Paganism is defined as a modern religious movement

Paganism is defined as “a modern religious movement incorporating beliefs or practices from outside the main world religions, especially nature worship.” The concepts of neo-paganism and nature play a substantial role in Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, and this effect is evaluated extensively in Charlotte Bonica’s “Nature and Paganism in Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles.” Bonica considers what previous critics and authors such as Holloway and Paterson do not: that Hardy’s focal purpose in writing Tess of the D’Urbervilles was not to suggest that a life is worth living best when it is existing in tandem with nature, or that Nature as a conceptualization is innocent in the same regards that Tess is, but that nature in and of itself does not maintain any moral ascription, and “is indifferent to human notions of worldly distinction” (Bonica, P.

854). This conclusion, in my perception, is crucial to understanding Tess’ character, Alec and Angel’s judgment of her, and ultimately, her destruction.

An observation I noticed which was also observed by Bonica, was that Hardy’s figurative devices conceptualizing nature had less to do with the outside world itself, and more to do with an observer’s interpretation of it. In his descriptions, nature helps amplify the atmosphere and emotions felt by various characters, such as in Chapter XXXVI, where it starts with, “Clare rose in the light of a dawn that was ashy and furtive, as though associated with crime.” Bonica further elaborates her point by stating that, “Those who do so fail to see that in Tess every ascription of human qualities to natural objects, every perception of moral meaning in natural phenomena, is qualified and rendered unauthoritative.

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Bonica considers that some critics claim that Hardy’s “intention in Tess is to suggest that the pagan relationship with nature offers modern individuals a useful replacement for Christianity.” Initially, I agreed with this statement. After all, this point could be argued for when taking into account Angel’s rejection of Christianity but his willingness – despite his inability to articulate his beliefs in concrete terms – to place moral distinction and his place in the world relative to Nature. This effect seems to be observed by lines such as “Tess’s passing corporeal blight had been her mental harvest. (Tess, Chapter XIX)” However, Bonica effectuates an important point when she says that “though Stonehenge remains as a reminder of its past brutality, paganism is no longer powerful enough, except in the hands of a neo-pagan like Angel, to effect real harm.” Although Angel claims that Tess has been “more sinned against than sinning (Tess, Chapter XXXV),” understanding, to some degree, that Tess’ predicament had not been of her own accord, he still rejects her. His ostracization of her is undoubtedly in part due to social conventions surrounding sexuality and sexual freedoms for women during the Victorian era, but a greater, arguably more subtle part of this stems from his belief in paganism.

One of the reasons he provides for “needing” to leave Tess is because he is conflicted between accepting himself as her husband, as established by a formal and legal marriage towards her, and assuming Alec D’Urberville to be her “natural” – as, in his perception, Alec had acted upon sexual impulse and consequently, laid claim to Tess before any other man – and by proxy, “true” husband, as defined by Nature. Angel fails to see that the severity of his condemnation of his wife was amplified by the fact that he perceived her as less of a woman and more of an ethereal being, as proven by lines in Chapter XXXVI, “Nature, in her fantastic trickery, had set such a seal of maidenhood upon Tess’s countenance that he gazed at her with a stupefied air.”

Ironically enough, Bonica claims, Hardy’s entire point in this is to emphasize that Nature does not act in terms of moral compass – the concepts of innocent and guilty are human distinctions which are, in Hardy’s perception, entirely irrelevant. As Bonica states, “she [Tess] is a victim as much of her paganism as she is of her Christian training.” This is emphasized by Tess’ steady transformation into becoming a pure woman. When Angel rejects and isolates her, saying that the two will need to be separated from one another, Tess merely accepts it: “Yet, like the majority of women, she accepted the momentary presentment as if it were the inevitable. (Tess, Chapter XXXVI)” This is because she not only trusts Angel’s knowledge of the world, but because her perception of her paganism – implicit as it may be – convinces her that she genuinely is at fault for the situation she and Angel are in.

In Chapter LI of Tess, however, as Tess is about to write an angry, final letter to her estranged husband, she thinks, “Whatever her sins, they were not sins of intention, but of inadvertence, and why should she have been punished so persistently?” It is at this point that Tess arguably, becomes a pure woman – at this point that she realizes her own worth – and it is in this moment that she realizes that neither Angel’s perception of Nature (deeming Alec to be her “natural” husband) nor Victorian ideals towards women should have bearing on anyone’s perception of her as an individual. This is one of the subtle points Hardy attempts to create, and there is an “element of irony” in the title of the novel (Doug Stuva, Why is Tess considered a pure woman?).

Bonica’s analysis of Tess of the D’Urbervilles in her essay “Nature and Paganism in Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles” considers one of the largest points Hardy attempted to make with his novel: nature is neither innocent nor guilty, and ascribing moral distinction towards it exemplifies the reductionism of people to compartmentalize external factors into palatable terms. Her evaluation of Hardy’s characters, particularly Tess and Angel, are incredibly precise; and many of the points she puts forth were observations I had considered myself and agree with, but she has connected them more comprehensively and cohesively.