Eustacia and Tess A comparison

femme fatale Both attain status of femme fatale in the end Both have thoroughly modern characteristics. Hardy juxtaposes the pre-industrial and rural culture of Dorset with the more modern, technological; these women represent modernism which Hardy mistrusted.

Escape from the country Eustacia and Tess both need to get away from their rural lives and move ahead into a more modern world a higher, better educated class for Tess a more urban setting for Eustacia)

Tess as moderniser Tess is written in contrast to her Mother, a woman who takes ancient superstitions and pagan beliefs seriously in comparison to her more educated and modernly sensible daughter.

Eustacia and modernity Eustacia is at odds with her pre-industrial surroundings. She is constantly desiring a modern, urban setting and feels suffocated by the dreariness of the Egdon. For Eustacia, the world and society are preferable to the heathland. She attaches herself to the “native” of the heath, Clym, because of the opportunity of distancing herself from the heath

landscape. Both novels intertwine the story of the main female character with the surrounding landscape. Events are related to their specific geographical location. Tess’s quality of life is based upon where she is living; Talbothay’s dairy farm, Blackmoor Vale, where she is born and Alec D’Urberville’s home. Conversely, the land of the wealthy dairy farms where Tess meets the love of her life, Angel Clare and the pleasant time in Tess’s life.  

escape the past Tess endures hardship after leaving D'Urberville, including the death of an un-wanted child Tess is supposed to experience loss and depression in order to grow from the experience and move to the next stage of her life. “Almost at a leap Tess thus changed from simple girl to complex woman. Symbols of reflectiveness passed into her face, and a note of tragedy at times into her voice. Her eyes grew larger and more eloquent. She became what would have been called a fine creature…her soul that of a woman whom the turbulent experiences of the last year or two had quite failed to demoralize” Tess becomes a completely new and changed woman. To “escape the past and all that appertained there to was to annihilate it, and to do that she would have to get away”

Tess and Nature Hardy uses nature and the surrounding landscape as a metaphor for Tess’ growth as a woman: “The sapling which had rooted down to a poisonous stratum on the spot of its sowing had been transplanted to a deeper soil”

Heroine? Hardy’s intention in Tess is to paint the life story of his heroine. Eustacia, unlike Tess, is not so much a heroine who is good and pure with a life full of unfortunate events, but a woman obsessed with love and living life to the extreme.

“Queen of Night,” Hardy paints a detailed picture of Eustacia’s connection with the landscape . Egdon was her Hades, and since coming there she had imbibed much of what was dark in its tone, … Her appearance accorded well with this smouldering rebelliousness, Eustacia is a captive on Egdon. She ‘felt like one banished; but here she was forced to abide’

no middle-distance ‘There was no middle-distance in her perspective: romantic recollections of sunny afternoons on an esplanade, with military bands, officers, and gallants around, stood like gilded uncials upon the dark tablet of surrounding Egdon’ She has deep romantic thoughts for Wildeve and Clym and the landscape her relationship with the heath is just as crucial as her relationships with her two lovers.

Lonely Tess Tess is filled with a deep sense of loneliness because she has always had to be independent. She leaves her family in order to help better their living conditions She is constantly moving about in order to leave her past behind. Eustacia is lonely because she takes love and romance to extremes and cannot be happy without the strong love of another

Tess and Angel ‘Tess seemed to regard him as an intelligence rather than as a man …

love and passion She does not have the burning desire for love and passion of Eustacia Experience of Alec makes Tess weary of men. She asks her mother: ‘Why didn’t you warn me? Ladies know what to guard against, because they read novels that tell them of these tricks; but I never had the chance of discovering in that way, and you did not help me!’

Tess and Love Tess - lower social class - rural isolation- ignorance of evils, like men First experience horrible violation No trust that there are good men Relationship with Clare introduces true love, and in the end she is willing to die for love in a heroic and dramatic manner.  

Eustacia’s and love Burning passion and deep desire Contrast with Tess, a heroine who dies for love in a noble manner Eustacia dies tragically for love. Her main fault is that which defines her most: ‘To be loved to madness – such was her great desire’

Tess and Eustacia’s fate : death Tess gives herself up for pure love, the perfect image of self-sacrifice Tess lays down to sleep on the altar of Stonehenge. She gives herself up, most willingly, and dies in a state of true happiness.

Eustacia’s end not self-sacrifice Suicide Loneliness gets the better of her along with a deep feeling of entrapment. Death immortalizing her “The story of the deaths of Eustacia and Wildeve was told throughout Egdon, and far beyond, for many weeks and months.

2013 Hardy Compare the role and function of Damon Wildeve in The Return of the Native with the role and function of Alex D’Urberville in Tess of the D’Urbervilles.

Two unique and distinct females Hardy brilliantly writes about two unique and distinct females whose lives come to dramatic ends. Both are defined and constrained at times, by their physical locations. The surrounding landscape plays a large role in the progress of their lives and can be definitive of their place in life. Indeed, both can be viewed as representations of the “femme-fatale” – women who die tragically for love. But Hardy wonderfully adds an interesting twist by creating modern tensions within their traditional and rural lives. Both women battle against their uniquely rural lives and are searching for a modern landscape to match their characters. In the end, however, it is Tess who is the most fulfilled at her end and seems to leave in a content state of mind. One thing is for certain, both characters make a dramatic ending- immortalizing their stories in the minds of not only the minds of those in Hardy's Wessex, but in their readers' as well.  

2012 Hardy “In the novels of his mature period, Hardy creates scenes and incidents which he invests with symbolic significance and power.” Select two or three scenes or incidents and discuss the means by which Hardy invests them with “symbolic significance and power”. Scenes or incidents may be selected from Tess of the D‘Urbervilles or from The Return of the Native or from both novels.

2011 Hardy “Tess is at one with the natural world; Eustacia is in perpetual, frustrated opposition to it.” Taking these assertions into account, discuss the importance of “the natural world” in Hardy’s presentation of Tess and Eustacia.

2010 Hardy “In The Return of the Native and Tess of the D’Urbervilles the failure of Clym Yeobright and Angel Clare to understand the women with whom they fall in love is central to the tragedy.”

2009 Hardy Writing of the specified texts, one critic has claimed that “Hardy’s central concerns are the social issues of his day: tradition and change in rural society, class distinctions, attitudes to marriage, the position of women . . . .” Discuss The Return of the Native and Tess of the d’Urbervilles in the light of this assertion.