Mark Twain said
Classic – a book which people praise and don’t read
There are enough reasons to overturn this quote about “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” and spur curiosity to immerse oneself in the troubled and intense reading of this novel, for those who still haven’t read it.
Never before have the adventures – or actually misadventures – of the young Tess have had something to tell us.
Tess is twelve years old at the beginning of the story, born in a large and poor family of English farmers with a dad in search of social, and more importantly economic, ascent. She is a smart and good girl, who deeply loves her family despite not having really received a lot of support, and she always puts her family’s interests before her own; she has a heart of gold, but unfortunately she is beautiful. Yes, exactly, unfortunately.
What is her greatest gift is also her death sentence, literally.
Tess is the kind of beauty that’s young and unspoiled, the kind of good looks that’s almost ethereal, that attracts the attention of many men. It’s one of these men – Alec, a rich cousin to whom she is sent to by her parents to claim kinship and economic help – who begins the tragic events of the young Tess; instead of welcoming her as family, he agrees to hire her as an employee in his countryside estate, but when he is then enraptured by her beauty, he repeatedly tries to seduce her.
Her attempts to refuse the unwanted attention are useless, he in fact takes advantage of a moment when she’s tired and vulnerable to abuse her and then abandon her in the woods. Tess not only loses her purity and innocence, but also all hopes of a future. Pregnant and alone, she can only go back to her family to give birth to the unhappy newborn, who then dies short after birth.
Because of the economic difficulties and the community becoming hostile due to Tess losing her virtue, she decides to leave and find work on a farm far away from home, trying hard to build herself a future somewhere where her sad past is not known. But the past does not forgive. Not her.
She can’t leave behind her sullied dignity and spoiled honour, in a puritan and conservative society that doesn’t allow for mistakes. There is no possibility of salvation for her, not even the pure and authentic love born with a good and honest young man can stand when she reveals the ghosts of her past.
The wrongdoing immediately becomes her unforgettable guilt, her indelible stain.
Following the sad events of an impossible marriage and a hurt and betrayed love, Tess finds herself once more alone and forced to start looking for a new job, this time in a much more hostile environment. Before introducing herself to her new masters, she does something that is very symbolic: she wears poor and worn clothes, hides her beautiful long hair and cuts her eyebrows. She is indeed aware that her beauty is what is causing her all these troubles, it’s what has put her in danger one too many times, therefore she decides to spoil her beauty. Without hesitation, no regrets.
Despite sustained efforts to put her fate on the right track, her story has a bitter ending. But no spoilers! Tess’ story deserves to be told by the famous author.
What does Tess then tells us today?
She tells us her story, a story of oppression and violence, in which the weakest is the one who has to suffer. SHE is the weakest.
The most emblematic aspect of the story is, however, exactly what triggers the misadventures of our heroine: her physical appearance. If Thomas Hardy created a fictitious character – although credible – writing this excellent novel, Tess is unfortunately not just a character of his imagination.
Tess is every woman who is a victim of harassment or violence who is told, or who reads in a newspaper, “Come on, she asked for it, look what she was wearing!”
Tess is every woman who is forced to hide behind a mask because her face has been transfigured.
Tess is every girl who has been arrested for having left her house wearing a skirt.
Tess is every woman who has been abused because “Men should not be provoked!”
Tess is every girl who is deprived of her adolescence in order to marry a rich and powerful man who is captured by her beauty, who demands her, who doesn’t even buy her but simply steals her.
Tess is among us.
