During the late Victorian years of Hardy's writing, England was passing through a period of turbulent adolescence. The thrashing machines of industrialization were quickly replacing the hands of skilled laborers, fundamentally transforming Hardy's beloved rural landscapes in the never-ceasing search for profit. And Darwin, with his novel theories of biological evolution, posed one of the most formidable challenges to humanity's self-image as a uniquely endowed species. Men and women, no longer the products of divine creation, were reduced to simian ancestors, organisms derived by natural processes from inanimate matters.
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When reading Hardy, it's important to note the influence of his epoch. His poetic descriptions of rural life in fictional Wessex evoke a deep sense of nostalgia for bygone, simpler times—when land was a natural relative rather than an exploitable resource. We see in Tess of the D'Urbervilles that Talbothays Dairy is an agrarian ideal. Hardy's romantic portrayal of the Frome Valley—it's cow-dotted hillsides, ripe nature, and fair dairymaids—is in fact so striking that it's no wonder Tess has been adapted for the screen so many times over. Free from mechanization, the workers and owners at Talbothays are mutually respected, in harmony with a blossoming earth and appreciative of their pastoral environment.
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The influence of Darwin on Hardy is also palpable and well-documented. In a notebook entry in 1889, two years before Tess' publication, Hardy wrote: "A woeful fact—that the human race is too extremely developed for its corporeal condition, the nerves being evolved to an activity abnormal in such an environment...It may be questioned if Nature, or what we call Nature, so far back as when she crossed the line from invertebrates to vertebrates, did not exceed her mission. This planet does not supply the materials for happiness to higher existences." For Hardy, the Darwinistic evolution of consciousness and intellect serves man in a cruel manner, rendering him aware of the futility and brutality of life in a universe ruled by amoral processes. Deprived of a benevolent God, man is at the mercy of Nature whose only logic is survival of the fittest.
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The story of the eponymous Tess D'Urberville is in many ways an expression of this disillusionment. Driven by family poverty to claim kinship with her newly discovered relatives, the wealthy D'Urbervilles, Tess becomes a "fallen woman" after being raped and impregnated by her supposed cousin, Alec D'Urberville. After becoming a milkmaid on a distant farm to escape a reputation now soiled through no fault of her own, Tess meets Angel Clare. While promising love and salvation, Clare is in many ways as pushy and cruel a lover as Alec. Condemned by society at large and ruthlessly exploited by the men around her, Tess—though alluded to in the novel's subtitle as a "pure woman faithfully presented"—cannot escape her tragic fate.
‍
And perhaps for Hardy, tragedy is the inevitable result of a species victim to natural laws that can never entirely satisfy the human need to find value and moral meaning in existence.
During the late Victorian years of Hardy's writing, England was passing through a period of turbulent adolescence. The thrashing machines of industrialization were quickly replacing the hands of skilled laborers, fundamentally transforming Hardy's beloved rural landscapes in the never-ceasing search for profit. And Darwin, with his novel theories of biological evolution, posed one of the most formidable challenges to humanity's self-image as a uniquely endowed species. Men and women, no longer the products of divine creation, were reduced to simian ancestors, organisms derived by natural processes from inanimate matters.
‍
When reading Hardy, it's important to note the influence of his epoch. His poetic descriptions of rural life in fictional Wessex evoke a deep sense of nostalgia for bygone, simpler times—when land was a natural relative rather than an exploitable resource. We see in Tess of the D'Urbervilles that Talbothays Dairy is an agrarian ideal. Hardy's romantic portrayal of the Frome Valley—it's cow-dotted hillsides, ripe nature, and fair dairymaids—is in fact so striking that it's no wonder Tess has been adapted for the screen so many times over. Free from mechanization, the workers and owners at Talbothays are mutually respected, in harmony with a blossoming earth and appreciative of their pastoral environment.
‍
The influence of Darwin on Hardy is also palpable and well-documented. In a notebook entry in 1889, two years before Tess' publication, Hardy wrote: "A woeful fact—that the human race is too extremely developed for its corporeal condition, the nerves being evolved to an activity abnormal in such an environment...It may be questioned if Nature, or what we call Nature, so far back as when she crossed the line from invertebrates to vertebrates, did not exceed her mission. This planet does not supply the materials for happiness to higher existences." For Hardy, the Darwinistic evolution of consciousness and intellect serves man in a cruel manner, rendering him aware of the futility and brutality of life in a universe ruled by amoral processes. Deprived of a benevolent God, man is at the mercy of Nature whose only logic is survival of the fittest.
