Thomas Hardy is also always making comments about how Tess and nature and intrinsically linked, comparing Tess to nature and bringing her out as one that lives a pure and simplistic life, she is always conceived as beautiful, innocent, pure, “as blank as snow” and sensitive.
There are also many references to how other people view her as pure. In particular, Hardy himself expresses through language just how much he feels for the character of Tess “ a mere vessel of emotion untinctured by experience”. This carries through her seduction and rape, when he describes her as “blank as snow”.
Tess changes a lot throughout the book; this represents a way of life changing and being lost. This is also something to do with society becoming artificially imposed and it treating Tess as if she is the one that has wronged them.
Throughout the book, Thomas Hardy also explores the rhythm of life, but nearer to the end, life has changed for Tess from the natural rhythm of life, to the artificial mechanical rhythm.
“Almost at a leap Tess thus changed from a simple girl to complex woman.”
She is not used to all the change; she is used to tradition and is usually one with nature. Tess is no longer part of the rural land, she is no longer one with nature, but is one with the machines. As hard as she tries to fight it, she gives in and leaves tradition behind, becomes another woman.
Thomas Hardy always seems to be making the point that traditional life is being over-run by modern life and machinery.
Thomas Hardy portrays the change in society as a bad thing, as if the two worlds are colliding and one of them is going to win, he just hopes it’s not the modern world that does.
Alec seems to come over as the modern man, he has “freshly cut gardens” that only seem to be there for a decorative purpose, a “modern household”, that is bigger than anything Tess is used to and he has lots and lots of money. He, as a character, seems to be the new taking over the old. Tess doesn’t seem to like him, just as the farmers don’t seem to like the new machinery.
The only contact he has with nature is the birds that he has got caged up. This might arguably symbolize Tess being the beautiful bird wishing to stretch her wings but is unable because of the cage that surrounds her, leaving her unable to move.
Angel comes over as the older man, who sticks to tradition, who prefers the rural life and all things natural. Tess seems to like this more because it’s what she is used to and she doesn’t need to be something she’s not to be with him.
The first major point which we notice that Tess isn’t comfortable with the new way of life is when she and Angel take the milk to the new “steam feeler”. Tess seems uneasy about it. The train is new machinery coming into a rural world and the passage in the book shows that very well.
‘The light of the engine flashed for a second upon Tess Durbeyfield’s figure, motionless under the great holly tree. No object could have looked more foreign to the gleaming cranks and wheels than this unsophisticated girl…’
This also signals the hanging of Tess at the end. Tess is a very clever girl but is only “unsophisticated” in the eyes of the new, advanced world. She is un-used to all the machinery and is a stranger to the modern technology.
In conclusion, Thomas Hardy explores the conflict between tradition and innovation by comparing the old with the new from his point of view. He does not like the modern stranger that seems to be creeping up on the old traditions. He feels that Tess is being victimized by society because they do not understand the pain she is feeling.
Tamsin Francis 14/03/2007
