Suffering Tess is a good and pure-hearted girl But from the beginning her life is full of troubles She never gets the happiness she deserves Cruel fate always works against her Tess s parents send her to the nearby d'Urberville family to seek help But this only leads her to Alec Alec rapes her and ruins her life Later at Talbothays Dairy Tess finds love in Angel Clare But even this ends in sadness On their wedding night she tells him the truth about her tragic past But Angel cannot forgive her He thinks Tess is not a pure woman anymore He thinks Tess is not the same woman he married You were one person now you are another Though Tess is only a victim of rape Angel leaves her This shows how even good things in Tess s life turn into pain Even at the end Tess kills Alec and is hanged This long line of tragedies makes many readers feel that Hardy is a pessimist Hardy seems to believe that fate is always cruel and life ends in sadness As he writes about Tess Had she ever intended to do wrong yet these hard judgments had come Hardy as a Realist Hardy Shows the Truth of Life However we must also see that Hardy does not create sad stories just to make people cry He writes about real problems in society In Tess s story we see how women are judged unfairly Tess is blamed for Alec s crime Society does not see her as a victim They blame her for giving birth out of marriage Even Angel treats her unfairly He thinks Tess is not a pure woman anymore He says O Tess forgiveness does not apply to the case Even though Angel himself had an affair and slept with a lady before his marriage society does not blame him Here Hardy has portrayed the real picture of society where women always suffer Hardy also realistically portrays the hard life of the poor Tess s family becomes homeless when her father dies She must work in fields to earn food When she goes to Flintcomb-Ash she works in bitter cold These are the real sufferings of poor people in Victorian England Tess sadly says Once victim always victim--that's the law So Hardy is not just being sad he is being honest about the world The Role of Fate and Chance Hardy also uses chance and fate to shape Tess s life Many small events lead to big tragedies For example the letter Tess writes to Angel slips under the carpet If Angel had read it things could have been different Hardy seems to believe that fate is blind and cruel No matter how good Tess is she cannot escape her tragic end This belief makes him a pessimist But Tess s fate also shows how little control people have over their lives especially women and the poor So is Hardy a pessimist or a realist The truth is he is both In conclusion Thomas Hardy is a realist because he shows the true pain of life He shows the unfairness of society and the hard life of poor people But he is also a pessimist Because he believes that fate chance and society will always win against good people like Tess nbsp