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Vivian Trinh

7 November 2017

ENL 4350 Advanced Studies in British Literature

Launch Essay

Nobody Cares, So Why Should You?:

Another Depressing Novel By Thomas Hardy

The world in which Hardy sets his novels is one marked by utter and unforgiving

indifference. In Tess of the DUrbervilles, this indifference is presented in both nature

and humans alike. Through viewing the hardships of the novels titular character,

readers are presented with a panorama of the bleak and desolate world Hardy seeks to

painta world that knows no warmth but in the closest of relationships; one that offers

no salvation for those struggling to navigate the line between sanity and madness. As

Hardy illustrates, the Earth continues to spin regardless of who is on it. No single person

deserves to be a paragon for the alternative. Because of this reason, humans are

creatures cursednot blessedwith agency. In a world run by indifference, it does not

matter whether you act in kindness or in sin, for the sun shines on the just and on the

unjust alike (126).

To the average reader, Tesss case is quite sympathetic; she strives so hard to

alleviate the sins of her past, but time and again, her endeavors are undermined by some

awful stroke of indifference. Starting with Phase Five, Hardy shows this indifference

more markedly. In fact, he illustrates the indifferent nature of the world through

imagery in the very first scene of the Phase, when Tess has just revealed the secrets of

her assault to Angel: The fire in the grate looked impishdemoniacally funny, as if it

did not care in the least about her straight. The fender grinned idly, as if it too did not
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care (227). Hardys choice of personification only compounds the issue; it suggests a

humanness to non-human things, which are by definition indifferent. Thus, he advances

a parallelism between the human and not human: they are both indifferent. Angel then

re-enters the scene, and as he is so entrapped by his own feelings after Tesss revelation,

he becomes the human equivalent of the light from the water bottle, which was

merely engaged in a chromatic problem (227). Angel is too focused on his own

problem to consider Tesss, and thus he joins the other material objects in the room,

which all announced their irresponsibility with terrible iteration (227).

On the blighted star (34) on which Tess lives, beings care only for their own

concerns, and this idea is illustrated by the dying pheasants that she later encounters.

Clearly, the innocent birds are immersed in pain, with some feebly moving their wings,

some staring up at the sky, some pulsating feebly, some contorted, some stretched out

all of them writhing in agony (278). The villain is not nature but mana shooting party

with a bloodthirsty light in their eyes, who made it their purpose to destroy lifein

this case harmless feathered creatures (279). The narrator makes a comment on how

unmannerly and unchivalrous they are (279), which then serves to characterize Tess

as the opposite when she wrings their necks to put them out of their miserynot for

enjoyment of any kind, but by a responsibility for her fellow creatures.

However, Tess meets a gruesome fate despite her mannerly and chivalrous

traitsthe same fate as Alec, who might have been a demon wrapped in human skin.

Throughout the narrative, Tess is hindered by indifference all around. Nature continues

its cycle regardless of her endeavors, sending dry and cold air (281) and a snow that

marked that winter as the worst in years (287). When she goes to visit Angels family,

she hopes for some accident that might favour her, but nothing favoured heragain
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displaying the stout indifference Hardy seeks to present (298). Tesss father passes away

with a sudden heart attack (351), and nobody gives a second thought to the Durbeyfields

after they are evictedsave for Alec, who only lends his hand due to his own selfish

desires. Ultimately, each separate instance of indifference that Tess encounters

contributes to her eventual collapse. With what power she has, she murders Alec.

Subsequently, she is tracked down and killed by an indifferent legal system that only

cares to deliver justice as far as justice is defined on the page.

Tess, unlike many of the novels characters, paddles a boat upstream; she is

driven by a sense of responsibility and kindness rather than selfishness and apathy, thus

working against the natural demands of the world. However, these qualities do nothing

to save her from her death; instead, they work to undermine her happiness, which

comes sparingly and only in pathetic, short bursts. To that end, it is pointlessfoolish,

evento live a life driven by benevolence. Tess attempted to do so, while Alec did not.

Both suffered the same fate. Tess was, in fact, tortured by her ability to act out of her

own volition; her actions ultimately defined her, not her intentions. Hardy suggests that

the world operates on a strict status quo of indifference, and just as human societies

condemn deviants who work against the norm, natureperhaps fatepunishes those

who are selfless and caring. There is no room for such qualities.