Analyse Hardy’s use of symbolism and rustic characters in Tess of the D’Urbervilles.

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Analyse Hardy’s use of symbolism and rustic characters in Tess of the D’Urbervilles

English literature/ language

          Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 and was brought up by his father in a small town in Dorset, England.  Hardy was a sensitive and intelligent child; he progressed diligently through his studies and in his early twenties he was apprenticed to an architect in London.  He eventually went back to Dorset and his first published novel appeared in 1871 after which he was able to retire from architecture and work solely on his writing.  His bringing up around nature and rustic life influence Hardy to write about it in his novels.  

Hardy had a deep sense of moral sympathy for England’s lower classes, particularly for rural women.  He became famous for his compassionate, often controversial portrayal of young women victimised by the arrogant rigidity of English social morality.  Perhaps his most famous example of portrayal of such a young women occurred in 1891’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, the story of young Tess’s unjust suffering following her premarital sexual encounter with the son of an upper-class merchant.  This novel and its successor, 1894’s “Jude the Obscure”, provoked a lot of public scandal with their comparatively blunt look at the sexual hypocrisy of English society.  Hardy was enraged by the controversy caused by his work, and finally abandoned novel writing altogether following 1897’s “The Well-Beloved”.  He spent the rest of his career writing poetry; though he is remembered mostly for his novels today.  

In this novel, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy uses a lot of symbolism to add moods to the storyline.  He uses colour, nature and metaphors to symbolise thoughts, feelings, past, present and future.  He writes about the role of rustic characters and their influence on Tess.  He maintained his influences as he grew up surrounded by nature and rustic life.  Hardy makes Tess seem superior to the ordinary country folk, as everything Tess does is always slightly better than them, although Hardy makes the country folk seem very kind and friendly.  He does this mainly by writing about their sympathetic reaction to Tess’s situation involving the rape.  In this essay, I will be analysing the symbolism and the role of rustic characters in Tess of the D’Urbervilles.  I will be looking mainly at Phase I and II; Maiden and Maiden no More.  

Hardy describes the country way of life by making it clear that he prefers the old country ways and customs such as the club walking and dancing at the beginning of the book rather than the modern ways brought in by the industrial revolution.  An example of this is the destruction of nature by combined harvesters trapping and killing wildlife.  “Rabbits, hares, snakes, rats, mice, retreated inwards as into a fastness, unaware of the ephemeral nature of their refuge, and of the doom that awaited them later in the day …” Hardy does not point out the positive things about new machinery, just the negative things.  He also indicates that he hates ‘new’ things in general by not giving the readers a good first impression of the new vicar in the parish.  He would not let Tess have a religious burial for Sorrow because he was not christened properly.  This shows how Hardy has lost all faith in the Christian religion as well as the fact that he does not like modern things.  

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Hardy makes rustic characters seem friendly, down to earth and hard working.  There are many examples of this.  “Here they fell to, the men plying a stone jar freely, and passing round a cup.”  He is notifying us on how the harvesters are sharing drinks and not worrying about anything by using the word

‘freely’.  “The men who sat nearest considerately turned their faces towards the other end of the field, some of them beginning to smoke;” This is showing the consideration that the male gender country folk have for Tess ...

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