The essay Tess of the d'Urbervilles-At the Center of Hardy's Achievement by Irving Howe, Thomas Hardy is seen as a feminist. This is articulated through the opening paragraph when Howe writes, "Thomas Hardy was endowed with a precious gift: he liked women" (Howe 406). The essay discusses Hardy's fascination with female characters; the power the held and the bias and injustices they faced. After discussing the feminist aspect of Hardy's novel, Howe states, "Only one 'character' is almost as important as Tess, and that is Hardy himself" (Howe 422). Howe states that Hardy is a father figure towards Tess, the only person who has compassion and hope for the character albeit articulating her destruction.

I agree with Howe that Hardy is a feminist through his recognition of the unfairness wrought upon women, and the power that they hold over men and themselves. However, I disagree with the statement that Hardy is a father figure towards Tess, due to her ultimate demise.

On January 9th, 1892, Clementina Black wrote an essay regarding Thomas Hardy's infamous Tess of the D'Urbervilles which was published in The Illustrated London News. Black argued that Hardy's novel is morally earnest and accurately articulates the injustice that women during the time faced. Black writes "Mr Hardy's story, like Diana of the Crossways, is founded on recognition of the ironic truth which we all know in our hearts, and are all forbidden to say aloud, that the richest kind of womanly nature, the most direct, sincere, and passionate, is the most liable to be caught in that sort of pitfall which social convention stamps as an irretrievable disgrace" (Black 383). Just a month after Black's essay was published, William Watson published an essay regarding the character of Angle, in The Academy. Watson argued that rather than Alec being the main antagonist in the narrative that Angel is the villain to do his inconsistencies regarding emotion and human nature. Watson writes "Her seducer, the spurious D'Urberville, is entirely detestable, but it often happens that one's fiercest indignation demands a nobler object than such a sorry animal as that; and there are probably many readers who, after Tess's marriage with Clare, her spontaneous disclosure to him of her soiled though guiltless past, and his consequent alienation and cruelty, will be conscious of a worse anger against this intellectual, virtuous, and unfortunate man than they could spare for the heartless and worthless liberating who had wrecked these two lives" (Watson 386).

I agree with Black's idea that Tess is an accurate portrayal of the isolation and alienation that sexually active or abused women faced during the Victorian Age and many years that followed. Through articulating such Hardy does indeed represent feminism and the wrongness that is wrought upon them. Watson also had a very interesting point concerning Angel. From the very beginning of the novel, the reader dislikes Alec and throughout is seen as creepy and menacing, when Angel's cruelty arises the reader is shocked and disappointed. There is so much hope for Tess when she falls in love with Angel, however his emotional inconsistencies and cruel nature make him more of a villain than Alec who albeit commits heinous actions is sincere and honest.