“Anthropocentrism, Ecocentrism and Nature’s Agency: A Study in Tess of the D’Urbervilles”

Abstract : This article re-examines the notion of symbiotic and harmonious relationship between Tess and Nature; the general perception of the readers as well as the critics is that Tess is a suffering daughter of nature , her consciousness coincides with the nature around her and her psychological condition is reflected in the natural backdrop in Tess of the d’Urbervilles . However ,through an eco-critical lens , Nature emerges as the supreme authorial body regarding the life and destiny of the main character as Hardy extricates humans from the narrow compartmentalization of anthropocentricism and envisages them within the wider contours of “ecocentrism”. The novel is zealously consecrated to abrade the fixity of anthropocentric assumptions about the inertness of nature by unveiling the intelligence, consciousness and agency of nature , and empathically trying to knit humans together with mother nature in an alliance of emotional and physical concord. The novel is rested upon unsettling human’s superiority over nature by reinforcing the ecological notion of how humans are intrinsically and inseparably linked to nature. The prestigious status quo of humans as the ultimate authorial power over nonhuman world is questioned by the portrayal of pre-eminent nature, dictating the very consciousness of the female protagonist and her fate. Keywords: Eco-Critical, Anthropocentric, Agency, Ecocentrism