When you wake up, O Mother, wake up and seeSay no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Like someone who, held in trance, worked long With hollow mechanics and strong prepossession The coils you twisted involuntarily; Where have they place, unrealized by you, beautiful growths, disgusting cancers, right entangled with wrong, strange orchestras of victim cries and songs, and curious mixtures of pain and ecstasy? (Hardy, "The Sleep-Worker") Inherent in the ruthless progress of society, there paradoxically lies a growing moral deterioration. In Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy "faithfully presents" Tess as an example of virtue, using her as a tool of criticism against a society too dissolute to support the existence of "its best individuals" (Wickens 104). Unwilling to compromise her strict adherence to personal morality, Tess suffers immensely; his total inability to exist on this “defaced” star (21) exposes the regression of a self-righteous society, whose degraded values ​​catalyze its destruction. Innocently unaware of "Nature's cruel law[,]" (115) Tess is violated by the response her sexuality elicits from Alec. Yet, although it is nature that causes Tess to lose her virginity, it is society that makes this loss a sin. Tess's change from "a mere vessel of emotion undyed by experience" (8) to one stained by "bodily degradation" (98) elicits severe social condemnation. Ironically, in its attempt to deny humanity's natural instincts, social selection takes on the characteristic ethical absence of natural selection, "ensuring that social relations between people continue natural relations between species" (Wickens 98). In "failing to distinguish itself ethically from [a nescent] [N]ature[,]" (Wickens 97) society thus neglects to satisfy its condition as a conscious entity. Furthermore, by abdicating the responsibility to examine the moral implications behind Tess's rape, the company essentially ignores the underlying intent of the doctrine on which it bases its complaint. Underlying the social law that condemns Tess is a deeply rooted and tremendously degraded patriarchal interpretation of Tess's rape. Christianity. Wanting to embody ideal Christianity without the responsibility to realize Christian ideals, society ignores the compassion and forgiveness originally dictated by this belief. Rationalizing that it must be in accordance with the spirit of Christianity because it masquerades in the name of Christianity, society equates virtue and righteousness with those who survive best within the context of its corrupt standards. A dirty ideology is generated, which effectively excommunicates Tess and precludes her acceptance by society. Evading ethical considerations, society hypocritically justifies and insidiously supports the survival of the fittest and the exploitation of the weakest, thus perpetuating the law, “once a victim, always a victim” (261). Having eliminated all moral considerations, he misjudges morality based on the physical outcome of circumstances. This depraved criterion of judgment makes society incapable of seeing that "[t]he beauty or ugliness of a character lies not only in its achievements, but in its purposes and impulses; its true history lies not in the things done, but among the things scrolls" (267). Society, with its perverted sense of justice, ostracizes Tess for her loss of physical purity, although her moral purity is absolute. His conception of righteousness fosters an attitude that is both suffocating and degrading towardsthose who are physically weaker, including women; society "worships the false idol of chastity[, remaining blind]. . . committed to a set of attitudes toward the 'fallen' woman[,]" (Hazen 780). This mentality generates a fertile field for the development of the double standard, which decrees that those who function best within the perverse structure of society are entitled to greater leniency in all respects, whether socially, morally or sexually; Tess's unfair and undeserved victimization is juxtaposed with the self-righteous hypocrisy of Angel, who is condoned for "the very same" action (177). Furthermore, Alec, the true violator of a moral law, goes unpunished. Hardy satirically exposes the gross injustice of the double standard and society at large, describing the intense ridiculousness of Alec's attempt, however temporary, to achieve salvation through ideological conversion. Only in an extremely sick society, Hardy suggests, could a rapist become a priest. “[S]ick with evil[,]” (Hazen 780) a society demands conformity to its degraded ideology. It suppresses individual values ​​of morality, thus denying “the possibilities of human existence” (Howe 421). Rejecting meliorism, Hardy pessimistically states: "We may ask whether, at the height and culmination of human progress, these anachronisms will be corrected by a more subtle intuition, by a closer interaction of the social machine which now jolts us; but such completeness is not to be prophesied, nor even conceived as possible" (31). Society cancels its adaptation to the new moral conditions caused by the choices of its individual members. With this moral paralysis, it effectively ceases to deal with the choice of judgment and attempts to self-report. With a loss of active