Emma Woodhouse Essay - 1601 Words

Jane Austen, critically acclaimed English novelist, is known for her witty and elegantly structured satirical fiction. Born December 16, 1775, Jane Austen was the seventh of eight children, and was closest to older sister Claudia. Her father was the parish rector in Steventon, and, though not wealthy, her family was well connected and well educated. Austen briefly attended boarding school in Reading but received the majority of her education at home. As a child, Austen was encouraged to write which allowed her to write her first novel Love and Friendship at the mere age of fourteen (â€Å"About Jane Austen†). Now, her work marks the transition from something to something else. Although Pride and Prejudice is Austen’s more popular work, her†¦show more content†¦Throughout the novel, Austen mocks the social mannerisms of the characters and is able to poke at their flaws. Much of the irony in this novel derives from the narrator’s comments and tone allows A usten to expose her character’s misguided assumptions. For example, Emma’s lack of insight and her inability to see the truth of her own and other people’s situation creates the ironic tone of the novel. This is shown through Emma’s attempt to set up Harriet Smith and Mr. Elton and insisting that Mr. Martin is beneath Harriet in status, despite the warnings from Mr. Knightley. He is quick to point out that Mr. Elton is not a good match for Harriet and that Harriet should accept Mr. Martin’s proposal by saying, â€Å"What are Harriett Smith’s claims, either of birth, nature, or education, to any connection higher than Robert Martin? She is the natural daughter of nobody knows whom†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Austen 56). So Emma believe she is helping Harriet, although her help actually causes problems for Harriet by raising her hopes of a marriage above her social station and making her unhappy after hearing that Mr. Elton is not interested in her. Howev er, the main irony of the novel is that Emma’s preoccupation with playing matchmaker prevents her from realizing her love for Mr. Knightley. Only when she believes that Mr. Knightley and Harriet will marry, does she realize that she loves him. After trying so long to find a match for Harriet, she hopes thatShow MoreRelatedEmma Woodhouse Is Handsome, Clever, And Rich1111 Words   |  5 PagesEmma Woodhouse is handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition and has lived twenty-one years and has very little stress in her life. But what if Emma was taken from her Georgian-Regency England and placed in the Twentieth century; would she be just as accomplished or would she just be a silly little girl. Jane Austin herself stated that â€Å"I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like†. The narrator of the book Emma also describes her as being spoiledRead More The Flawed Character of Emma Woodhouse in Jane Austens Emma2164 Wor ds   |  9 PagesThe Flawed Character of Emma Woodhouse     Ã‚  Ã‚   In Emma Woodhouse, Jane Austen has created a wonderfully flawed heroine. Had Emma been perfect, her situation would have been of no interest to anyone; her flaws are what interest both reader and critic. Peter W. Graham is interested particularly with the first page of the novel where Emma is first introduced to the reader. He discusses how significant the beginning of the novel is to mapping out Emmas personal development(42). Walton A. LitzRead MoreRelationship Between Emma Woodhouse And George Knightley1089 Words   |  5 Pages This essay will analyse the relationship between Emma Woodhouse and George Knightley in the text Emma from a feminist perspective. The relationship in general contains two different personalities. Emma is one who believes that she can create the ‘perfect couple’, which gives her the belief of ‘knowing everything’. George Knightley is more of a moral compass for Emma, and he usually displays his approval and disapproval of her actions. Before the relationship is examined; it would be insightful toRead MoreBorn Into Blindness 966 Words   |  4 Pagesare all qualities that contribute to blindness within Jane Austen’s Emma; a blindness that Austen herself feels can be avoided. This form of blindness ultimately yields unhappiness due to an inaccurate perception of human situations and feelings. With Emma’s inability to perceive the truth and her lack of self-understanding, she becomes the victim of her own imaginative world of matchmaking and fals e happiness induced by Mr. Woodhouse, her father. This inducement is caused by his angst towards marriageRead MoreEmma: the Turning Point at Box Hill Essay examples1329 Words   |  6 PagesThe Climb Up to Box Hill Emma, a novel by Jane Austen, is the story of a young woman, Emma, who is rich, stubborn, conniving, and occupies her time meddling into others business. There are several recurring themes throughout the novel; the ideas of marriage, social class, womens confinement, and the power of imagination to blind the one from the truth, which all become delineated and reach a climax during the trip to Box Hill. The scene at Box Hill exposes many underlying emotions that haveRead MoreCharacter Analysis of Emma in Jane Austens quot;Emmaquot; Essay867 Words   |  4 Pages `Emma was written by Jane Austen in 1816. In all her novels, she is primarily a moral writer, striving to establish criteria of sound judgement and right conduct in human life. In Emma she presents her lesson so astutely and so dramatically, with such a minimum of exposition, that she places extreme demands upon the readers perceptiveness. Emma was her fourth