how "the voice" by Thomas Hardy links to the character of Tess

How ‘the voice’ by Thomas Hardy links to the character of Tess

The poem ‘the voice’ was written for Hardy’s first wife, Emma, who died in her room whilst hardy was outside in the garden after they separated more and more along separate paths. It was only after her death that he realised how much she meant to him and began to write poems about his loss after he received too much hate for how scandalous and pessimistic his novels were. 

Hardy appears to embody her within the character of Tess as seen through the similarity of the Tess to the woman in the poem - Emma. Firstly, he only refers to her as ‘woman’ in the poem, similarly to how Alec rarely refers to Tess by her real name, preferring to give her nicknames such as “My big beauty” to make her his possession. The lack of their real names also links to the victorian society, showing how since men are the dominant sex, they do not need to refer to women by their real names.

This is also seen in the way that he orders her in the same way that Alec leads Tess around his land to show off his wealth. This is seen through his statement ‘let me view you then’, showing how the two women have to do what the two men say and obey them without knowing what they are doing. This is again showing how the men are the ones with the control, and so the women have to do what they say.