The Circularity of Life in Tess of the DUrbervilles :: Tess of the DUrbervilles

The Circularity of Life in Tess of the DUrbervilles Thesis Hardy is concern with the natural cycles of the world, and the disruption caused by convention, which usurps natures role. He combats convention with the voice of the individual and the continuing circularity of nature. Phase the First The Circles of Life The circularity of intent is a major theme of the novel. Hardy treats it as the natural come out of things. The structure of the novel reflects this reigning image of the quite a little at some(prenominal) levels. First, the use of seasons to denote the passage of time implies circularity rather than a linear world-view. Years are shown as repetitions with variations rather than as bracing creations. Tess herself views time in this way, as she reflects on the various recurring dates which incision events in her life. She philosophically noted dates as they came past in the vicissitude of the year the disastrous night of her undoing at Trantidge with its dark soil of the Chase also the dates of the babys birth and death also her own birthday and every other day individualized by incidents in which she had interpreted some share. She suddenly thought one afternoon... that there was yet another(prenominal) date, of greater importance to her than those that of her own death (149). In the novel, the past and the future day are merely points on the cycle which nature designs. Reveals the destructive facial expression of this realization to Angel when she declares her disinclination to study history which will except tell that she is one of a long row only... just the like thousands and thousands (182). Secondly, the plot itself is not only circular, but contains a myriad of small striations within it. The main circle of the plot is from the discovery of the DUrberville Tombs to Tesss death. Within this circle revolve others. The life and death of Sorrow is a small circle within the larger one. Alec DUrbervilles repentance and recantation fo rm another. Clares and Tesss physical journeys towards and away(p) from and back again to each other represent more circles. Hardys consonant use of these circles in the plot reinforces their importance to the theme. The diction of the novel seems knowing to forcefully remind the reader of this theme. At the start of the novel Tess and her companions move in a circle on the green at its end, she pelf to rest at Stonehenge.