start of 'Tess of The D'urbervilles' by Thomas Hardy'

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Examine the statement ‘Tess’s life is damned from the start of the Novel’

Imogen Rossi 12ASR

Hardy creates Tess Durbeyfield, an individual, eye-catching, complex, pure, fallen woman in ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’, someone who David Snodin (producer of the 2008 BBC TV series) believes to be ‘one of the great beauties of literature’. It could be argued that Tess’s life in Victorian society is not chosen by herself, but powered by many influences around her such as men and her family, and that who she was determined many of the events to occur in her life, events which she did not have any control over as she was who she was.

Firstly, her family have shaped her life in many ways, including her naivety, purity and her relationships with men. The pure selfishness of her parents, with interests in their money, status and themselves leads Tess to be sent to the D’Urbervilles’ to get money from their ancestors and hopefully to marry a rich gentleman, a trip in which her upbringing faults her tremendously, and it could be seen that all the events that lead could not have been helped by her as her life has been damned from the start – from her family.  ‘Why didn’t you tell me there was danger?’ Tess blamed her mother for not teaching her about the world and her naivety towards men after her rape by Alec. In Victorian society, a girl was to learn about the world and its ‘dangers’ through their mothers and older sisters, as Tess did not have the latter, she relied on her mother, a job which Mrs.Durbeyfield did not complete. Surely leaving Tess with no other option than to fall into the traps of inconsiderate men, such as Alec, thus agreeing with the statement that her life was damned from the start. Furthermore, another way in which her family has faulted her life is through the influence of her father and the lack of relationship they had, which could be argued that it lead to her having bad relationships with men in general, he was seen ‘making himself foolish in their eyes’ in the second scene at the dance to the other girls. Tess being embarrassed of her alcoholic father and that she didn’t talk to him about life as his priorities lay otherwise, such as in drink and in making money- this led Tess to being unprepared when leaving for Trantridge for the D’Urbervilles, therefore being damned from the start of her life.

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Secondly, Tess’ class has defiantly shaped parts of her life out of her control. During Victorian times, the amount of social movement was very small and therefore the class you were born into, you would die to, where certain classes had different expectations, attitudes, roles and jobs. As Tess was born into a working class family, this meant that many things in society were out of reach for her, no matter what she did, therefore being damned from the start of her life. Such as, Tess would never have had to go to Trantridge and seek their relatives as their ...

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