‍
The story of the eponymous Tess D'Urberville is in many ways an expression of this disillusionment. Driven by family poverty to claim kinship with her newly discovered relatives, the wealthy D'Urbervilles, Tess becomes a "fallen woman" after being raped and impregnated by her supposed cousin, Alec D'Urberville. After becoming a milkmaid on a distant farm to escape a reputation now soiled through no fault of her own, Tess meets Angel Clare. While promising love and salvation, Clare is in many ways as pushy and cruel a lover as Alec. Condemned by society at large and ruthlessly exploited by the men around her, Tess—though alluded to in the novel's subtitle as a "pure woman faithfully presented"—cannot escape her tragic fate.
‍
And perhaps for Hardy, tragedy is the inevitable result of a species victim to natural laws that can never entirely satisfy the human need to find value and moral meaning in existence.
During the late Victorian years of Hardy's writing, England was passing through a period of turbulent adolescence. The thrashing machines of industrialization were quickly replacing the hands of skilled laborers, fundamentally transforming Hardy's beloved rural landscapes in the never-ceasing search for profit. And Darwin, with his novel theories of biological evolution, posed one of the most formidable challenges to humanity's self-image as a uniquely endowed species. Men and women, no longer the products of divine creation, were reduced to simian ancestors, organisms derived by natural processes from inanimate matters.
‍
When reading Hardy, it's important to note the influence of his epoch. His poetic descriptions of rural life in fictional Wessex evoke a deep sense of nostalgia for bygone, simpler times—when land was a natural relative rather than an exploitable resource. We see in Tess of the D'Urbervilles that Talbothays Dairy is an agrarian ideal. Hardy's romantic portrayal of the Frome Valley—it's cow-dotted hillsides, ripe nature, and fair dairymaids—is in fact so striking that it's no wonder Tess has been adapted for the screen so many times over. Free from mechanization, the workers and owners at Talbothays are mutually respected, in harmony with a blossoming earth and appreciative of their pastoral environment.
‍
The influence of Darwin on Hardy is also palpable and well-documented. In a notebook entry in 1889, two years before Tess' publication, Hardy wrote: "A woeful fact—that the human race is too extremely developed for its corporeal condition, the nerves being evolved to an activity abnormal in such an environment...It may be questioned if Nature, or what we call Nature, so far back as when she crossed the line from invertebrates to vertebrates, did not exceed her mission. This planet does not supply the materials for happiness to higher existences." For Hardy, the Darwinistic evolution of consciousness and intellect serves man in a cruel manner, rendering him aware of the futility and brutality of life in a universe ruled by amoral processes. Deprived of a benevolent God, man is at the mercy of Nature whose only logic is survival of the fittest.
‍
The story of the eponymous Tess D'Urberville is in many ways an expression of this disillusionment. Driven by family poverty to claim kinship with her newly discovered relatives, the wealthy D'Urbervilles, Tess becomes a "fallen woman" after being raped and impregnated by her supposed cousin, Alec D'Urberville. After becoming a milkmaid on a distant farm to escape a reputation now soiled through no fault of her own, Tess meets Angel Clare. While promising love and salvation, Clare is in many ways as pushy and cruel a lover as Alec. Condemned by society at large and ruthlessly exploited by the men around her, Tess—though alluded to in the novel's subtitle as a "pure woman faithfully presented"—cannot escape her tragic fate.
‍
And perhaps for Hardy, tragedy is the inevitable result of a species victim to natural laws that can never entirely satisfy the human need to find value and moral meaning in existence.
During the late Victorian years of Hardy's writing, England was passing through a period of turbulent adolescence. The thrashing machines of industrialization were quickly replacing the hands of skilled laborers, fundamentally transforming Hardy's beloved rural landscapes in the never-ceasing search for profit. And Darwin, with his novel theories of biological evolution, posed one of the most formidable challenges to humanity's self-image as a uniquely endowed species. Men and women, no longer the products of divine creation, were reduced to simian ancestors, organisms derived by natural processes from inanimate matters.
‍
When reading Hardy, it's important to note the influence of his epoch. His poetic descriptions of rural life in fictional Wessex evoke a deep sense of nostalgia for bygone, simpler times—when land was a natural relative rather than an exploitable resource. We see in Tess of the D'Urbervilles that Talbothays Dairy is an agrarian ideal. Hardy's romantic portrayal of the Frome Valley—it's cow-dotted hillsides, ripe nature, and fair dairymaids—is in fact so striking that it's no wonder Tess has been adapted for the screen so many times over. Free from mechanization, the workers and owners at Talbothays are mutually respected, in harmony with a blossoming earth and appreciative of their pastoral environment.
