Significance of the role of fate in Tess of
DʼUrbervilleʼs and Death of a Salesman [25
Marks]
Significance of the role of fate in Tess of DʼUrbervilleʼs and Death of a Salesman
[25 Marks]
Fate in Tess making the tragedy more pitiful.
The ending of Tess of DʼUrbervilleʼs hinting that her tragedy was controlled by fate and the
numerous hints throughout the novel due to this.
The idea of generational tragedies in both Tess and Death of a Salesman.
The lack of fate in Willy Lomanʼs life – the mundane everyman story being the true
tragedy. The lack of any fate or fortune is just as significant (much like what is left unsaid
being just as significant as what is said). The characters allusions to possible fates –
“Hercules” represent all they have not attained.
In Aristotleʼs Poetics, Aristotle stated that the tragedy must occur due of a combination of the
tragic heroes hamartia interacting with fate and the society around them marking fate as an
important element of tragedy, with the critic A C Bradley even stating that “if we do not feel as
though the tragic hero is a doomed man floating towards his end… we have failed to receive an
essential part of the tragic effect”. In this essay I will therefore discuss the significance of ‘fateʼ
in Tess of DʼUrbervilles and Death of a Salesman.
Hardy described Tess as being a “mere corpse drifting with the wind” moving wherever fate
desires to mobilise her. And it is Hardyʼs use of fate and determinist ideology which allows us to
receive an essential part of the tragic effect. As the novel progresses the reader begins to be
tormented by the shades of different worlds in which Tess could possibly be happy. We explore
the numerous lost opportunities and malign coincidences which result in the tragic effect being
deepened and “pity and fear” (Aristotle) experienced by the end of the novel, evermore
impending. Fate is firstly introduced directly through the mention of Tessʼs mothers fortune
teller book in which Joan attempts to read Tessʼs fortune, followed by the siblings, Abraham and
Tessʼs, conversation about whether they live on a “blighted star” or “splendid” one. This acts as
dramatic irony to the following scene where fate appears to laugh at the DʼUrbervilleʼs by
revealing their dismal luck and how they do indeed appear to live on this ‘blighted starʼ
reflected in Princeʼs brutal and traumatic death. The method in which his “lifeʼs blood”
coagulates and splatters Tess from “face to skirt with crimson drops” seems to laugh at her
unfortunate position while also foreshadowing Tessʼs recasting as a “murderess” by the end of
the novel where she murders Alec. Upon, reread or reflection by the end of the tragedy it
becomes clear that without this simple pastoral tragedy in Princeʼs death the rest of the tragic
events in Tessʼs life would not have occurred. Her family would not have persuaded her to claim
‘kinʼ at the Stoke-DʼUrberville manor, therefore she would have not met the serpent in her
DʼUrbervilleʼs and Death of a Salesman [25
Marks]
Significance of the role of fate in Tess of DʼUrbervilleʼs and Death of a Salesman
[25 Marks]
Fate in Tess making the tragedy more pitiful.
The ending of Tess of DʼUrbervilleʼs hinting that her tragedy was controlled by fate and the
numerous hints throughout the novel due to this.
The idea of generational tragedies in both Tess and Death of a Salesman.
The lack of fate in Willy Lomanʼs life – the mundane everyman story being the true
tragedy. The lack of any fate or fortune is just as significant (much like what is left unsaid
being just as significant as what is said). The characters allusions to possible fates –
“Hercules” represent all they have not attained.
In Aristotleʼs Poetics, Aristotle stated that the tragedy must occur due of a combination of the
tragic heroes hamartia interacting with fate and the society around them marking fate as an
important element of tragedy, with the critic A C Bradley even stating that “if we do not feel as
though the tragic hero is a doomed man floating towards his end… we have failed to receive an
essential part of the tragic effect”. In this essay I will therefore discuss the significance of ‘fateʼ
in Tess of DʼUrbervilles and Death of a Salesman.
Hardy described Tess as being a “mere corpse drifting with the wind” moving wherever fate
desires to mobilise her. And it is Hardyʼs use of fate and determinist ideology which allows us to
receive an essential part of the tragic effect. As the novel progresses the reader begins to be
tormented by the shades of different worlds in which Tess could possibly be happy. We explore
the numerous lost opportunities and malign coincidences which result in the tragic effect being
deepened and “pity and fear” (Aristotle) experienced by the end of the novel, evermore
impending. Fate is firstly introduced directly through the mention of Tessʼs mothers fortune
teller book in which Joan attempts to read Tessʼs fortune, followed by the siblings, Abraham and
Tessʼs, conversation about whether they live on a “blighted star” or “splendid” one. This acts as
dramatic irony to the following scene where fate appears to laugh at the DʼUrbervilleʼs by
revealing their dismal luck and how they do indeed appear to live on this ‘blighted starʼ
reflected in Princeʼs brutal and traumatic death. The method in which his “lifeʼs blood”
coagulates and splatters Tess from “face to skirt with crimson drops” seems to laugh at her
unfortunate position while also foreshadowing Tessʼs recasting as a “murderess” by the end of
the novel where she murders Alec. Upon, reread or reflection by the end of the tragedy it
becomes clear that without this simple pastoral tragedy in Princeʼs death the rest of the tragic
events in Tessʼs life would not have occurred. Her family would not have persuaded her to claim
‘kinʼ at the Stoke-DʼUrberville manor, therefore she would have not met the serpent in her
