rmony with the land, but also exhausted. We often see Tess at the mercy of machines, particularly the thresher at Flintcomb-Ash with its ghoulish engineer. Hardy actually traps his heroine between serving the incessantly moving thresher and falling off into Alec d'Urberville's waiting arms. When Tess and her family are driven from Marlott, they encounter hoards of other transient farm families forced to live a nomadic life under the new factory-like agricultural system. Uprooted from their stable lives they lose their sense of individuality and community tradition; they are treated worse than machines. As you read Tess try to decide if Hardy thinks that the new system is completely bad, or that the old one is completely good. You'll probably find that he's trying to honestly examine both systems to discover the best in both, in order to develop, as Angel Clare desires, a more ideal new system. - A PORTRAIT OF NATURE Tess abounds in natural imagery. Few books are as lush with descriptions of natural life. To Hardy nature, like sexuality and society, has its good and bad points. Nature can be wonderful, as it is at Talbothays Dairy, where the land is fertile and life-renewing. It can also be harsh and grueling, as it is at Flintcomb-Ash Farm, where the soil is thoroughly inhospitable to growth. Notice how nature also reflects the characters' emotions and fortunes. For example, when Tess is happy, the sky is blue and birds sing. When events turn out badly the earth appears harsh and coldly indifferent to her agony. Nature is also depicted in the many journeys that ta...
