The ending that Thomas Hardy paints in Tess of the d'Urbervilles in very intriguing. Throughout the novel, Hardy repeatedly shows the dominance of males over females, with the prime example coming from when Alec rapes Tess. Hardy makes it his point to clearly show his audience the roles of men and women during the 19th century in Great Britain, with the former being much more controlling and predominant than the latter. At no point in time or instance does Hardy choose to let a female speak up for herself and take action against the will of another man other than near the end of the novel, when Tess surprisingly murders Alec. Ironically, this is the most heroic part of the novel, an event where Tess stands up against a man and breaks the expected pattern of a woman submitting to a man. Yet Hardy chooses, following his tragic genre, for Tess to get captured while running away and to subsequently be executed as a direct result of her heroic moment. Hardy vividly shows the injustice as to how woman are treated in Great Britain through the tragic character that is Tess. One has to wonder how different Tess's life would be if she were born into a society that gave women just a little more power and voice in society. This harsh critism against the cultural and social values that England has against the roles of the sexes plays an important part in the novel, as Hardy is able to effectively criticize the traditions of his time in order to do his part to advance English society.
-Conrad
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