Tess, a Warning against Being Pure?

I read Tessof the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. Though an adopted version, I was greatly touched by the misfortunes of Tess. In my eyes, she is the most sympathetic girl. How pure she is! In a luckier circumstance, she would be the apple of the eye of her parents, the spoiled little princess in her lover’s heart, and a lovely friend among the neighbore. Alas! She lives in Hardy’s story, pictured by a cold pen, though arranged so by the author’s warmest heart.

Firstly she was trapped into a sense of guilt by her mercenary parents. Without this, she would have safely lived in her home, married a just man, and led a safe and nice life. However, she fell into Alec’s lustful hand. Abducted by the sophisticated Alec D’Urberville, she had to reconcile to the devil at every step. Oh, how could the kind, pure Tess have the courage to give Alec a slap when he attempted sexual harrassment? How dared she not to hold Alec’s waist while Alec purposedly let go of the rein on a slope?

She lost virginity. She herself must have felt too much ashamed. Therefore she sweared to become Diana’s follower, never to marry. She wanted to use abstinence as her defence of her dignity. But facing the gentle Angle Clare, how can one resist the power of true love? It is extremely painful to say ‘no’ at Angle’s proposal yet she couldn’t afford to tell him the real reason of her doing so.

Finally, despite these, they married. Angle confessed his fooling around with a strange woman. How excited the innocent Tess was! She thought since they two both did wrong things therefore they could forgive each other. But she forgot the stubborn face of social norms: a man’s loss of virginity may be forgiveable, but not a woman’s. Angle seemed to have lost all his flames of love to Tess. Poor Tess painfully yet timidly waited for her husband’s return. After torturing Tess, Angle left to a faraway place, leaving his loving wife behind.

Years elapsed. Alec suddently stood in front of Tess a converted man. From the abridged book I wasn’t quite sure of the intention of Alec. Has he really fallen in love with Tess? Or he was again attracted by Tess’s beauty? At last, believing Angle would never come back, she lived with Alec. This woman endured too much harsh life. She had no strength left. A pure heart has been covered with too much dust, carried too many scars. She really was too tired to fight any more.

Fate seems to take to teasing her. Soon after she surrendered again to Alec, Angle, her true love came back. Alec, that ugly man, twice ruined Tess’s prospects to live happily without any worry or fear with the one she really loves. Tess’s innocent heart could bear such hatred no longer. With such anger and desperation, Tess killed Alec in order to be with Angle.

She finally enjoyed a short but the happiest moment in her life. Being with Angle, no secret between them. Mistakes forgiven, genuine love faced. Oh, let the time stop at this moment……

I give my deepest sympathy to Tess. A pure heart is such a rare, yet it is constantly attacked. To protect oneself, one has to learn to be sophisticated. Being sophisticated means to learn to control and conceal emotions, to dare to rise up to opposing forces. For a strong heart it’s justified to do so. But for a soft, kind and innocent one, the risk of hurting or embarrassing others may hinder its determination to do justice to itself. So at last, a pure heart would rather hurt itself, rather than hurt others, though such deeds may be labeled as stupid in the end.