Hardy's use of Pathetic Fallacy

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Sophie Miller        English Literature        Block 5

“In Hardy’s hands, setting is more than mere location – it is a tool for developing both characters and themes.”

        Evidence that Hardy chooses his locations for reasons far beyond geographical significance is apparent throughout Tess of the D’Urbervilles.

        In Chapter 20 in particular, the natural environment seems to act as a metaphor for Tess’ character. The chapter begins “The season developed and matured.” This gives the impression that the surroundings have, at the very least, womanly qualities, and it seems sensible, therefore to apply this to Tess in light of Hardy’s defence of her purity and womanhood. Much of this chapter centres on description and nature, and Tess herself is effortlessly woven into both of these. Hardy uses the metaphor of a river to describe Tess and Angel’s early experiences of one another:

“All the while they were converging, under an irresistible law, as surely as two streams in one vale.” As Tess has already mean shown as a very natural being in previous parts of the novel, this implies that she is drawing Angel towards her in a way that causes him to become more ‘of nature’ as well. Hardy alludes to the idea that this is the beginning of something, commenting on the couple’s forth coming relationship before it has begun:

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“The grey half-tones of daybreak are not the grey half-tones of the day’s close, though their degree of shade may be the same.” This seems to capture the feeling of warmth and contentment at the beginning of a love affair. This reappears as a sentiment later in the novel, in the fact that although before Tess’ death the couple are brought closer together and feel passion for each other once again, the never seem to recapture the love that they felt when they started out together; as if their courtship and marriage are the passing of just one day, in ...

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This essay demonstrates some understanding Hardy's use of the pathetic fallacy, but it would benefit from a clearer and more logical structure. It seems to pick out random chapters without having a sense of the whole. An essay of this kind demands closer analysis of both the language and the themes of the book, and how the two are linked. ***