novel. Lord David Cecil described it as `Jane Austens profoundest comedy. It has frequently been applauded for its `engaging, dearRead MoreFeminism, By Jane Austen1314 Words   |  6 Pagesnovel, Emma, Austen presents a view of feminism that, at this point in time is quite outstanding for her to do. Men were the dominant gender and in England women remained submissive to the men at all times. Women had specific roles in the household and in society. When the girls are young, they are expected to obey their fathers until they are grown and passed off to a husband so they are financially supported at all times during their life . Emma is a story about the everyday life of Emma WoodhouseRead MoreJane Austens Complex Main Characters in her Works954 Words   |  4 Pagesdifferent cultures, and so the success of Jane Austen’s novels can be attributed to her relatability. Complex characters are key to being relatable, and Jane Austen’s female protagonists are certainly so. Elizabeth Bennett, Catherine Morland, and Emma Woodhouse are good-natured and intelligent; but also flawed. These characteristics encourage the reader to identify with the protagonist and become invested in her story; thereby becoming invested in the novel itself. Elizabeth Bennett is the twentyRead MoreEmmas Management of Harriets Affairs in Jane Austens Emma Essay593 Words   |  3 PagesEmmas Management of Harriets Affairs in Jane Austens Emma In this novel, Jane Austen uses the relationship between Emma and Harriet to highlight the important issues. She uses Emmas management of Harriet to do this. She creates contrast between Emma and Harriet, she portrays Emma as beautiful and intelligent though we can still see faults in her personality. The main fault is her desire to control people and matchmake them. This also raises issues, including the Read MoreEmma Cultural Context1084 Words   |  5 PagesEmma by Jane Austen Cultural context The novel I have studied is Emma by Jane Austen. The cultural context to which we are introduced in the novel Emma by Jane Austen, is the world of the middle classes in the nineteenth century. In this essay I will look, firstly, at the role of women in this world. I will examine the very limited opportunities a woman had in terms of education and finding a career which would allow her to live an independent life in the world of the novel. Secondly, I will

The Hidden Truth About Chronicle of a Death Foretold Essay Topics

The Hidden Truth About Chronicle of a Death Foretold Essay Topics This format raises several significant questions. And yet, it's not prevented. As she says, she's a 2nd virgin. She showed no indication of interest. However, nobody thinks to pick this up. Facts, Fiction and Chronicle of a Death Foretold Essay Topics It's purity that is his downfall in the long run. Hence their concern was the material gain they would receive by means of this alliance. His image is quite mysterious. Before it's revealed this is a vision, the reader is unsure whether it's a vision. Due to the standards and states of the Latin Colombian society, they are made to avenge their sister's purity. This double standard leads to Santiago's death due to the pressure to be the ideal woman so as to get married and advance in life. Since the men and women in this community are poor the sole way that they can earn and keep respect is honor. It's done as a way to demonstrate the ordinary behavior of people and place an emphasis on the absurd of everyday life. You just have to have a look at the body to find that. Make believe it turned out to be a human being. Make believe it turned out to be a human being, he states. What Is So Fascinating About Chronicle of a Death Foretold Essay Topics? People have an assortment of reasons for not warning Santiago regarding the plot. The 3 hours deadline isn't a worry. But just one of them was fatal. Generally, it takes as much as two hours of time to comb through dozens of sites until you discover something exciting to write about. People in the town are broken up into three sides. The Little-Known Secrets to Chronicle of a Death Foretold Essay Topics The narrator found countless moments where the suitable word or the perfect action could have stopped the murder from occurring. The murder scene is most likely the most obvious section of the novel. This sort of narration is appropriate for the story since it sheds light on unique perspectives of the situation. It's trailed through the enti re story. The novel is calibrated to the moment. The parallels between both scenes increase the ironic humor Marquez creates. It combines all the probable ideas concerning the death of the chief character. The story is regarded to be metafictional on account of the reason that it's highly satirical, psychological and even Biblical, to some extent. On the other hand, the narrator is quite unreliable on account of the reason which he brings into focus the unnecessary particulars of the murder. From this specific standpoint, the reader may interpret the function of the authorities being also mindful of the murder. This produces frustration in the reader as we are hoping for her, for anyone, to pick this up in order to prevent the death that is all about to come. The novel is devoted to exploring an issue of human ignorance and indifference towards one another, and the problems in the society. Vital Pieces of Chronicle of a Death Foretold Essay Topics However, it didn't comply to any of the points. Together with the topics, you'd discover loads of papers free of charge. Ask whether there are any questions, then provide the students the lesson's printable