Nature

• What societal transition is depicted in 'Tess of the D’Urbervilles'?

  The shift from an agricultural to an industrial culture.
• How does Hardy portray the tension between nature and modernity in the novel?

  Through the contrast between rural life and industrialization.
• How does Hardy depict the relationship between nature and industrialization in the novel?

  Through the representation of rural towns as symbols of nature and machines as symbols of modernity.
• What does Tess represent in contrast to the modernizing forces of industrialization?

  Purity, fertility, and the unfallen Eve.
• What is the significance of the farming machines in the novel?

  They are described with ominous imagery that contrasts with the Eden-like Froom Valley.
• Hardy's portrayal of nature


  Themes of Fatalism, reflecting rural life struggles, emphasizing characters' insignificance
• Rural settings in Tess


  The heath, representing isolation and desolation