Tess of the D'urbervilles - How far do you agree that Tess is responsible for herown suffering?

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From your reading of the novel How far do you agree that Tess is responsible for her own suffering?

Tess Of The D’urbervilles was written in 1891 where Tess lived in a male dominated society where money gave you power.

Having read the novel, Tess has come across as a very confusing character. Many things happen to her, some of which she is responsible for and some that are due to fate. I will be addressing both sides of the argument, given explanations and quotes and then I will make a conclusion of whether Tess is responsible for her own suffering or if other people had an effect on her life. During the novel we will see a difference in Tess’s character and how different issues such as love have influenced her.

 In chapter 2 Hardy compares Tess with the surroundings of Marlott “The sun blazes down upon fields as large as to give an unenclosed character to the landscape. “ An unenclosed character gives us the impression that something’s hidden, not visible like Tess’s character. Our first impressions of Tess is that she comes across as not a very confident character and Hardy helps us see this by painting a picture in our minds “landscape painter” and gives us strong knowledge of Tess.

Tess helps out a lot around the house, as Tess’s parents seem to be quite careless and unrealistic so she is left with all of the responsibility “Monday washing which had now as always lingered on to the end of the week”. I think that Tess’s family and where she lives could also make an impact on whether Tess is responsible for her own suffering as she lives in a very small community where everyone relies on each other so she hasn’t really ever been out in the world on her own.

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In chapter 4 Tess takes the cart. Hardy starts the scene by suggesting something bad is going to happen “strange shapes assumed by the various objects” Tess offered to take the cart to help out her family as no one else could. We learn from this that Tess is a very proud member of her family and cares a lot for them. “Tess was not skilful in management of a horse” this is the impression that she really shouldn’t be take the reins into her own hands but does as Abraham falls asleep. Tess becomes very tired ...

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