Questões de classe e gênero no romance Tess of the d’Urbervilles, de Thomas Hardy

Abstract

This work aims to dissertate on how gender and class relations (specifically the ones present in the context of rural England) of the 19th century manifest themselves in the plot and construction of the characters in Thomas Hardy's novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891), impacting its form. To do so, we briefly present the socio-historical context of this segment of society throughout the Victorian Era and take it as one of the main conditions of the author's production in creating the fictional universe of Wessex. In the first chapter, focusing on a class analysis, we conclude, through the established social relations and the working conditions to which the protagonist Tess is subjected, that work, according to the characteristics it presents, can be a tool for either dignifying or degrading the main character Tess, directly influencing the environment she occupies. These working conditions often align with her state of mind, also serving as an external materialization of her personal feelings and anxieties. In the second chapter, we turn to the influence of the interpersonal relationships established between Tess and the two antagonists, Angel Clare and Alec d’Urberville. If, a priori, she finds herself limited by her alternatives as a rural worker, it is in her relationships that gender oppression becomes evident. Altogether, religious morality and the rigid social conventions of patriarchal society, personified in the novel by her male counterparts, condemn her to suffering and to a life of judgment, resulting in her social ruin and leading her to take extreme actions in search of liberation. In summary, the verisimilitude of the work in relation to its context of production highlights the interference of the socio-historical element of the time in its composition.