Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Letters become an important motif in the novel, especially in the latter portion. When Tess finally resolves to tell Angel the truth before their wedding, she writes a letter rather than face him: “[D]eclare the past to him by word of mouth she could not” (228). Later, once the two are separated, Tess writes Angel two important letters: The first expresses her unyielding love and devotion and pleads with him to return to her, while the second angrily rebukes him for abandoning her. Tess’s friends, Marian and Izz, also send Angel a letter, urging him to reconcile with his wife. The motif of these letters, all written by women, reveals how women have fewer options for expressing themselves and incur greater vulnerability by doing so. Tess cannot always speak directly to Angel, so she relies on writing to him, and this renders her vulnerable to accidents and delay (her letters don’t always reach him). More generally, the motif of letters shows women’s enforced passivity, as they find themselves in situations where they can plead their case but must ultimately rely on a man’s agency and goodwill.

Hardy sets his novel in the English countryside and shows many of his characters engaged in various forms of agricultural labor. This setting, as well as his strong interest in describing landscapes and nature, makes the changing rhythms of seasons an important motif. It is always clear which month and season constitute the setting for plot incidents, and the seasons often provide a form of pathetic fallacy, in which the outer world mirrors the inner experience of characters. Tess’s sexual violation occurs on a foggy autumn night, she falls in love with Angel amidst the lushness and abundance of summer, and the fatalistic countdown towards their wedding occurs as autumn lapses into winter. The use of seasons as a motif develops the contrast between nature and society; the natural world, as it moves through a perpetual cycle of seasonality, permits regeneration, resilience, and change, while society is fixed, rigid, and unable to let go of the past.