worksheet their comprehension of the notion. The articles selected for inclusion are likely best regarded as synecdochic as each marks in the growth of modern-day invention, if not the very first major. Still, every one of them would show up in the overall list. What You Can Do About Chronicle of a Death Foretold Es say Topics Starting in the Next 7 Minutes In addition, it follows a number of the characters' lives after he's killed. A succession of calamities followed at the altar of the conventional values. So when you have zero honor, then you've got nothing. Someone without honor is an outcast locally. A History of Chronicle of a Death Foretold Essay Topics Refuted Eventually, a lot of people learn of the murder program, but nobody does anything to block the brothers or warn Santiago. It appears that people decide to keep Santiago in the dark and enable the tragedy to take place. In case the marriage between Bayardo and Angela hadn't ever occurred, Santiago Nasar would nonetheless be alive. Observing the dogs' death the home is silent.

HR Management in Multinational Companies-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Identifythreekey trends and challenges for International HRM. Analyse how thesethreetrends and challenges impact upon, and affect the HRM practices for an MNC. Answer: Human Resource Management in Multinational Companies Globalization and increased change in technology within the business environment has brought forth the alteration in the role of human resource management (Kaur, 2014). Businesses have grown from being managed within a central environment or country to global management. This is because of the establishment of many multinational corporations (MNC), in different countries from the motherland. Initially, human resource management had a responsibility of bringing people and the organization together so that each goal is achieved (Kaur, 2014). This implies that both the goals of the company and those of the employee have to be met. With the increased change in the market environment where there are high levels of competition both globally and locally, the role of human resource management has to alter in order to fit the changed business scope. Human resource management has to evolve and become strategic partners, employees advocates and a change mentor within an organization (Bratton G old, 2012). The human resource professions must be business driven and be able to carry the goals and burdens of the organization. Trends and challenges facing human resource management are the other cause of the transformation in their roles (Bratton Gold, 2012). With increasing the change in the trends and especially with the international human resource management, human resource professional needs to adjust and work effectively to deliver the set goals. The demand of business in the present world is evolving with different trends and challenges coming forth, hence human resource professionals need to change and adjust to this changes as to have high performance within the organizations (Bratton Gold, 2012). They should target to enhance talent development within the workers. The human resource professional has to be coaches, mentors, councilors, succession planners to help motivate organization members and their loyalty (Reiche, Mendenhall Stahl, 2016). In this paper, we are going to discuss on the various trends and challenges that affect the international human resource management in Multinational Corporations and the impact these trends and challenges have to the human resource professional practices. There are various trends and challenges that an international human resource management professional undergo, they include a drastic change in technology, education, mobility where the workers have to relocate and adjust to the new environment, workplace diversity, talent management and the inability to retain employees (Chan, 2017). This paper gives a detailed discussion of the three major challenges that international human resource managers will have especially in the multinational cooperation companies. The three main challenges are workplace or workforce diversity, talent management and employee retention. Workplace Diversity The diversity of workplace has become a common trend and challenge to human resource management, especially the international human resource management. Diversity can be defined in reference to the fact that it acknowledges the reality in which people differ on different characteristics, visible or invisible (Chan, 2017). The different characteristics that are used in defining workforce diversity are the age, gender, marital status, disability, social status, sexual orientation, religion, personality, ethnicity and culture (Chan, 2017). All these characteristics define the diversity in the workforce; the human resource has to manage these diversities for efficient productivity. Failure for any human resource to manage diversity may be the root cause for the failure of the company. Diversity at workplace involves the incorporation or the coexistence of people of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds to a company (Barak, 2016). The different cultural characters include but not limited to age, gender, colour, physical disability and many others (Barak, 2016). With the increasing growth in business from being domestic, to multi-domestic, and finally to multinationals, diversity at workplace becomes crucial and important to facilitate achieving the companies goals. Human resource management has the responsibility of ensuring that this diverse workforce within the company