Hardy's heroine is the daughter of John and Joan Durbeyfield of Marlott in Wessex; the eldest of seven children. The subtitle to the novel, "A Pure Woman' emphasises her purity, but critics debate whether a woman who is seduced by one man, marries another one who abandons her and then kills the first, could be considered "pure". At the start of the novel, Tess is of the lower end of the soical class, where women were admired for their chastity and devotion to the household. But purity aside, she is, with rare exception, praised by critics who admire her steadfast hope under adversity. To some, like Donald Davidson in the Southern Review, she is like a figure from a folk ballad "the deserted maider who murders her seducer with a knife," while to others including Irving Howe in Thomas Hardy, she is " a girl who is at once a simple milkmaid and an archetype of feminine strength. Tess is an astute character living in a demoralizing Victorian society that degrades women tremendously. Through Tess's emotions, thoughts, and actions, we are able to see the brutal standards that men hold for women. To Angel she is "a regular churchgoer of simple faith; honest-hearted, exceptionally beautiful."
Tess is a young and virtuous girl that represents the change between the old agarian lifestyle and the new industrial one. She is primary a daughter of nature upon whom urbanity will leave its lasting marks. The narrator himself sometimes describes Tess as more than an individual woman, but as something closer to a mythical incarnation of womanhood. In part, Tess represents the changing role of the agricultural workers in England in the late nineteenth century
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