Analyse Hardy's Presentation Of The Ineluctability Of Fate In Phase The First Of Tess Of The D'Ubervilles.

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Analyse Hardy’s Presentation Of The Ineluctability Of Fate In Phase The First Of Tess Of The D’Ubervilles.

Thomas Hardy, influenced by classic readings, presents Tess’ bad fate throughout the novel. The ancient Greeks used fate as a guiding force in their plays. To the Greeks (and later Romans) the Fates were, literally, three goddesses—Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos—who control human destiny and life.Hardy believed that everyone is a toy in the hands of fate, and that fate is particularly harsh to women, this thought is clearly shown and developed in his portrayal of Tess  in Tess Of The D’Ubervilles. Hardy uses different techniques to present this ineluctable luck of Tess’.

Throughout phase the first Thomas Hardy assembles a causal chain of events. It begins with the news from Parson Tringham of the D’Ubervilles ancestry, which seems to augur a hopeful change in their fortunes, however this is a technique used by Hardy to build suspense, playing with emotion, to make a bigger impact. However the change is not a positive one as John Durbeyfield expects, but a tragic one that destroys the life of an innocent young lady and leads onto Tess’ ill fate. After discovering the ancestry John then makes his way to Rolliver's Inn to gather strength. There he gets drunk and is unable to take the hives to the market. Therefore Tess goes in place of him even though she is an irresponsible child. During the trip their horse, Prince dies, and Tess blames herself. Due to this she is more perceptible to her mothers wish of her going to work in the D’Ubervilles household as she feels she owes it to her family after being responsible for Princes death. Upon arriving at the household, and meeting Alec, Tess has an ill fate bestowed to her. This structural technique is used by Hardy to suggest that Tess isn’t just going through an unlucky stage in her life, instead the ill fates are conspiring against her. From reading this first phase the readers view of Tess’ life is full of horrid fates each on developing in size creating a sense of inevitability. Due to the constant unlucky scenarios presented in this phase the audience shall expect things to improve for Tess as a novel usually contains bad some bad luck for the protagonist but leads onto good ones, and finishing with a happy ending. However Hardy here plays with emotion and at the end of this phase builds suspense for the audience as they don’t understand what lays in store for Tess.

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Thomas Hardy uses imagery in this novel to symbolize Tess’. He refers to the colour red, which symbolizes: danger; hell; passion; anger; death. When Tess is first mentioned in the novel Hardy chooses to distinguish Tess with a red ribbon in her hair, separating her from all the other girls present. However the audience won’t make the direct link with this as Hardy doesn’t go into depth about it.  Hardy mentions her red mouth describing it in depth, illustrating every curve and shape, ‘and her lower lip had a way of thrusting the middle of her top one upward.’ ...

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