Tess: A Pure Woman in Postmodern Perspective in Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles

Abstract

The concept of a "pure woman" is a social construct created by dominant narratives. In Tess's case, the idea of purity is imposed on her by external forces, such as societal norms or oppressive power structures. Hardy rejects this social construction of purity created by dominant narratives. Hardy loses faith in Victorian purity and  social norms. Tess of the d’Urbervilles represents the morality of the time. Hardy considers the so- called purity and morality as the  cause roots of sufferings which he terms as social evils. Hardy’s impression about purity and morality seems to be permanent worries of mankind. Tess of the d’Urbervilles can be read as a story of these worries. Hardy employs more than one approach to decipher the meaning of Victorian purity. Hardy portrays Tess as a pure woman who rejects socially constructed values in order to attack Victorian purity. Tess is more postmodern than Victorian in the sense that she opposes Victorian purity and virginity as meta- narratives. Tess believes what she believes to be right or wrong, rejecting Victorian society and social norms. Postmodern theory is applied to the text, the proposed study is qualitative. The novel is the primary source of data collection. Secondary data sources include books and journal articles. Research technique is interpretive content analysis. This research is inductive.