Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

It’s hard not to be emotionally involved with Tess. She’s a nice girl – kind-hearted, responsible, industrious. But fate is just too cruel to her. On the other hand, Tess is also rather naïve. At every turn of event, you want to say, “no, Tess, no!” But this is Hardy’s novel and so Tess has no choice but to dance to her author’s tune.

Tess does eventually find happiness, albeit at the very end. She applies The Power of Now:

“Don’t think of what’s past!” said she. “I am not going to think outside of now. Why should we! Who knows what to-morrow has in store?”

It hurts to finish the book, due to the sheer injustice of it all, but the author is trying to prod the reader into thinking about the welfare of women in a male-dominated society. This book was published in 1891; I doubt we’ve made much progress (especially in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East). Let’s just ask ourselves. Are bad men able to get away with hurting women? Is the system that we’re having (social values, culture, law) helping these men get away with it?

23 June 2009 | Book review | Comments