Tess of the d’Urbervilles Excerpt Essay
In the following excerpt from Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles
(1891), Hardy describes a young woman who leaves her parents’ home to work on a
dairy farm. Hardy’s
...
Tess of the d’Urbervilles Excerpt Essay
In the following excerpt from Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles
(1891), Hardy describes a young woman who leaves her parents’ home to work on a
dairy farm. Hardy’s narrator depicts Tess Durbeyfield’s character as a tenacious and
innocent lady. While Tess is being appreciative about the nature and society, the
insignificance of her individuality allusively shown the moment she’s arrived on the
dairy farm. Hardy incorporates literary devices such as metaphor, simile, imagery,
and foreshadow to characterize the relationship between Tess Durbeyfield and the
new environment of her workplace.
Hardy’s narrator used simile to describe Tess’s insignificance by comparing
her to a non-human being. While she was being a pure innocent individual who
appreciated the surrounded natures, Tess seems, “like a fly on a billiard-table of
indefinite length, and of no more consequence to the surroundings than that fly”.
Seemingly, Hardy chose a fly to represent Tess because she is spiritually homeless
and an independent woman who has to survive on her own. Also, this refers to Tess
as someone that is not getting recognition for her presence. Furthermore, this tells
that the consequence of leaving her home and becoming an independent resulted in
solitary and insignificancy.
For a matter of fact, the comparison of Tess and the animal is foreshadowing
the insignificance of Tess’ existence. Secondly, Hardy’s narrator shows that even
Tess’ beauty was not appealing to others, “It was not the expression of the valley's
consciousness that beautiful Tess had arrived, but the ordinary announcement of
milking-time — half-past four o'clock, when the dairymen set about getting in the
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