‍
The influence of Darwin on Hardy is also palpable and well-documented. In a notebook entry in 1889, two years before Tess' publication, Hardy wrote: "A woeful fact—that the human race is too extremely developed for its corporeal condition, the nerves being evolved to an activity abnormal in such an environment...It may be questioned if Nature, or what we call Nature, so far back as when she crossed the line from invertebrates to vertebrates, did not exceed her mission. This planet does not supply the materials for happiness to higher existences." For Hardy, the Darwinistic evolution of consciousness and intellect serves man in a cruel manner, rendering him aware of the futility and brutality of life in a universe ruled by amoral processes. Deprived of a benevolent God, man is at the mercy of Nature whose only logic is survival of the fittest.
‍
The story of the eponymous Tess D'Urberville is in many ways an expression of this disillusionment. Driven by family poverty to claim kinship with her newly discovered relatives, the wealthy D'Urbervilles, Tess becomes a "fallen woman" after being raped and impregnated by her supposed cousin, Alec D'Urberville. After becoming a milkmaid on a distant farm to escape a reputation now soiled through no fault of her own, Tess meets Angel Clare. While promising love and salvation, Clare is in many ways as pushy and cruel a lover as Alec. Condemned by society at large and ruthlessly exploited by the men around her, Tess—though alluded to in the novel's subtitle as a "pure woman faithfully presented"—cannot escape her tragic fate.
‍
And perhaps for Hardy, tragedy is the inevitable result of a species victim to natural laws that can never entirely satisfy the human need to find value and moral meaning in existence.
During the late Victorian years of Hardy's writing, England was passing through a period of turbulent adolescence. The thrashing machines of industrialization were quickly replacing the hands of skilled laborers, fundamentally transforming Hardy's beloved rural landscapes in the never-ceasing search for profit. And Darwin, with his novel theories of biological evolution, posed one of the most formidable challenges to humanity's self-image as a uniquely endowed species. Men and women, no longer the products of divine creation, were reduced to simian ancestors, organisms derived by natural processes from inanimate matters.
‍
When reading Hardy, it's important to note the influence of his epoch. His poetic descriptions of rural life in fictional Wessex evoke a deep sense of nostalgia for bygone, simpler times—when land was a natural relative rather than an exploitable resource. We see in Tess of the D'Urbervilles that Talbothays Dairy is an agrarian ideal. Hardy's romantic portrayal of the Frome Valley—it's cow-dotted hillsides, ripe nature, and fair dairymaids—is in fact so striking that it's no wonder Tess has been adapted for the screen so many times over. Free from mechanization, the workers and owners at Talbothays are mutually respected, in harmony with a blossoming earth and appreciative of their pastoral environment.
‍
The influence of Darwin on Hardy is also palpable and well-documented. In a notebook entry in 1889, two years before Tess' publication, Hardy wrote: "A woeful fact—that the human race is too extremely developed for its corporeal condition, the nerves being evolved to an activity abnormal in such an environment...It may be questioned if Nature, or what we call Nature, so far back as when she crossed the line from invertebrates to vertebrates, did not exceed her mission. This planet does not supply the materials for happiness to higher existences." For Hardy, the Darwinistic evolution of consciousness and intellect serves man in a cruel manner, rendering him aware of the futility and brutality of life in a universe ruled by amoral processes. Deprived of a benevolent God, man is at the mercy of Nature whose only logic is survival of the fittest.
‍
The story of the eponymous Tess D'Urberville is in many ways an expression of this disillusionment. Driven by family poverty to claim kinship with her newly discovered relatives, the wealthy D'Urbervilles, Tess becomes a "fallen woman" after being raped and impregnated by her supposed cousin, Alec D'Urberville. After becoming a milkmaid on a distant farm to escape a reputation now soiled through no fault of her own, Tess meets Angel Clare. While promising love and salvation, Clare is in many ways as pushy and cruel a lover as Alec. Condemned by society at large and ruthlessly exploited by the men around her, Tess—though alluded to in the novel's subtitle as a "pure woman faithfully presented"—cannot escape her tragic fate.
‍
And perhaps for Hardy, tragedy is the inevitable result of a species victim to natural laws that can never entirely satisfy the human need to find value and moral meaning in existence.
