ke place in Tess. Both traveling and the rhythms of nature are seen as causing fatigue. You'll notice that as Tess nears the end of her life she doesn't want to move at all. At the same time the natural rhythms of growth and seasonal change are vital to earthly continuity. Hardy's belief in the constant movement of human feeling between pain and pleasure is also reflected in the seasonal nature of life. As you read Tess be aware that Tess' life begins and ends in the spring, that she falls in love during the fecund summer months, and that she marries, ominously, in the dead of winter. Even her story is divided into seven phases. Rather than calling these sections of the novel parts, Hardy uses the word phases to emphasize that Tess' life is part of a cycle that includes all of nature. Hardy's primary stance on nature is that it is the core of our existence; regardless of individual fates it can and must strive forward. - PESSIMISM AND FATALISM Many readers think that Tess describes a world in which people are at the mercy of circumstances beyond their control. They point to the fact that, regardless of what Tess does, everything and everyone turns against her. These readers feel that Hardy is a pessimist- why else would he stand back from his story and comment on human and cosmic injustices toward the exceptional or innocent individual? Other readers say that Hardy is neither a pessimist nor a fatalist; he's simply angry at life's injustices and wants to make his readers look at them. ...
