To what extent is Tess a true tragic heroine? Tess of the d'Urbervilles follows Tess through the last stages of her life. The reader is witness to the starting point of her eventual downfall, Alec raping her and the ramifications of that on the rest of her life. As the novel progresses, the reader learns more about Tess' true nature and how her end comes about because of the imposition of conventional values on her …showed first 75 words of 1604 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1604 total…man and her family's welfare is secure. Bibliography Dale Cramer, Thomas Hardy: The Forms of Tragedy, Macmillian Press 1990 Hands, T., Writers in Their Time: Thomas Hardy, Macmillian Press Ltd, London, 1995 Kramer, D., Landmarks of World Literature: Hardy - Tess of the d'Ubervilles, Cambridge University Press, Great Britain, 1991 Boumbela, P., Thomas Hardy and Women, Brighton, 1982 Draper, R. P. (ed.), Thomas Hardy: The Tragic Novels, London, 1975 Laird, J. T., The Shaping of Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Oxford, 1975