TESS OF THE D"URBERVILLES .
The main character of Hardy's novel, Tess Durbeyfield, comes to us as a real victim of fate. It is she who makes such a profound impression in the novel, and because of whom Tess of the d"Urbervilles is Hardy's most popular work. Tess, "a pure woman", having once made a mistake, is helpless and cannot restore herself before conventions of society. Her life is one huge suffering and struggling, but she suffers unjustly. Tess endures her life mischances stoically and does not even attempt to fight, but in this her tragedy lies.
Although neglected as a child by her irresponsible parents, she grows up into a proud, independent and responsible good-looking young woman. At sixteen Tess shows more common sense then her parents together. She is furious when mother defends father's drinking: "O my God! Go to a public-house to get up his strength!" (page 22). Nevertheless, she is always there for them, especially because of the "six helpless creatures compelled to sail in the Durbeyfield ship." Her earnestness, sense of duty, but most of all her motherly concern for her family, are more than admirable. When her family is in straits, because of their horse Prince being accidentally killed, her sensitivity makes her think herself to be responsible. The prophetic words at the end of chapter 4 are striking: "Her face was dry and pale, as though she regarded herself in the light of a murderess" (page 38). As it is said in the novel: "Nobody blamed Tess as she blamed herself" (p. 37). Her sense of guilt overcomes her pride, and thus (although unwillingly) goes as a servant to the d"Urbervilles to restore the family's fortunes, and thus to meet her life's greatest mischief. At this time of her life she is said to be "a mere vessel of emotion untinctured by experience" (p. 13). As said later in chapter 31, she was not "a mature woman with a dark long vista of intrigue .