Tess of D’Urbervilles is a novel written by Thomas Hardy. He is one of the biggest writers in the English culture, an his works are known throughout the entire world… As the child of a professional stonemason, Thomas Hardy was taught to love reading and writing by his mother. From a very early age, Hardy’s mother tried to persuade him to get an education and escape their low social standing. Tess of D’Urbervilles was probably one (if not the most) one of the very best novels of Hardy.
In this novel, we emerge in the epic tail of Tess, a young girl who’s life is practically destroyed by the cruelty of the society that surrounds her.
Thomas Hardy is a philosophical writer, and this novel contains many symbols. The ruins where Tess is captured are Stonehenge, a very well known ancient temple of the druids, in which human sacrifices were a common thing! Tess represents in the novel a replica of the pure beings that were in the past sacrificed there… The whole setup (the first ray of sunshine, the stones, the man surrounding her) indicates that Thomas Hardy wanted to make us realize the true nature of the girl, her pure soul and her innocence.
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 calmness before her death at Bramshurst Court, the reader sees atmospheric changes that diminish then climb back up. Hardy thoroughly demonstrates through his descriptions of her surroundings how Tess will feel while stationed in each place.
A question now arises in our mind… We have to question ourselves, what would have been the outcome of this epic tale if the key scene (philosophically meaning) which is the Stonehenge capture would have been taken place in a ruined church… We have to wonder, what would have been the differences that could have been induced by this change of scenery…?!
As we know, a church is considered a link to God, it is considered a place of communion with God. An abandoned church, a ruin, is on the other hand a place left by God, a place which is now controlled by evil. So, a ruined church would not have suited Hardy, because he wanted to create an aura around Tess, to reveal the pure side of her soul despite the mistakes she had done. Or, a church, a ruined church can’t reveal the pure side, a ruined church reveals the sins, the punishments. If Tess would have been captured in a church, it would have meant that God has forsaken her, it would have meant that she faces damnation… An that is not what Hardy wanted to suggest. He wanted to show us the “victim”, the pure and innocent captured and punished. And Stonehenge, with it’s history was the perfect setting for this happening… A ruined church appears in horror movies, in satanic descriptions, but in this novel, in Tess’s tragic destiny there is no room for such a ruin… She is pure, and she needs to die knowing that she has sacrificed herself for an idea and that she will find maybe not forgiveness, but redemption! A ruined church means the destruction of belief, and Tess’s belief is stronger than ever when she leaves knowing she will die! Stonehenge, with it’s monumental architecture and with it’s defeat over time symbolizes hope. A ruined church symbolizes the victory of time and perils! Tess is a winner, and her escape must end in the winner’s place! Stonehenge is a place that has defied time, and therefore it is a symbol of Tess, a winner!