"Character is fate", said the great German Romantic Novalis. How far is Tess' character responsible for her tragedy, and how far are other factors responsible for this undoing? * *                  * Is there a meaning to our existence, a grand master overseeing our lives atop the stellar landscape, gazing down on each and everyone of us and orchestrating every event of this world together in a beautiful harmony of dissonance? Some of mankind's older guard would agree on …showed first 75 words of 2342 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2342 total…man, in trying to improve life around him, only manages to partake in its decline, without being able to change the most fundamental reality of this world: if you are not focused and you play with fire, you will get burned. Works Cited Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Broadview Press, Maier Edition, 1998 Millgate, Michael. Thomas Hardy: A Biography. Random House, 1982. http://www.crescentmoon.org.uk/cresmothomashardy http://www.litnotes.co.uk/irony__satire.htm