The belief that the order of things is already decided and that people’s lives are determined by some “greater power” is called fate. Many people, called fatalists, believe this and that they have no power in determining their futures. Others, on the contrary, believe that coincidence is the only explanation to the way human lives turn out. In R. Davies’s Fifth Business, the tenor, Percy Boyd Staunton, decided to change his fate to get what he personally desired of life. In T. Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles, fate brings Tess an unwanted destiny which has resulted in bad fortunes. Guilt, fate and death are shared premises in both of the novels.
In Davies’s Fifth Business, Percy Staunton tried to deny his own guilt for what happened to Mary Dempster, he blamed Dunstable Ramsay instead:
“We looked into each other’s eyes and I knew that he was afraid, and I knew also that he would fight, lie, do anything rather than admit what I knew. And I didn’t know what in the world I could do about it.” (Davies, page 20)
In contrast, Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles, depicts Tess Durbeyfield in search of a better destiny for herself and her family. This was, in fact, a result of Tess’s father’s being told that the Durbeyfields are found to be the only living descendant of the historically noble d’Urberville family. Talking to a clergyman Durbeyfield claims:
“I’ve got a wold silver spoon, and a wold graven seal at home, too; but Lord, what’s a spoon and seal?… And to think that I and these noble d’Urbervilles were one flesh all the time. ‘Twas said that my gr’t-granfer had secrets, and didn’t care to talk of where he come from…. And where do we raise our smoke now, parson, if I may make so bold; I mean, where do we d’Urbervilles live?” (Hardy, page 9)
Later, Tess is abused by Alec, the lascivious son of the d’Urberville family. The feeling of guilt for her unwanted pregnancy overtakes Tess. A year spent in grief, Tess finally accepts a job as a milkmaid where she meets Angel Clare; they fall in love and Angel proposes to her several times. Troubled by her conscience, she feels that she must inform Angel about her past. She writes him a note of confession and slips it under his door, but it slides under the carpet and Angel does not get possession of it.
In his novel Davies shows that unlike Dunstan, Boy decided to change his fate, entirely and become an important man of great wealth:
“If the average height of the people of the British Isles is rather greater today than it was in 1939, much of the credit must go to Boy Staunton. He was one of the few men, not a professional scientist, who really knew what a vitamin was and where it could be found and put to work cheaply.” (Davies, page 219)
Boy became the tycoon he was longing all his life to be but could not change his fate entirely. Fate made Mary Dempster back to him in the presence of his all-time best friend and enemy, Dunstable Ramsay and Mrs. Dempster’s son, Magnus Eisengrim at the age of approximately seventy. Magnus Eisengrim was a new name of Paul Dempster.
Fate in Tess of the d’Urbervilles is presented after Angel and Tess are married when they both confess indiscretions: Tess forgives Angel, but Angel cannot forgive her. “O Angel –I am almost glad–because now you can forgive me! I have not made my confession. I have a confession, too–remember, I said so.” (Hardy, page 227) Tess is forced to leave Alex. But now the destiny plays its tricks on her: she meets Alec d’Urberville again. Being converted to Christianity by Angel’s father, he realizes the mistakes he made and begs Tess to marry him but Tess keeps refusing the proposal. At last, Angel decides to forgive his wife. But he finds Tess in an expensive boardinghouse married to Alec. Angel came too late. Still, Tess realizes the bitter irony of her situation and at a slight provocation from Alec she stabs him to death:
“It was very terrible, if true: if a temporary hallucination, sad. But anyhow here was this deserted wife of his, this passionately fond woman, clinging to him without a suspicion that he would be anything to her but a protector. He saw that for him to be otherwise was not, in her mind, within the region of the possible. Tenderness was absolutely dominant in Clare at last. He kissed her endlessly with his white lips, and held her hand, and said, “I will not desert you; I will protect you by every means in my power, dearest love, whatever you may have done or not have done!”” (Hardy, page 387)
Tess and Angel hid out and then travelled farther. Tess’s story ends with her arrest and execution that comes shortly after.
Thus, in the two works under consideration the feeling of guilt serves as a driving force for the characters’ actions. Unable to resist it, they act in ways that cause pain to others. In both works it was in the characters’ hands to change their lives but not everyone made use of this chance. They could not resist the laws of life that Fate itself imposed on them and suffered silently from it without any attempts to make some changes for better.
Works Cited
Davies, R. Fifth business. Penguin Classics Publisher, 1977.
Hardy, T. Tess of the D’urbervilles. Penguin Classics publisher, 2003.
Bailey, J. O. The Poetry of Thomas Hardy: A Handbook and Commentary. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1970.
Grindle, Juliet, and Simon Gatrell, eds. Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Stovel, Nora Foster. “Temples and Tabernacles: Alternative Religions in the Fictional Microcosms of Robertson Davies, Margaret Laurence, and Alice Munro.” International Fiction Review 31.1-2 (2004): 65.