Review of Tess

Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles is a tragic masterpiece that lays bare the cruelty of Victorian society and the fragility of human fate. Tess, a pure and hard-working country girl with a heart full of kindness, is pushed into misfortune step by step by the cold and unforgiving world around her. Her encounter with Alec d’Urberville, a hypocritical aristocrat who hides his malice behind a charming facade, robs her of her innocence and shatters her peaceful life. Meanwhile, her sincere love for Angel Clare, a man with progressive ideas yet deeply bound by the rigid social prejudices of his time, only leads her to deeper despair and loneliness. Hardy’s vivid and lyrical descriptions of the idyllic English countryside set a poignant backdrop for Tess’s heartbreaking tragedy, creating a sharp contrast between the beauty of nature and the ugliness of human society. He doesn’t just tell a simple story of a woman’s suffering; instead, he launches a fierce criticism of the unfair moral standards and strict class hierarchy that dominated his era. Tess is both a helpless victim of a flawed society and a quiet symbol of resistance, as she stubbornly struggles to retain her dignity and integrity despite facing repeated hardships and betrayals. This novel is more than a moving tragedy that tugs at the readers’ heartstrings. It is a profound reflection on humanity, morality and social injustice, a timeless work that still resonates strongly with readers all over the world today.