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

Abstract

This article aims at analysing the main character Tess as a postmodern woman in Hardy’s novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Hardy portrays Tess as a postmodern woman who rejects socially constructed values. Tess of the d'Urbervilles demonstrates a shift away from the strict Victorian norms towards a more nuanced and introspective narrative, hinting at the emergence of postmodern themes in literature. Tess suffers like a Victorian woman and grows into a postmodern woman. Tess is more postmodern than Victorian in the sense that she opposes Victorian chastity and virginity as social constructs. Tess believes what she believes to be right, rejecting Victorian social norms. The proposed study is qualitative because postmodern theory is applied to the text, The novel is the main source of data collection. Secondary data sources include books and journal articles. Selected passages from the text are interpreted keeping in view postmodern theory to highlight Tess as postmodern woman. Research technique is interpretive content analysis. Research approach is inductive.