Thomas Hardy's novel Tess of d'Urbervilles tells the story of a young girl named Tess Durbeyfield who is seduced by, Alec d'Ubervilles, her distant relative. The loss of her virginity, and the birth of a child, haunts her and makes it impossible for her to succeed in marriage with the man she loves and her husband Angel Clare. Tess is unable to escape her dysfunctional relationship with Alec, and becomes caught in an unhappy marriage with Angel Clare. Unlike in other great 19th Century literature, Tess's flawed relationships are not whisked away with the convenience of death, like Dorothea Brooke who is freed from her unhappy marriage with Mr. Casaubon by him dying.
[...] Prince was a necessity for the Durbeyfields livelihood, his death is a coming of age experience for Tess and her brother. In consternation Tess jumped down, and discovered the dreadful truth. The groan had proceeded from her father's poor horse Prince. The morning mail cart, with its two noiseless wheels, speeding along these lanes like an arrow, as it always did, had driven into her slow unlighted equipage. The pointed shaft of the cart had entered the breast of her unhappy Prince like a sword; and from the wound his life's blood was spouting in a stream, and falling with a hiss into the road. [...]
[...] After all Tess' experiences with death she needs to understand that death has consequences, and since Alec isn't conveniently gotten rid of Tess has to make the choice to free herself from him. This is emotionally empowering for Tess, since this is the man who ruined her happiness with Angel. The consequences of her actions turns out that she also dies, but she accepts this. She chooses not to hide, but rather decides that she would prefer to remain exposed. [...]
[...] The consequence of Sorrow's death is that Tess solely carries the truth and has to wrestle with her emotional feelings towards Angel Clare and the guilt of her tainted pats. Like how the carriage relentlessly follows the d'Urbervilles family for their sins, Sorrow follows Tess, heavy in her heart as the guilty secret she cannot escape nor can she tell Angel about. Like how the carriage follows Tess around as omen for death, it is her fate to kill or be killed at the end. [...]
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