gets an equal potential of exercising their abilities. Workplace diversity has been a great challenge to most of the human resource managers especially the international human resource managers as they are not able to understand the cross-cultural differences that exist between the home country and the host country (Barak, 2016). Workplace diversity challenges refer to the fact that the future success of the organization depends on how well the human resource will manage the diversity (Canas Sondak, 2013). When diversity is well managed by turning it into a strategic organizational asset, the success of the company will be sure. This refers to the ability of the human resource to welcome the diverse talents, innovative ideas and perspectives into the work (Canas Sondak, 2013). With this, it will be easy for the organization to meet the market expectations and respond to the business opportunities in a more creative manner. Management of diversity will assist the company not lose the talents to their competitors. In the management of the multinational corporations, embracing the cultural diversity is very much important as it will help in the development of the company and its future goals (Knippenberg, Ginkel Homan, 2013). Since workplace diversity as already indicated, is very important in the success of the organization, every human resource professional has to develop strategies of help in the management of these diversities. There are various strategies that can be employed to facilitate management of workplace diversity. Human resource should employ the strategy of diversity training (Knippenberg, Ginkel Homan, 2013).This entails training each profession on the importance of diversity and how diversity can be used to facilitate the success of the company. This will help to shape the diversity policies in the organization. Human resource should also embrace diversity in the leadership positions which will help to create visibility in the workplace (Chrobot-Mason, Ruderman Nishii, 2013). Openness within the company will be of great importance as far as the management of diversity is concerned. Every employee should be given equal opportunities to express their views and concerns about the companys goals (Chrobot-Mason, Ruderman Nishii, 2013).Human resource personnel should take diversity as the main challenge and work towards managing the diversity. Talent Management Talent management is of great importance to the multinational cooperation than domestic businesses. This is because of the increased diversity of the workforce. Just like any other business strategies, talent management strategy is very instrumental in the recruitment, training, retaining and attraction of highly skilled workers to the company (Vaiman, Scullions Collings, 2012). Talent management started in the 1990s and has since then be embraced by different companies to ensure success in their business (Vaiman, Scullions Collings, 2012). The development of talent management was very important especially in maintaining workers, who are the most important organizations assets. Companies that implement talent management develop various strategies that help them in the realization of the worker's skills, ability, and talents. These strategies include but not limited to managing and defining competitive salaries, training and development opportunities, attracting and recruiting of qu alified candidates and performance management processes retention programmes. Talent management which is also referred to as human capital management is the process of recruiting, managing, assessing, developing, and maintaining workers within an organization (Stahl et al., 2013). It is very instrumental as it helps the company be able to recruit competent personnel. It makes companies be strategic and deliberate on how they source, attract, select, develop, retain and promote employees. The competency of a worker is settled at by use of organizational core competencies. With the help of talent management, the company is also able to conduct performance management where the performance of an individual worker can be monitored (Stahl, 2012).Many human resource personnel is facing the challenge of embracing talent management in fear of getting new workers with inadequate skills, inability to retain key talents and the fear that attracting new talent will be a threat to competitiveness. This makes most them shy away from talent management. The critical factor about talent management is the effect that it has to the company when it is not properly implemented. There are various critical aspects that arise due to poor talent management from the human resource manager. These aspects include failure of a business, increased the cost of hiring and replacing an employee once found incompetent, cost of failing to attract and retain employees and the general cost encountered by the organizationwhen there is a vacant position (Vaiman, Scullions Collings, 2012). This is very critical aspects of talent management and has to be addressed by proper recruitment of employees (talent management). Retention of Employees Retention of employees is another great challenge that international human resource managers face. It is the ability of an organization to retain its employees. This is a difficult task that most of the organizations have failed to accomplish. Research done on the satisfactory level of employees in an organizationindicates that majority of the employees plan to look for a new job within the six months of employment, others are passionately already looking for the job (James Mathews, 2012). This