Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Antigone

207 TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES AND ANTIGONE By James Hazen (University of Missouri - St. Louis) The connection between Thomas Hardy's novels and the tragedy of the Greeks has been acknowledged but not explored. It has been said that Sophocles was the chief literary influence on Hardy's view of life (W. R. Rutland), Hardy's rustic characters have been compared to the chorus of the Greek drama (David Cecil), and more recently. The Mayor of Casterbrldge has been very fruitfully analyzed as the story of a-"modern Oedipus" (D. A. Dike and John Paterson ).1 But we have not yet adequately recognized the pervading influence of Greek tragic models on Hardy's work. We have not yet worked out the implications of Hardy's claim that "dramas of a grandeur and unity truly Sophoclean" were "enacted in the real" in the Wessex he knew (The Woodlanders. Chapter I). It seems clear to me that Hardy's tragedy will never be adequately understood unless we understand first the size and nature of his debt to the Greeks. I propose in the following pages to explore what I think are significant relationships and resemblances between Tess of the D'Urbervllles and the Antigone of Sophocles. Such a comparative study, I believe, illuminates the novel. It calls our attention to the heroic dimension of Hardy's central character (for some time now seen as essentially a "peasant"), brings to light the submerged tragic machinery of the novel (the motifs of familial doom and of dike). restores some tragic dignity to Angel Clare, and shows in a very concrete way the universality of Hardy's theme. Unlike The Mayor of Casterbrldge. which exemplifies the "seasonal patte rn7rfämillar in Oedipus the King and King Lear. Tess of the D'Urbervllles illustrates the scapegoat pattern of tragedy found in Ant!gone and in Hamlet.2 The tragic figure is young and innocent; she is morally superior to those who persecute and destroy her; her suffering and death force others to see. Even a brief overall view of the two tragic works is revealing. Both Tess of the D'Urbervllles and Antigone concern brave and good young women, each the descendant of a great aristocratic family which has now fallen and which seems fated to suffering and tragedy. These young women are creatures of nature as well as of society and family, and each commits a rash act in response to the promptings of natural impulses within her. Tess's liaison with Alex D'Urberville is as natural and innocent an expression of her character as Antigone's burial ritual is of hers. Each young woman behaves naturally and appropriately in the circumstances, yet each soon comes to be regarded by society (or at least by its spokesman) as virtually a criminal. The two heroines are Judged harshly and unreasonably by rigid and wrong-headed men who think themselves acting for the good of society and in the name of accepted social values. These men are proud, Creon of his position and power as ruler. Angel Clare of his "principles," yet each turns out to be tragically wrong, and each is humbled by seeing this. Creon and Clare undergo some- 208 thing akin to tragic experiences themselves, falling into error, causing grievous suffering and death for others, realizing this, and learning through the suffering they have caused and felt. Both play and novel end with the focus of attention squarely upon the surviving male figures, leaving them to grope their ways toward uncertain futures. The two tragic works are essentially concerned with the act of significant moral choice made by their respective, youthful heroines . Antigone determines to honor the body of her fallen brother in spite of Creon's royal edict prohibiting such ceremonies. Tess Durbeyfield resolves to confess the truth of her past in spite of the social customs and attitudes which make such candor extremely dangerous. Antigone knows that in defying Creon she risks death. Tess knows that in defying social custom she risks losing all that is life to hers Angel's love. In each case there is a single decisive act which marks the unique moral worth of the heroine...