Phase the first openly displays the knock on effect of events of fatalism. It opens with Parson Tringham telling Tess’s father Jack Durbeyfield of his ancestors, the noble d’Urbervilles. That afternoon, Tess is out with her friends and begin dancing on the village green, when three brother approach and one of the joins in. This brother is Angel Clare and although he doesn’t dance with Tess he later regrets it. In celebration, Jack goes to the pub and gets drunk, leaving Tess to have to go to the market the next day, but unfortunately, she falls asleep and a collision occurs in which Prince, the family horse, dies. Out of guilt, Tess goes in search of work to the d’Urberville estate and meets the conspicuous Alec d’Urberville, who, enchanted by Tess organises for her to come and work for his mother. One night when Tess is out with her fellow workers of the d’Urberville mansion, they attack her and Alec appears, and rides off with Tess on the back of his horse. She is grateful although still not entirely sure of his kindness. Alec causes them to get lost and he leaves Tess asleep on a bed of leaves whilst he goes in search of help. When he returns, he takes advantage of Tess and the next phase opens with the title “Maiden no more”.
The reader is conscious of the lives of Hardy’s characters who are being subject to events beyond their control, of chance and coincidence bringing about disasters and the character of Tess having to deal with these pre-destined events as best she can. The characters in this novel are fatalistic about what happens to them, obviously superstitious and believe in omens. Tess’s mother embodies this view after scolding Tess for not having pressed Alec to marry her, as she is pregnant, she says “Well we must make the best of it I suppose. ‘Tis nater, after all, and what do please God!” There is the underlying notion that throughout this novel, pride and idealism brings unhappiness and sometimes, fate seems to lie within Tess’s nature. Her pride and concern for Angel’s reputation after he has left her prevent her from seeking help and Angel’s uncompromising morality and idealism hinder him from accepting Tess as she is.
The concept of fate is used greatly throughout this chapter as what if the parson hadn’t told Jack Durbeyfield of his relatives? He wouldn’t have gone out and got drunk leaving Tess to go to the market, which would have prevented the death of Prince. What if Angel had danced with Tess on the village green? They could have got to know each other from there onwards and get married, rather than five years later when they met again when Tess was working as a dairy maid. What if Tess hadn’t gone in search of her ancestor’s whereabouts? She wouldn’t have acquired the company of Alec d’Urberville who then went on to take advantage of her. This whole impression of destiny is outlined severely throughout this phase, constantly asking “what if?”.
Throughout the novel, there are several themes running through it; that of the representation of animality, the colour red, and of hunting. Tess is characterised as belonging to nature and the reader is often given the impression that she communicates with animals, seemingly on these occasions, more animal than human. She is likened to a “bled-calf” and upon reaching Stonehenge her breathing was resembled to that of “a lesser creature than a woman”, her animality is evidently used to make Tess appear vulnerable and heighten her sexuality. The theme of the colour red is used continuously within the novel. Red being the colour of the ribbon in her hair distinguishing her from the others upon Angel’s first sighting of her on the village green to that of the loss of her innocence taken by Alec. The theme of hunting is also applied perceptibly as Tess could be seen as a hunted animal due to the fact that Alec always seems to appear everywhere she goes, following her, almost like stalking prey. Also the act of Alec’s murder could be seen as hunting in a last act of desperation. There is a metaphor of hunting, “the harts that had been hunted here” in chapter fifty, which Tess notes whilst observing the landscape walking home through the night. The name of the d’Urberville mansion was called “The Chase” indicating another aspect of the theme of hunting.
The way Hardy writes, it is obvious that he didn’t want the audience to blame Tess or cause her to be responsible for her own actions. Tess is too proud, independent and unforgiving of herself. It is noticeable that at the end of Phase the First, he interrupts in the narrative passing judgement asking where Tess’ guardian Angel was and why had Angel not danced with Tess, causing the reader to believe that fate had intervened and caused Tess misery. When discussing the fate of Tess, Hardy begins with claiming that Tess holds a little responsibility briefly, but Hardy then goes on to use certain techniques which cause Tess to appear helpless. An example of authorial intervention is at the end of chapter fifty, when Hardy writes “So do flux and reflux – the rhythm of change – alternate and persist in everything under the sky”, his mention of fate intervenes within the narrative displaying the thoughts on how Tess cannot escape her destiny.
Although Tess cannot be held responsible for her behaviour, Tess, in many ways makes her outcome worse. For example, Tess was too proud to create a scene, which could have caused Angel to stay. She could have refused her mother to go and work for Alec d’Urberville but goes out of guilt over the death of the family horse. She should have followed the advice of her mother and not told Angel of her loss of purity which would have lead to them leading a long, prosperous life together. Due to Tess’ pride, view of morality and independence she feels that she must always to the right thing whether it is to her advantage or not. Tess constantly berates herself thinking that all of her misfortunes are down to her and is constantly living with guilt.
Omens, both literal and literary, including obvious examples of the d’Urberville coach, the crowing of the cockerel on Tess and Angel’s wedding day, the death of Prince and the way Tess is marked from the beginning by a red ribbon. Alec’s murder is foreshadowed on several occasions especially when Tess considers herself a murderess in chapter four after the death of the family horse, Prince. There is the story of Adam and Eve that runs through the book making the story inevitable and on several incidents, ancient sites of history are mingled with legend in with the landscape make it seem an inescapable fate. With Hardy’s pessimistic tone these occurrences help to create a general atmosphere of fatalism. An example of a literal omen is during chapter five, when Tess comes home after going to the d’Urberville estate in search of work and manages to catch the eye of Alec. He feeds her strawberries, he intimately makes her eat one from his hand and then he bestows dozens of roses upon her. When she is going home, she pricks herself with one of the thorns on a rose and bleeds, causing Tess to notice this to be a forewarning of ill-fated things to come. An example of a literary omen is in chapter fifty-one when Alec brings up the legend of the d’Urberville coach, which the audience automatically picks up on and this reference to the coach by Alec works both as an omen and prefigures Tess’s actions in the next phase.