possesses a great challenge to the management. In multinational cooperation, there is an increase in workforce diversity, making the expectations and the motivations of the employees to evolve too. It is the responsibility of the human resource managers to identify and understand his motivations and expectations of the workers so as to what is most valued by the workers. Understanding employees expectations and motivations will be important as far as the retention of the employee is concerned . The challenges faced by organizations due to inability to retain employees are very detrimental. The main challenge resulting from the failure of the organization to retain employees is the creation of leadership vacuum (James Mathews, 2012). High employee turnover rates prevent the organization from training the most achievers to assume the mentoring positions. The best performers are lost to the competitors together with their skills and abilities, leaving a great loss to the company. There are different ways in which the human resource will ensure retaining the employees. Among these,we have: motivating employees, increase in employees benefits, incentives and branding of employees (Bryant Allen, 2013). Branding of employees involves combining of both employees in the organization and those sourced outside the organization. Impact of the Trend and Challenges to the Human Resource Practices for MNC With the increased change in business environments, where business has gone global, trends and challenges affecting human resource management are also increasing. These trends and challenges are able to affect the entire human resource management practices. Multinational corporations have different human resource practices which include selection and recruitments of staff, compensation and reward systems, performance appraisals, training and development and repatriation needs (Ferner, Edwards Tempel, 2012). This section analyses how trend and challenges mentioned earlier impacts these practices. Selection and recruitment of employees Selection and recruitment of employee is an important aspect of human resource management. It is critical in that when a right person is selected for the position his performance will boost companys general performance (Thite, Budhwar Wilkiston, 2013). Recruitment of the right person for the position also prevents the extra expenses encored due to frequent training to the employee. MNC should advertise their recruitment openly and allow workforce diversity by taking in employees with different cultural diversities (Thite, Budhwar Wilkiston, 2013). It is a critical practice that should be done carefully to avoid great losses to the organization. Workplace diversity is seen to impact the practice of selection and recruitment of the employees. People of different cultures have to be employed in order to facilitate the blending of ideas in the organization (Thite, Budhwar Wilkiston, 2013). Initially, human resource had to employ internally where there were minimal chances of an external employee to be absorbed. The benefits of workplace diversity have made it possible for the blending of employees. Talent management has also impacted in the selection and recruitment in that those candidates with the qualified skills and who are able to meet the required goals are selected. Talent management offers different qualities required for recruiting a worker (Thite, Budhwar Wilkiston, 2013) Compensation and Reward Systems Human resource management has a responsibility of compensating every worker and rewarding them too for work well done. The top achievers should be rewarded and given incentives to boost their morale (Gupta Shaw, 2014).Workplace diversity and talent management have a moderate effect on the compensation and rewarding policy of the company. Depending on the worker's talents and skills together with the originality and culture of the workers, the compensation policy will be affected. Every country has its own compensation culture, this allows the resource manager to work within the culture available in the host country. Employees with high marketable talents will reflect high compensation from the organization as compared to those with less productive talents. Organisations should also reward their employees and review their compensation more often just to help in retaining the employees in the organization (Gupta Shaw, 2014). Training and Development Every organization has a responsibility of training and developing employees. This is very important in ensuring the company fits in the competitive market. When employees are trained, their skills are improved and thus increasing their productivity levels (Tahir et al., 2014). Companies that invest in training workers will have an advantage as the workers will be updated on the current skills required. Workplace diversity, talent management and retention of employees as trends have impacted on this practice. With employees from diverse groups, the human resource has to offer training in order to ensure the culture and purpose of the organizationare well understood (Tahir et al., 2014).Training and development have also been used as a way of retaining employees within the organization since it makes employees loyal and committed to the organization. The inability of most companies to retain employees has made it possible for the establishment of training and development sessions for the employees. Job Security This is the best motivation that any employee deserves. In todays world, most of the employees are fired and hired at the companys own interest. This makes it difficult for