Tess of the D'Urbervilles Critic Analysis Two

 The critics of today took a much different approach. The critics did not simply view the novel for its naturalistic style or the characters that reside within Tess of the D'Urbervilles but for a deeper meaning beyond the surface. The outcome that people can take out of Thomas Hardy's novel can easily vary from person to person for various reasons: experiences of the readers or how he portrayed his piece to the audience through a lack of information, switching in and out through time. The critics now connect his piece and attempt to visualize where he was coming from as he was creating Tess of the D'Urbervilles as opposed to the earlier critics of his time. Gillian Beer took an appealing turn by connecting Hardy's piece with Darwan's theory with feminism.

Beer brings up an interesting point of looking through the lens of those who lived within the Victorian time and their ideas about not only the opposite sex, but a noticeable pattern within the selection of a partner. During that time, people who desired status tended to choose someone with a higher standing than themselves; keeping that idea in mind, the appearance of the person did not seem that important to some while they climbed the wealth and respect mountain. “Civilized men are largely attracted by the mental charms of women, by their wealth, and especially by their social position” (446). The men often times did not marry a woman with a lower class, but the men who decided to marry for beauty would not have much of a chance to continue their generation's wealth or position. The women's choice on a mate, however, is not as flexible as the men's. “This reversal creates difficulties; Man is more powerful in body and mind than woman, and in the savage state, he keeps her in a far more abject state of bondage than does the male of any other animal: therefore it is not surprising that he should have gained the power of selection” (447). The societal ideal that people already had on women bound and limited them. For those who were poor, it would take sheer luck and physical attraction in order to be released from the clutches of poverty. Unfortunately for women, the higher class men would go for the more beneficial choice of the more wealthy women, regardless of looks. Tess is the representation of the D'Urberville marrying for beauty and making a point out of the absurdity in which Hardy felt necessary to address. Hardy emphasized that beauty in the relation to sexual selection had Tess represent that of a standard woman, bringing to light what he theorized to be the result in marrying for beauty and not class.

Along with the societal concept of genders, a part that truly stood out amongst the critics was his clarity of Hardy's perception of a woman's virginity. “The social emphasis on virginity, Hardy suggests, cannot be naturalized; she had been made to an accepted social law, but no law known into the environment in which she fancied herself such an anomaly” (449). Hardy expresses this ridiculous conception of a woman in society and tests that by giving people a character that fell under the weight of her own life and the unluckiness of that continuous theme until out of madness, she murders the very person who had raped her and caused so much grief. With this concept in mind, the ending was befitting for the novel. The idea of a woman that embodies temptation for man deserves punishment, in this case that punishment was death. That style of ending for a fallen woman was common in novels, thus why he created a pure character that had fallen in order to show that bad things happen to good people, but even so, society will not forgive the “crime” of a fallen woman.

Gillian Beer examined the book, but unlike the earlier critics, the later critics such as Beer had the opportunity to look from an outside and unbiased scope. Beer could take the book and reflect upon it along with having the ability to give a much different opinion on the book because of the cultural changes in society. Reading this critic made me rethink and reflect upon the actions that Hardy took to paint our picture of Tess. Of course he focused highly on her beautiful appearance, Hardy wanted to emphasize the society class structure and address a question that has been on the minds of many during the time of oppression and condemnation for the women who lost their perfect reputation. Hardy had observed and studied society and all of its imperfections, creating a cynical masterpiece of naturalism through the fate of an unfortunate girl.