Antigone tells the story of the age-old conflict between human and divine law. Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus, although the kingdom of Thebes is now under the control of her uncle, Creon. Before Creon’s rise to the throne, after her father’s death, Antigone’s brothers agreed to share the throne, alternating the position of king every few years, but a civil war arose when one brother refused to give up his role as king. Due to this, Thebes underwent great destruction and as a statement to the people of Thebes, Creon created a decree leaving Polynices, Antigone’s brother and the so-called traitor, body to rot in the sun without burial as a punishment. Antigone, out of duty to her brother, buries his body and is caught doing so. When Creon learns of her defiance, he offers her a way out as she is his niece and the fiancée of his son, Haemon, but she refuses and is hanged for her crime.
During “Antigone”, contempt of death enables a weak maiden to conquer a powerful ruler. This ruler, who, proud of his own wisdom, ventures in his unbounded arrogance to his pit his royal word against the duty to kin and human sentiment, and learns all to late by destruction, that fate, in due course, brings fit punishment. Due to the fact that the play is based on conflict, the story of the play is revealed over the dispute about the burial of Antigone’s brother, Polynices, in which King Creon’s views are that of a political nature opposed to Antigone’s religious duties and opinions. As the audience, we can only anticipate the most dramatic scene that will therefore be the confrontation between these two characters when Antigone is arrested, as their positions are conflicting.
Antigone and Tess, the two heroines of the play and novel were brought up in very different environments; Antigone, the daughter of a King, brought up in a royal palace, whereas Tess, by contrast, was brought up in a poor country family. This being a simple but vital contrast highlighting that despite how different their up-bringings were, they both believed in divine morality. In Antigone’s case it was to bury her brother despite the consequences and in Tess’s case it was to tell Angel of her seduction believing he should know the real her and accept her as she is, not how he thinks she is. These decisions that both the characters made were not to benefit themselves, but to do what they felt was right, in spite of the aftermath.
“Antigone” the play, opens after the chorus with Antigone coming from in the early hours of the morning after having been out all night. The audience can sense that Antigone is very aware of her surroundings and seemingly in a trance because Antigone’s nurse seems flustered and worried about her, assuming that she must be acting out of character. The audience later learns that Antigone at this time has just returned from burying her brother and this action seems to have opened her eyes. The play opens with Antigone committing her crime and the rest of the play is of her tying up all of her loose ends as she know she will die, her confrontation with Creon and finally her unjustly death. In contrast to this, “Tess” the novel proceeds the story of a young girl who goes out to work, is taken advantage of and gives birth to a child which dies in infancy, she finds a new job, and whilst working as a dairymaid falls in love with another man. Tess only commits her crime at the end of the novel and in opposition to Antigone, she is swiftly put to her death after perpetrating her violation of murdering Alec.
Antigone the character, although very similar to Tess in their views of idealism and innocence, are different in the fact that with Antigone, what you see is what you get, whereas with Tess, simply from her appearance you would identify a victim but not uncovering that she is also a murderess. The two characters have many similarities along the lines of religion and truth, both believing that you must always do the right thing. Antigone, herself, is very caught up in her own world, constantly daydreaming, not usually aware of her surroundings whereas Tess is constantly observant, concerned with what is going on around her.
Antigone sets out to bury her brother, knowing fully the consequences of her actions and so therefore can be held responsible. She planned how and when she would defy the edict, but not out of spite to Creon, but out of divine duty unto her brother. In contrast, Tess is unaware of her wrongdoing, is defenseless to Alec’s seduction and his murder was on the spur of the moment, uncalculated. Although both of the heroines are fated, Antigone is more responsible for her fate as she takes matters into her own hands, and even when offered a way out, she refuses, willing to die for what she believes in. As Creon offers to ignore Antigone’s defiance, it contrasts to Tess who was never given a way out, simply expected to take things as they came.
The chorus at the beginning of the play “Antigone”, notifies the audience that Antigone will die, creating the audience to anticipate how something will happen due to the information delivered from the chorus rather than wanting to know what will happen next. This is ironic in the sense that Antigone was less fated than Tess as she was given ways out of her punishment for burying her brother so is therefore much more to blame and is more responsible for her actions. Antigone seems to want to die as she instantly declines Creon’s offer of help. Antigone seems to feel that she doesn’t live up to other people’s expectations and that her family expects more of her. Due to this belief, her personality contributes greatly to the occurrence of her untimely death as she think she must die in order to serve justice towards her brother. This is ironic, as the novel “Tess” is much more similar to Greek tragedy in its approach to misfortune whereas “Antigone” is more modern when confronting tragic issues even though its based upon the Greek play by Sophocles.
In conclusion, I think that the personalities of the eponymous heroines contributed intensely to their outcome as in the case of Tess, she was too proud to make Angel to stay so she had to return to Alec, and in desperation ended up murdering him. Whereas in the case of Antigone, she defied an edict laid down by the king in belief that she was doing the right thing and even when offered a way out, she refused out of pride, proving she was willing to die for what she believed in. If these characters weren’t so proud or independent, then it is most likely that neither of them would have had to face death so early on. If Tess hadn’t been so proud, she might never have needed to tell Angel of her seduction and so could have lived a long happy life with him. If Antigone hadn’t had been so haughty in the thought that she must die for burying her brother, instead of being willing to brush it under the carpet she could have lived a contented life with her fiancée. Overall, I think that although the characters had their differences, the traits in their personalities of being too proud definitely caused their downfall.