the employees to have job satisfaction. When job security is assured to the employees, there is an increased performance as employees will be motivated (Kooij et al., 2013).Workplace diversity impacts a lot in this practice as it makes human resource managers able to provide job security before winning a great talent into the organization. There will be no or little workplace diversity when there is job insecurity in the organization (Kooij et al., 2013). Talent management and employee retention have also affected this practice. The entire process of talent management involves job security, this is because workers look for a better place where they can be satisfied and when there is job insecurity in a company, it becomes difficult to win skilled workers (Kooij et al., 2013). Human resource should ensure there is job security before hiring and training as this is what will attract talents. Retention of the employee as a challenge has made most of the organization to offer job security, this helps to retain workers who have a potential of being mentors and the top achievers (Kooij et al., 2013). Conclusion Change in business environments has made it possible for the establishment of multinational corporations. Human resource managers of multinational corporations have a greater responsibility which is not limited to administrative purposes of reviewing compensations and rewards. There has been a great change in the role of the human resource especially the international human resource. The change in the role of human resource management has been attributed to trends and challenges associated with the management. These trends and challenges include workplace diversity, retention of employees and talent management. The changing of the roles is made possible in order to accommodate the trends and challenges. Apart from these trends and challenges affecting human resource management roles it also affects their practices. The practices of the human resource have to be adjusted in order to eliminate any negative outcome that can come forth as a result of the trends and challenges. References Barak, M. E. M. (2016). Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage Publications. Bratton, J., Gold, J. (2012). Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave Macmillan. Bryant, P. C., Allen, D. G. (2013). Compensation, benefits and employee turnover: HR strategies for retaining top talent. Compensation Benefits Review, 45(3), 171-175. Canas, K., Sondak, H. (2013). Opportunities and challenges of workplace diversity. Pearson Higher Ed. Chan, A. (2017). The challenges of human resource management. Retrieved from https://work911.com/planningmaster/planningarticles/challengesofhrmgmt.htm. Accessed 5/09/17. Chrobot-Mason, D., Ruderman, M. N., Nishii, L. H. (2013). Leadership in a diverse workplace. In The Oxford handbook of diversity and work. Gupta, N., Shaw, J. D. (2014). Employee compensation: The neglected area of HRM research. Human Resource Management Review, 24(1), 1-4. James, L., Mathew, L. (2012). Employee retention strategies: IT industry. SCMS Journal of Indian Management, 9(3), 79. Kaur, S. (2014). Key challenges and trends faced by human resource managers. International Journal of Management, 5(2), 36-41. Kooij, D. T., Guest, D. E., Clinton, M., Knight, T., Jansen, P. G., Dikkers, J. S. (2013). How the impact of HR practices on employee well?being and performance changes with age. Human Resource Management Journal, 23(1), 18-35. Reiche, B. S., Mendenhall, M. E., Stahl, G. K. (Eds.). (2016). Readings and cases in international human resource management. Taylor Francis. Stahl, G., Bjrkman, I., Farndale, E., Morris, S. S., Paauwe, J., Stiles, P., ... Wright, P. (2012). Six principles of effective global talent management. Sloan Management Review, 53(2), 25-42. Tahir, N., Yousafzai, I. K., Jan, S., Hashim, M. (2014). The Impact of Training and Development on Employees Performance and Productivity A case study of United Bank Limited Peshawar City, KPK, Pakistan. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 4(4), 86. Thite, M., Budhwar, P., Wilkinson, A. (2014). Global HR roles and factors influencing their development: Evidence from emerging Indian IT services multinationals. Human Resource Management, 53(6), 921-946 Vaiman, V., Scullion, H., Collings, D. (2012). Talent management decision making. Management Decision, 50(5), 925-941. Van Knippenberg, D., van Ginkel, W. P., Homan, A. C. (2013). Diversity mindsets and the performance of diverse teams. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 121(2), 183-193.

Tess Of D`Urbervilles Essay Example For Students

Tess Of D`Urbervilles Essay Tess Of D`UrbervillesIf written today, Tess of the durbervilles by Thomas Hardy may have been calledJust Call Me Job or Tess: Victim of Fate. Throughout this often bleak novel, thereader is forced by Tesss circumstance to sympathize with the heroine (for lackof a better term) as life deals her blow after horrifying blow. One of thereasons that the reader is able to do so may be the fatalistic approach Hardyhas taken with the life of the main character. Hardy writes Tess as a victim ofFate. This allows the reader to not blame her for the things that happen aroundher. Much of the critical debate surrounding Tess centers around this verypoint: Is Tess a victim? Are the things that happen to Tess beyond her controlor could she have fought her way out of her circumstances? Better yet, couldHardy have written her out of her troubles or did his fatalistic approach to thenovel force him to ultimately sacrifice poor Tess? Further, Is Hardys