Pygmalion and Tess of D’urberville Essay

Jumping the Social Ladder

            The Victorian society exhibits a bipolar personality with the face of a beggar on one side and the face of an aristocrat on the other. In light of this, both Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles and George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion fuse this aspect of Victorian life into their female protagonists: Tess and Eliza respectively. Not only do Tess and Eliza represent a social class, but they reveal the inability to elevate their public status in society. In Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Pygmalion, society grounds the two female characters based on their conduct towards others and to themselves reflecting their social class.          

Based on Hardy’s portrayal of Tess, it appears that Tess’s upbringing in a peasant family forever remains in her blood. Having been raised by a father who is uneducated and cherishes all that he has, Tess “resembled him in being content with immediate and small achievements” (Hardy 130). She manifests the typical lower class mindset of being grateful for all that she receives and does not feel the need to acquire materials in order to feel satisfied. One of these “small achievements” that Tess enjoys is her job as a dairymaid. Being raised in a family with a limited income, Tess feels valuable that she can help her family by sending them money. Furthermore, her natural pragmatism fuels her instinct to find a job. The values of the working class engulf Tess’s life immobilizing her from being no better than what she is now: a young, attractive, peasant woman.

            Although Tess symbolizes the lower part of the social ladder, the attention she receives from wealthy gentlemen does not cause her to lose her identity as a working class woman. While Tess experiences the finer lifestyles with Alec and Angel, she remains rooted in her plebeian life. At one point at the town market, Alec spots Tess and offers her a ride on his horse, but she “preferred to walk home with the work-folk” (81). Even though she has the luxury of Alec’s attention and his higher class materials, Tess does not impulsively alter her personality to assimilate with Alec. She never lets go the fact that she is a working class woman; she refuses to take shortcuts in life. Moreover, when she marries Angel, Tess believes that “‘[she] was not respectable… and on that account [she] didn’t want to marry [him]’” (286). Tess is so used to working for people that she does not feel her status as a maid is suitable for such a well-off man as Angel. More importantly, she deems that no one of her status is capable to rise into the higher ranks of life by just marrying a gentlemen; she will always perceive herself to be unaccepted by the wealthy in society. To her they would view her as unqualified to bare the aristocratic responsibilities of being educated and mannerly. Ultimately, Tess cannot uproot herself from her upbringing; she can try her best though to acclimatize to the top tier of her community.