“Once a victim, always a victim – that’s the law”Is Tess of the d’Urbervilles a victim of fate?

Tess of the d’Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy, is a story of how one peasant girl’s life is turned upside down when she discovers she is the descendant of an old, wealthy family. Throughout the book, a lot of terrible things happen to Tess and at times it seems as though she is not entirely in control of her own life. At one point, she says, “Once a victim, always a victim – that’s the law.” I am going to discuss of what Tess is actually a victim.
One of the things that I feel will strike any reader is how so many life changing things happen to Tess by mere chance. For example, the whole story begins when Tess’ father is “walking homeward from Shaston to the village of Marlott” when he happens to meet the local parson, who tells him of how he is a direct descendant of the d’Urbervilles. This, as it turns out, changes the course of Tess’ life forever, as she is the one who ends up going to visit the wealthy Alec d’Urberville, the “blood red ray in the spectr...