"Fire Can Burn" on Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles. An essay arguing that Tess is _not_ a victim of cosmic irony.

"Character is fate", said the great German Romantic Novalis. How far is Tess' character responsible for her tragedy, and how far are other factors responsible for this undoing? * *                  * Is there a meaning to our existence, a grand master overseeing our lives atop the stellar landscape, gazing down on each and everyone of us and orchestrating every event of this world together in a beautiful harmony of dissonance? Some of mankind's older guard would agree on …

…man, in trying to improve life around him, only manages to partake in its decline, without being able to change the most fundamental reality of this world: if you are not focused and you play with fire, you will get burned. Works Cited Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Broadview Press, Maier Edition, 1998 Millgate, Michael. Thomas Hardy: A Biography. Random House, 1982. http://www.crescentmoon.org.uk/cresmothomashardy http://www.litnotes.co.uk/irony__satire.htm