Thomas Hardy and Victorian Morality
Tess of the d'Urbervilles , although technically a nineteenth century work, anticipates the twentieth century in regard to the nature and treatment of its subject matter. The novel questions the sexual hypocrisy of English society by compassionately portraying a heroine who is seduced by the son of her employer and who is thus not considered a pure and chaste woman by the rest of society.
In Tess of the d'Urbervilles and other novels, Hardy demonstrates his deep sense of moral sympathy for England 's lower classes, particularly for rural women. He became famous for his compassionate, often controversial portrayal of young women victimized by the self-righteous rigidity of English social morality. This novel caused widespread public scandal with its comparatively frank look at the dark side of Victorian morality.
Hardy lived and wrote in a time of difficult social change, when England was making its slow and painful transition from an old-fashioned, agricultural nation to a modern, industrial one. Businessmen and entrepreneurs, or “new money,” joined the ranks of the social elite, as some families of the ancient aristocracy, or “old money,” faded into obscurity. Tess's family in Tess of the d'Urbervilles illustrates this change, as Tess's parents, the Durbeyfields, lose themselves in the fantasy of belonging to an ancient and aristocratic family, the d'Urbervilles. Hardy's novel strongly suggests that such a family history is not only meaningless but also utterly undesirable. Hardy's views on the subject were appalling to conservative and status-conscious British readers and Tess of the d'Urbervilles was met in England with widespread controversy.
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