![]() ![]() ![]() But though her fate is heartbreaking, in an important sense she is not a victim.Ī great theme of Hardy's novel is the sense in which Tess is part of the landscape she inhabits: she feels herself to be at one with the woods, the streams, the passing seasons. Her fatalism, her apparent acceptance, her dumb, almost animal, endurance make her seem like a victim. The thing most likely to trouble a modern reader of Hardy's novel is Tess's passivity: her willingness to absorb without a struggle the dreadful consequences of the cruelty, selfishness and stupidity of the men who long to possess her. ![]() Indeed, if her mother was involved in American politics, she might even have the startling experience of being hailed as a kind of role model. A modern Tess, seduced at 17, would find - if she had the spirit and determination of Hardy's original - that teenage pregnancy was no great impediment to her career ambitions. A century later, it is fascinating to consider the extent to which his views - radical enough at the time to scandalise the critics - have become almost conventional. ![]()
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