Love is Dangerous... Wider Reading 4: Tess of the D'Urbervilles

"The business of the novelist," author Thomas Hardy once wrote, "is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things, and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things." It is the latter Hardy captures in one of his best and most well-known novels, and equals even the likes of Charles Dickens in his ability to move the reader on behalf of those who society and history have discounted. Tess, a milkmaid, is scarred by her encounter with her calculating, usurping "cousin," and is a heroine without wealth or position. Despite this, her story has a heart-breaking pity within it that reveals the universal condition of people and society in the late 19th century.

The action of the novel is largely confined to the rural back lanes and fields of Wessex - the fictional corner of south-west England made so brilliantly real by Hardy - a technique employed by the author to demonstrate how actions have far-reaching consequences, even if they only affect a small number of people. However, the skill of the writer means that the reader is left with such an exact impression of rural life in the late 19th century, that the whole of society can be found in the one place.

Love is the dominant theme in "Tess of the D'Urbervilles," and is the driving force behind most of the tragic events within. The desire that Alec D'Urberville feels for Tess is the main reason for his attack, and her hatred of him because of this is partly what drove her to murder. Contrastingly, the love that Angel Clare and Tess feel for each other is the conventional, romantic kind, which makes it all the more tragic when they are separated because of his prejudices.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Quotations