Tess

in Thomas Hardy's novel, Tess of the D'Ubervilles, he uses the techniques of indirect narration, biblical allusions, and the setting in relation to the characters to convey his opinion on the negative view of women, the lack of social mobility in society, the narrow-mindedness and influence of the church, and the hypocrisy of the judicial system. He influences the reader's opinions of these issues by bringing them to light by using the tragic heroine, Tess, and the characters and situations she encounters through the novel. Her death at the end of the story highlights all of the issues hardy criticizes in just one sentence: " 'justice' was done and the President of the Immortals.. had ended his sport with Tess" (pg. 465). In this sentence Hardy puts Justice in quotations to express his sarcastic attitude towards what society believes is justice for Tess. He then says that the "President of the Immortals", or God, "has ended his sport with Tess", implying that God, the same God that the church views as always right and unconditionally loving, does not care about one of his children as a human being and only wanted to play an unfair game with Tess' life. Hardy uses the narrative of indirection to express his disagreement with the way the judicial system functions and the lack of social mobility. Hardy presents Tess as a passive character who rarely takes action in any situation she is placed in. When Tess does take action, the results are significant and life changing, The narrator of indirection becomes present in situations where Tess takes action such as, the murder of Alec Stokes, but also in her execution scene. When Tess kills Alec the phrase "he has been hurt with a knife" (pg. 447) is used to separate Tess from the violence. She is kept pure by not allowing the audience to fully understand the situation and by keeping Tess separate from the acts she committed. Tess is then convicted for the murder of Alec and sentenced to death. Because she