Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy :: Thomas Hardy Tess Urbervilles Essays

One of Thomas Hardys greatest works Tess of the DUrbervilles wasfirst published in 1891, a novel set in the fictional county of Wessex,Britain. By the time of its appearance, Hardy was considered to be onof Englands star(p) writers and had already published several wellknown novels including Far from the Madding Crowd and TheWoodlanders as well as numerous other short stories.However in spite of his reputation and fame, Hardy had immensedifficulty finding a publication prepared to publish Tess when heoffered it for serialization to London reviewers. The subject matterand content was considered to be- in the eyes of Victorian society,unfit for publications in which young people may read. A storylinedepicting a young young woman seduced and raped by a man, then married andrejected by another and then eventually murders the first man wasconsidered to be exceptionally ignominious and inappropriate. Finallyin order to pacify potential publishers, Hardy took the book apart andrewrote a nd edited several of the scenes before any of the weeklyjournals would take it as a serial. When the time came to publish thenovel in book form, Hardy reassembled it was it was originally pen.The novels subtitle- A Pure Woman came also under(a) a great deal ofattack. Victorian critics argued that Tess could not possibly betermed of as pure after a downfall such as hers and should ratherbe labeled as a Fallen woman. Hardys frank (at least for the time)depictions of sex, his criticism and questioning of religion and hisdoubt within the account were too denounced to such an extent thatthough the story did in the end bring him immense fame and fortune,its reception at the start caused Hardy to lose sanction and thenovel was one of his last.In Tess of the DUrbervilles, Hardy uses a variety of narrativetechniques in order to convey his own impressions of the society inwhich both he and his character Tess lived. The narrative technique ofan author in any novel is crucial to the readers understanding of thenarrative. The way in which a novel is written influences the way inwhich the reader interprets the events which occur throughout thenovel and allows the author to convey the feeling of time, place, andpeople in the society in which the author is attempting to progress tohis or her readers. Hardys use of a third person omniscient bank clerkwho knows all and sees all allows the readers indirect insight intothe actions and emotions of specific characters. The omniscience ofthe narrator allows the reader to not be influenced by the character