Tess of the Durbervilles

The Role of Setting In the novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, Tess is faced with many different levels of happiness, from pure joy to absolute unhappiness. As she moves from location to location, the setting of these places portrays Tess' joy. From her pure happiness at Talbothay's Dairy, to the turning point of Tess's joy at the old D'Urberville house, to her most unforgiving stay at Flintcomb-Ash, to her final contentness before …

…the mysterious gloom apparent at the old D'Urberville house, to the desolate, dismal flavor of Flintcomb-Ash, to the serenity at Bramshurt Court, Hardy is able to show through his descriptions how Tess will feel throughout the novel. He is able to show how "the gloomy intervening time seemed to sink into chaos, over which the present and prior times closed as if it had never been" (368), and the fall and rise again of Tess' joy.