The conflict of the novel: the Blind Destiny, the conflict between Man and Nature.
- According to Hardy, man and woman are condemned to live in a world that is ruled by universal pitiless laws, predetermined by Nature itself. Fatal chance is an invisible force in all the relationships of human being, there is the Blind Destiny, the sin which is to revenge some day, the merciless laws ignored by the characters who, ultimately, will be crushed by them. Man does not accept these rules and becomes a desperate fighter. Hence, the tragic fight between man's aspirations and his possibilities. The fragment presenting Tess and Angel at Stonehenge is symbolic for the whole novel and for Hardy's philosophy.
Tess is an elementary nature, with powerful instincts, capable of violent passions and infinite devotion. Throughout the novel she is presented as passive, obedient and submissive to the laws of nature, of society and of her own temperament. She shows a complete acceptance of whatever comes upon her, understanding destiny as a law of Universe. That is why she faces Destiny with dignity, resignation and grace. She knows that she had disrupted the equilibrium in Universe, the code of laws and she accepts her fate, feeling that order has been re-established.
The scenery – Stonehenge As soon as they arrive in the presence of Stonehenge the realistic level sinks into insignificance. Their stepping into myth is announced by some classical symbol motifs: their state of ignorance is suggested by their "groping" around. Gradually, they become acquainted – through their senses: hearing, touching – with the place which they define as "a temple of the winds", and the author defines it as "the pavilion of the night". The ancient, timeless character impresses by its firmness. The way architecture influenced Hardy in depicting the "pagan temple" can easily be seen. "Feeling sideways they encountered another tower - like pillar, as square as the first, beyond it another and another. The place was all doors and pillars, some connected above by continuous architraves." The setting is perfect" a concrete place with mysterious meaning, the remnant of a very old civilization that worshipped nature bringing human sacrifices and thus suggesting the insignificance of man in the face of Nature. It becomes the place of her punishment and the shrine of sacrifice and forgiveness. Tess seems caught between the sky and the earth – looking like an innocent victim sacrificed to the gods on an altar.
The chromatic element plays a major part in the creation of the dramatic atmosphere. The images connected with darkness, light and wind have a definite position in the picture. Time gradually passes from mere chronology – midday, afternoon, 8 o'clock – to duration and symbolic time: night march, midnight, the night wind. Nature is concordant with Tess's state of mind: dark, with an impress of reserve, taciturnity and hesitation, cold as the stones. The coming of light is the coming of death. The figures of the soldiers appear at the first break of dawn. On the other hand, Nature seems to anticipate the events that are to come: "Presently the night wind died out, and the quivering little pools in the cup like hollows of the stones lay still." The dialogue is reduced to the minimum, the emphasis lying on the description of the scenery. We notice metaphors, chromatic epithets, visual images, gradation – from night towards dawn, alongside with the gradation of the torments within Tess's heart from despair to resignation. In the end, Stonehenge is in full light, marking the heroine's serenity and peace of mind.
The novel may be considered both a psychologic one (because it draws a few years in the evolution of the heroine) and a social novel at the same time (it is described the condition of peasantry as well as the contrast between the latter's life and aristocracy), and perhaps even a love story (the story of unhappy love tormented by the absurdities of life.
Haunted by fatalism and determinism, Hardy is a tragic writer and illustrates his unique humanitarian attitude towards the dramatic struggle between man and evil.
