![]() 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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