Tess: The High Priestess of Stonehenge

One of the most moving, deeply profound, and tragic novels ever written in English language: 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' by Thomas Hardy.

For me, the Stonehenge scene which precedes poor Tess' capture and execution for her (given the circumstances, understandable) murder of Alec D'Urberville may be interpreted as being somewhat akin to Christ's 'Agony in the Garden' in that Tess gains the strength from somewhere within herself to accept that inevitably, she will be executed for what she has done.  For me, like Christ, Tess is fundamentally innocent and pure.

Love the way Gemma Arterton plays the role of Tess in the 2008 BBC production of the novel.  She is just how my mind's eye has always imagined Tess since first reading this Hardy classic as an 18-year-old with very little real life experience back in the mid-1980s.  For me, Tess' 'Agony  in the Garden'-type experience with husband Angel Clare can be most strongly felt when she asks him if he thinks they'll meet in an afterlife, to which he seems to be able to offer no answer.

But while sleeping on a horizontal stone slab at Stonehenge before her capture, Tess can also be viewed as a high priestess, a higher being from a previous pagan age, who literally towers head and shoulders above any of the other characters in the novel.

Tess' sacrificial execution after her capture at Stonehenge may also not be in vain: there may be some kind of redemptive feature, as after the black flag is raised in the distance below to confirm Tess has been hanged, Angel Clare and Tess' sister Liza-Lu look at each other with deep conviction in their eyes, and the reader/ viewer is left with an impression that Liza-Lu will inherit the happiness that should've been Tess', fulfilling one of Tess' last wishes for her to be married to Angel.  Indeed, it's almost like Liza-Lu has positively remained in the background, waiting for her moment as one of Tess' kin (with the same wonderful genes), to fulfil the pursuit of happiness with Angel Clare that Tess has paid with her life for.

Really do need to go on pilgrimage to Hardy's Wessex (Dorset) to pay homage to this incredibly profound and sentient writer.  For me, only DH Lawrence gives Hardy a run for his money in this respect, and Lawrence, himself, fully admitted that he was indebted to Hardy for gaining and developing an understanding of the male-female polarity (both in the individual psyche and between the sexes) theme that gives human life such profound force and meaning.