The Pure Voice in Hardys Tess of the dUrbervilles Essay -- Tess of t

The Pure Voice in Tess of the D'Urbervilles      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Thomas Hardy often alludes to his heroine as the "soft and silent Tess."   "Soft" certainly insinuates her beauty, which Harrtainly insinuates her beauty, which Hardy stresses as her downfall.   However, it seems that Tess's silence is the all-pervading reason for her tragedies.   "The two men she encounters in her life steal her voice: one with violence, the other with his own language"(Jacobus 47).   Tess struggles with the damage that these men cause until redeeming herself through innocence.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Hardy, in his portrayal of Tess as "The Maiden," begins with the May Day Dance, where Tess has yet to develop her beauty but wears a red ribbon in her hair, the only girl to do so in the train of "white-frocked maids."   The ribbon signifies what she has that the other girls do not: an inner beauty which will win her-much against her will-the affections of men.   At the sight of her father singing on his way home, the other girls begin to giggle; Tess reprimands them harshly, saying, "Look here; I won't walk another inch with you if you say any jokes about him!"   Herokes about him!"   Her verbal aggressiveness causes the onlookers to follow her wishes.   This is one of the examples of how the maiden Tess was not silent. It also follows that when the fellows that danced with her "became fierce, she rebuked them."   She had no problem saying her mind and sticking to it in this phase.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Tess's conversation with her brother, Abraham, takes place during their midnight ride to deliver hives for her father.   They talk on and on about the stars and the belief that Tess holds that our star is "a blighted one."   Soon Abraham brings up the future planned for Tess, that she ... ... Ed. Charles P. C. Pettit New York: St. Martin's, 1994. 16-40. ---. Tess of the d'Urbervilles: Unorthodox Beauty. New York: Twayne, 1992. Chapman, Raymond. " 'Good Faith, You do Talk!': Some Features of Hardy's Dialogue." New Perspectives on Thomas Hardy. Ed. Charles P. C. Pettit. New York: St. Martin's, 1994. 117-36. Hall, Donald. Afterward. Tess of the d'Urbervilles. By Thomas Hardy. New York: Signet, 1980. 417-27. Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the d'Urbervilles. 1891. New York: Signet Classic, 1980.   Jacobus, Mary. "Tess: the Making of a Pure Woman." Thomas Hardy's   Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea   House Publications, 1987. 45-60. Mickelson, Anne Z. Thomas Hardy's Women and Men: The Defeat of Nature. Metuchen: Scarecrow, 1976. Weissman, Judith. Half Savage and Hardy and Free. Middletown: Wesleyan UP, 1987.