book review

Tess's story ends with the black flag flying over Wintoncester prison, yet her spirit endures in Hardy's literary universe as an eternal moral inquiry. Rereading about the village dance that May evening, the innocent girl in white, then contrasting it with the final tragedy on the moors, we must ask: Whose hands guided purity step by step to destruction? Hardy's answer resounds: Not Alec's desire, not Angel's hypocrisy, but the entire Victorian era's meticulously woven moral net. In this web, Alec represents raw material exploitation, viewing women as property. Angel embodies more subtle spiritual violence, constraining real humanity with idealized love. Tess's tragedy lies in being trapped by the former's physical domination while judged by the latter's spiritual standards. Her final act - "Now you are mine" - and the raised knife represent not merely a woman's revenge, but an alienated soul's desperate rebellion against an oppressive system. Hardy masterfully shows how Tess's "fall" reflects society's corruption, how her "crime" exposes the system's guilt. At Stonehenge at daybreak, as light touches ancient monoliths, Hardy suggests: Human morality, like these stones, appears eternal yet remains deeply arbitrary. Tess, judged "impure" by the world, achieves ultimate purity and peace among these symbols of ancient civilization. Closing the book, the black flag continues to fly in memory. It was lowered not just for Tess, but for an era incapable of accommodating pure beauty. Today, rereading Tess, we still hear Hardy's timeless question: How many invisible "black flags" in our own time judge souls that deserve no judgment, all in morality's name? Tess's tragedy remains eternally relevant. Whenever living humanity is forced into rigid moral frameworks, her story will continue to sound its urgent warning.