approachto the novel and its main character truly fa talistic? In this essay, I willexplore these questions and the doctrine of Fatalism as it applies to Tess. We will write a custom essay on Tess Of D`Urbervilles specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Fatalism is defined in Websters Dictionary as the doctrine that all thingstake place by inevitable necessity (175). Fatalism is the idea that allactions are controlled by Fate, a primitive force that exists independent ofhuman wills and outside of the controls of power of a supreme being such as Godbecause God ultimately has no power; he is a creation of man who granted Him Hispower. Since He doesnt truly possess those powers, he is left without theability to alter circumstances. In short, if one subscribes to this doctrine,you believe that Fate controls how things happen and God can do nothing to saveyou, even Tess. Overall, Tess seems to go through life experiencing one negativeevent after another. Fateful incidents, overheard conversations and undeliveredletters work against her ability to control the path her life takes. Tesssfuture seems locked up from the beginning of the novel. As the story opens, wefirst meet her father and learn of Tesss ancestry: Durbeyfieldare thelineal re presentative of the ancient and knightly family of the dUrbervillesthatrenowned knight who came from Normandyif knighthood were hereditary, like abaronetcy would be Sir John (4). Somehow the reader knows almostimmediately that this knowledge isnt necessarily going to save the poor clan,especially once we learn of the Fate of Tesss ancestors: Where do wedUrbervilles live? asks Sir John to the parson who responds,You dont live anywhere. You are extinct (5). If one believes in theconcept of natural selection, they probably realize rather quickly that thisisnt the best family from which to descend. Tess seems to sense her doomedstate. This is evidenced in her identification with the dUrberville clan. Examples of this are her ability to see or hear the dUrberville Coach and herrealization of her resemblance to the dUrberville woman of the farmhouse atWellbridge: fine features were unquestionably traceable in theseexaggerated forms (277). These eerie events suggest that the fateddUrberville blood undoubtedly flows through her veins. Another example ofTesss awareness of being ill fated is when she meets Alec. Tess laments abouther fate: Had she perceived this meetings import she might have asked whyshe was doomed to be seen and converted that day by the wrong man, and not bysome other man, the right and desired one in all respects (75). She may not haveknown what to call it, but she definitely applies the doctrine of Fatalism toherself which according to author Leonard Doob is a telltale sign of a personwho feels fated: When the principal is judging himself and believes that fate is affecting him, his perception is usuallydirect: he introspects, thinks, or meditates. But he may re spond indirectly whensomeone else, an observer,, gives him information about himselfFatalism by aprincipal, therefore, is a pessimistic inevitability doctrine applied by himabout himself to himself (7). If Tess didnt start life feeling as thoughFate was working against her, there are plenty of incidents which could easilyconvince her: the death of the family horse because of her negligence, theletter of confession that slipped beneath the carpet and caused her to enterinto marriage as a deception, the death of her father, and the return of Angeljust too late. Incident after incident seem to point to only one thing: Tess wasnot meant to have a happy existence. So does Tess believe that God can save her?Throughout the novel, we see Tess moving away from God. She is appalled by theevangelical sign-painter warning of damnation and tells him that his teachingsare horriblecursingkilling refusing to believe that Godsaid such things (97). Later, realizing that God cant help her, Tessprays t o Angel confessing her new religion in a letter: It has been somuch my religion ever since we were married to be faithful to you in everythought and look (127). Even Angel seems aware that God wont save Tess,thinking as he left, But, might some say, where was Tesss guardian angel?Where was the providence of her simple faith? Perhaps, like that other god ofwhom the ironical Tishbite spoke, he was talking, or he was pursuing, or he wasin a journey, or he was sleeping and not to be awaked (93). Othercharacters seem to buy into the idea of Fate as well. At the dairy, Angelchooses Tess over the other dairymaids who love Angel as much as she does, butthe dairymaids cant be mad at Tess because it is Fate which has made thechoice: Are you sure you dont dislike me for it? said Tess in a lowvoiceI dont knowI dont know, murmured Retty Priddle. I want to hate ee;but I cannot! Thats how I feel, echoed Izz and Marian (12). Nowwe turn to the question of whether or not Hardy could have saved Tess o r if hebelieved that Fate had determined his choices. There were chances throughout thenovel for Hardy to give Tess a break and throw her a bone. He chose not to doso. Critic Arnold Kettle see this decision as a necessity: Tesss death isartistically as inevitable as JulietsShe is up against a social situationthat she can do nothing to resolve except tragically, with drastic humanloss (23). It seems that if Hardy was to have been true to his art, he hadno choice but to kill poor Tess. It would be an error in criticism, however, toclaim without a doubt that Fate is the key player in Tesss demise. In fact, Itis actually rather easy to argue the other side of the coin. Hardys