Tess of the d'Ubervilles

Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Ubervilles is about a woman who is violated by one man and forsaken by another. The book takes place in the 19^th century and in south-central England. Tess of the d’Ubervilles was first published in 1891. In the beginning of the book, Tess Durbeyfeild feels so guilty for the death of her horse that she agrees to go work for her relatives, the d’Ubervilles. She spends a lot of time with Alec d’Uberville, her cousin, but then Tess leaves the d’Ubervilles house because of an unfortunate incident involving Alec. Tess goes back to her father’s but becomes a social recluse and very depressed. She soon realizes that she needs to get away from her old life so she goes to work on a dairy farm as a Milkmaid.

She meets an apprentice at the dairy farm named Angel Clare, and learns that he comes from a noble family of clergymen. Tess and Angel spend a lot of time together and grow fond of each other. Angel proposes and Tess says no at first because of her past, but eventually she says yes. On the night of their wedding Tess tells Angel about her past, he is furious with her. After a few days Tess and Angel go their separate ways and he tells her that he will try to accept her past, but he just needs time alone to think.  Angel goes to Brazil alone, and Tess tries to find work at different farms, hiding from her parents that she is not with Angel.

While working on different farms Tess sees Alec d’Uberville who says he has changed from his old ways.  Alec tries to convince Tess to marry her, but she tells him that she is already married. Tess writes to Angel and pleads for him to come home. Tess’s sister, Liza-Lu comes to visit Tess and tells her that her Father and her Mother are very sick. Tess goes home with her sister, and when her father dies the family has to leave the house since they only rent it and their father was the last one on the lease. Before they leave the house Alec comes and offers his help, Tess declines. The family goes to live in the d’Uberville vault at the graveyard, and Tess’s mother dies. Tess now agrees to go live with Alec. At this point Angel has come back and is looking for Tess. I don’t want to give away any more of the ending, but let’s just say it’s not a happy one.

I really liked the story line of this book, but I did not enjoy the style of writing. It is very hard to understand what is happening in the book, because of the sentence structure and the word choice that Thomas Hardy uses. There were a few times while I was reading where I had no idea what was happening in the book. It was very hard to understand and took a while to read. The themes in Tess of the d’Ubervilles are women’s suffering and men domineering over women. If you want to read a book about men domineering over women you should read The Scarlet Letter; it is a much easier book to read and, I think, much more enjoyable. I do think that certain people would really like this book; they just have to be ready for a long confusing read. Tess of the d’Ubervilles was just not my favorite writing style and I did not necessarily enjoy reading this book.