A Fallen Woman’s Purity

Tess Durbeyfield, is a timeless heroine portrayed with qualities which Thomas Hardy felt to be most perfect, admirable, and ultimately tragic in womankind (Hardy 80-85). In Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Tess, the most memorable of all his characters, is described throughout the novel with essential purity(80). In writing this novel, Hardy asked that she should not be judged by her label of ‘fallen woman’, but instead be seen in her entirety of …

…in determination and strength and is able to confront anything whatever befalls her. Tess of the U’rbervilles is one of Hardy’s greatest novels. The development of the character of 5 Tess is one of his greatest achievements because even though she has a child out of wed lock, a marriage based on a lie and commits murder, she remains pure- there is an aspect of Tess that remains untouched and pure despite her experiences.