Topic > Industrialization in Tess of the D'urbervilles

"Although proud of their material success, Victorians were often deeply uncomfortable with the loss of rural community suffered by industrial society." From your reading of Tess of the D'Urbervilles and other Victorian novels show how you have found this to be true. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Victorian novels regularly depict industrialization as corrupt, dirty, and unbridled capitalism. In Tess of the D'Ubervilles Hardy does this primarily through the description and actions of the characters in a similar way to Dickens. Alec D'Uberville is one of a group of nouveau riche northern industrialists, and the fact that "ville" is included in his surname suggests that Alec symbolizes all the industrialists in the city. Therefore Alec's actions, such as the rape scene, where he took advantage of Tess's "beautiful feminine tissue" subtly suggest that industrialization and industrialists are ravaging the country. Alec's prominent, red-brick and obviously "new" country house, as well as the fact that he purchased rather than inherited the formerly pastoral D'Uberville family name, most graphically Hardy's view that Alec and the industrialization it represents have scarred and destroyed the natural agricultural land that the Victorians valued so much. Similarly, Bounderby in Hard Times, is an industrialist who caricatures the arrogance of "I, Josiah Bounderby of Coketown" and his rash "red and hot" reaction to the bank robbery turns us against him. He uses Louisa in a similar way to Alec, manipulating her into marrying her and ultimately, like Alec, he is shown to be not what he appears. Dickens's equally cynical view of Bounderby suggests that, like Hardy, he too viewed the industrialization that Bounderby and Alec represent with a sense of unease. In contrast, Hardy's description of the life of Tess D'Uberville, the figure we ultimately sympathize with, is described by J.R. Ebbatson as a blend of ideas "creatively poised between images of romantic pastoral and scientific background". Hardy uses Tess to emphasize his revulsion for the industrial world which he suggested through Alec's behavior in the novel. Tess is presented as a figure of purity in the book. She is dressed in white when we first see her, hinting at an almost angelic character and in the description of Sorrow's baptism Tess is "almost apotheosised" by the "ecstasy of faith" she raises her voice at the "pace of the clerks and the description of Tess with phrases such as "great, imposing and terrible, a divine character" add to the creation of a character who appears to be pure and divine subtitle, "a pure woman", as well as the words that describe her in the first phase such as " angel" and "innocent" further emphasize Tess's purity. Tess is also described in a very natural way. She is constantly surrounded by "rabbits" and "snakes" and is shocked by the death of the horse's natural affinity with nature and buries herself two times into the ground and very sensitively breaks the necks of the injured pheasants. The fact that Tess is described in a very natural and also very pure way therefore encourages the reader to connect the two ideas giving the suggestion that nature is pure. Furthermore, Alec's mistreatment of Tess throughout the novel and her rape by Alec (who is symbolic of industrialists in the Victorian period) at the end of "The Maiden" suggest that Hardy thought that the industrialization of England was ruining the countryside. and transform "the girl" into "no longer a girl". Louisa fills a similar role in Hard Times as she is portrayed as innocent and.