awareness, there is a loss of meaning. Confronted with the ethical void in the world around her and a schism in the inner world, Tess chooses to create meaning by making conscious decisions. Essentially, her actions constitute a "'fundamental effort to create a meaningful place for man in a world unaware of his presence." Even without a sense of cosmic purpose, [Tess] maintains her desire for human order and awareness ethics" (Wickens 96). Tess responds to the moral vacuum around her by formulating her own beliefs. Faced with words that condemn the impure woman, Tess responds: "I don't believe God said those things!" (63). He forges a personal interpretation of religion and a personal system of values ​​and consequently rejects the social order that opposes his very being. Faced with ostracism, uprooting, and demoralization to a dehumanizing extent, Tess mobilizes and resists by becoming determined to "taste sweet independence again at any cost" (71). However, "Tess demands nothing that could be considered the consequence of uprootedness or overreach...she spontaneously strives for the most basic needs of human existence. Rather, she provides a standard of what is right and essential for humans." demands of life" (Howe 409). Despite her suffering, Tess carries herself with immense dignity, consciously remaining true to her ideals. Actively challenging society's morals by upholding her own set of values, Tess possesses the courage and faith that allow her to achieve a “purity of spirit even if she fails to meet the standards of the world” (Howe, 408). an experience, a passion, a structure of sensations, for no one but herself. To all mankind except Tess it was but a passing thought" (71). Although spiritually it transcends the decadence ofsociety, Tess does not have the power to change its values. His relationships with Alec and Angel, “brokers of current attitudes, habits, and values ​​in their society[,]” (Hazen 780) illustrate this. Like the society they represent, Angel and Alec "share an inability to appreciate the splendor of feeling that radiates from Tess. Each represents a deformation of masculinity, one tall and the other short; they cannot appreciate, they cannot even to see the richness of life that Tess embodies" (Howe 415). necessary to move forward” (Hyman 118). Physically worn down and psychologically exhausted by the relentless struggle to maintain her purity in a corrupt world, Tess comes to the realization that the only way to achieve wholeness is to descend to the level of society and physically escape to "taste sweet independence again[ ,]" (71) Tess must sacrifice her life and thus free herself from her "disfigured" world (21). Its inevitable self-destruction gives rise to. a sense of existential desperation as it starkly exposes the decay of a society that offers death as the only way to maintain personal purity, furthermore, this "society [that] denies [Tess] the circumstances to be fully human[,]" (Wickens). 102) is corrupt to the point that it not only erases his existence, but also denies the meaning of his personal sacrifice. Consequently, although Tess's "suffering produces a[n] . . . immediate regeneration" (Hazen 780) through her liberating influence on Angel, this regeneration is limited to the rectification of Angel's current point of view; the "hard logical deposit [that] had blocked his acceptance of the Church . . . [as well as] his acceptance of Tess" (189) remains intact. In essence, the system on which she bases her conceptions (logos) does not change, since, as Hardy states, "Angel . . . would inevitably have thrown [Tess's] fall in her face" (388). Thus, despite Tess's great sacrifice, neither Angel nor society achieves a "recognition of the need to move beyond logical attitudes and metaphysical responses to a more conscious awareness of objective reality. . . [W]hat [Hardy] reveals is that, although this need can be grasped intellectually, it cannot be achieved by the intellect alone, [but rather by .] reciprocity and interdependence: only another human being can satisfy the needs no more satisfied by faith in Divine Providence or in the beneficence of nature. What Hardy does best, he does here with Tess; creates the sense of a meaningless universe and the human desire for an answer that is not imminent" (Hyman, 118 ). On a cosmic level, Tess fades away as "a half-forgotten transitory impression" (31). simply justify Tess's death by the same standards used to report it. Angel's union with Liza-Lu does not make up for society's eradication of Tess, because Liza Lu is only "a spiritualized image of Tess," (313) sharing her blood but. devoid of its substance. Fertility [therefore]. . becomes part of a further plot for Hardy, . With the destruction of the individual, the evolution of humanity seems to be reduced to mere propagation, indicating an immense regression that belies the supposed development of society. Spiritually actualizing herself against the backdrop of society's regression, "[Tess] comes to seem…the potential of what life could be, just as what happens to her signifies what life too often becomes" (Howe 421). With Tess's death, the momentum and meaning created by her conscious adherence to personal ideals are lost, and Hardy admonishes society: "O foolish."