fatalism isextremely flawed. When in a pinch, he often relies on coincidence to furtherbeat Tess down: Alec showing up to save Tess after the party; his reappearanceas preacher; the letter slipping under the carpet; Angel slugging a man thatturns up later as Tesss boss. One could argue that this is all a bit toocon venient. Critic Dorothy Van Ghent seems to agree saying, We have allread or heard criticism of Hardy for his excessive reliance upon coincidence inthe management of his narrativeshe appears to be too much the puppeteerworking wires or strings to make events conform to his pessimistic andfatalistic ideas (56). Hardy ultimately plays God in a novel where Godis missing and throws negative circumstances in places where they may not havebeen without his manipulation. But you still have to admit, on the whole, ourpoor Tess still seems quite fated. So is Tess and ultimately Hardy responsiblefor the things that happen to our heroine or is there something larger workingagainst her? Critic Leon Waldoff writes that It seems impossible to readthe novel with a complete disregard of the idea that Tess is somehow responsiblefor her fateThe narration is everywhere buttressed by words such as doomed,destined, and fated. But the critical linking is never made and one remainsuncertain about why Tesss fate is inevitable (135). That moment of doubtand the unresolved question is where the argument of Fatalism in Tess gains itsmomentum. One point that I feel must be made. Some argue, including my fellowclassmates, that it was destiny that bring Alec and Tess together. I would arguethat it is not destiny but Fate. Often used as a synonym for destiny, Fatediffers slightly but significantly from the idea of destiny. Author Leonard Doobexplains in his book, Inevitability, the difference between the concepts:fate is associated with doom, which usually has the same negativeconnotationthere can be no hesitation that the principal with a fataldisease will gave a negative experienceDestiny, on the other hand,frequentlyagain by no means alwayssuggests good fortune and is herewithassigned an association with positive effect (7). I think we can all agreethat Tess suffers from a deficiency of good fortune so it must be Fate, notdestiny, that continues to deal her a losing hand. There will most l ikely neverbe agreement on Tesss and Hardys ability to change the outcome of the novel. .u8daeff3c9c813305e9b27f9fe9421797 , .u8daeff3c9c813305e9b27f9fe9421797 .postImageUrl , .u8daeff3c9c813305e9b27f9fe9421797 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u8daeff3c9c813305e9b27f9fe9421797 , .u8daeff3c9c813305e9b27f9fe9421797:hover , .u8daeff3c9c813305e9b27f9fe9421797:visited , .u8daeff3c9c813305e9b27f9fe9421797:active { border:0!important; } .u8daeff3c9c813305e9b27f9fe9421797 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u8daeff3c9c813305e9b27f9fe9421797 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u8daeff3c9c813305e9b27f9fe9421797:active , .u8daeff3c9c813305e9b27f9fe9421797:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u8daeff3c9c813305e9b27f9fe9421797 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u8daeff3c9c813305e9b27f9fe9421797 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u8daeff3c9c813305e9b27f9fe9421797 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u8daeff3c9c813305e9b27f9fe9421797 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u8daeff3c9c813305e9b27f9fe9421797:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u8daeff3c9c813305e9b27f9fe9421797 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u8daeff3c9c813305e9b27f9fe9421797 .u8daeff3c9c813305e9b27f9fe9421797-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u8daeff3c9c813305e9b27f9fe9421797:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Rosa Parks EssayNot ever really burying his flaws very deeply, Hardy seems to challenge thenotion that the flaws were necessary and lend themselves to the booksreadability. Critic Dorothy Van Ghent supports this idea writing thatHardy has, with great cunning, reinforced the necessity of the folkfatalism, and folk magicTheir philosophy and their skills in livingareindestructible, their attitudes toward events authoritatively urge a similarfatalism upon the reader, impelling him to an imaginative acceptance of thedoomrwrought series of accidents in the foreground of action (57). Itappears that Hardy intentionally left doubt as to Tesss playing into Fate or ifshe is playing a gainst it. But that is why the novel still grabs the reader likea good soap opera. Hardy, through his Fatalistic approach, invokes sympathy andconcern for poor Tess that keeps the reader turning each page in breathlessanticipation for whats next. Debate as we will, it can not be denied that Hardywrote a truly gripping novel. BibliographyDoob, Leonard. Inevitability: Determinism, Fatalism, and Destiny. New York:Greenwood Press, 1988. Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the dUrbervilles. New York:MacMillan, 1991. Kettle, Arnold. Introduction to Tess of the dUrbervilles. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Tess of the dUrbervilles. Ed. AlbertLaValley, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1969. 14-29. Van Ghent,Dorothy. On Tess of the dUrbervilles. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Tessof the dUrbervilles. Ed. Albert LaValley, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:Prentice-Hall, 1969. 48-61. Waldoff, Leon. Psychological Determinism in Tess ofthe dUrbervilles. Critical Approaches to the Fiction of Thomas Hardy. Ed. DaleKramer, London: MacMillan Press, 1979. 135-154.