History YMMV / TessOfTheDUrbervilles

* DracoInLeatherPants: Alec in the 2008 BBC version. He's way more sympathetic than in the book or the other films, complete with a clear FreudianExcuse (and lacking a creepy moustache, too). Hans Matheson's EvilIsSexy portrayal doesn't help either.

* ValuesResonance: But despite the aforementioned ValuesDissonance, the premise of the novel is still fairly relevant to the modern day as victims of rape are still sometimes persecuted due to UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming and SlutShaming.

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: It becomes pretty clear that Tess is hopeless early on. Hence some readers stop caring early on.

* TheWoobie: Tess. To list, she's 1) raped, 2) gets rejected by her husband because he thinks of her as being DefiledForever (nevermind that he's had one consensual sexual partner and wasn't a virgin anymore), and 3), to survive, she's her rapist's mistress. You can't help but to feel sorry for her after all that.

* CompleteMonster: [[NouveauRiche Alec d'Uberville]] is a sexual predator who constantly lusts after Tess from the moment he meets her. Alec makes multiple attempts to force himself onto Tess and eventually [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rapes her]]. Becoming a [[HidingBehindReligion preacher]] years later, Alec abandons his duties upon meeting Tess again, showing no remorse for raping her. When Tess suffers through massive hardships, Alec [[ManipulativeBastard emotionally manipulates the poor girl]] into becoming his mistress.

* {{Narm}}: Modern readers often find the DeusAngstMachina plotline just a little bit too much to handle seriously.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Some scholars argue that Tess ''acquiesced'' to Alec, rather than being raped by him, in what is arguably a NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization on the part of those scholars. Note that this is not the most commonly accepted reading of the text by any means. Then there's the argument that if Alec didn't outright use violence to force Tess to have sex with him, Alec taking a naive and frightened teenage girl off into the woods and pressuring her to have sex with him still comes off as rape. He also forces alcohol on her shortly before and approaches her while she's sleeping, which casts further doubt on her ability to consent.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Some scholars argue that Tess ''acquiesced'' to Alec, rather than being raped by him, in what is arguably a NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization on the part of those scholars. Note that this is not the most commonly accepted reading of the text by any means.

** Rape is not the victim's fault and they shouldn't be blamed for it.

** Angel, he suffers a severe fever in Brazil.

* ValuesDissonance: Even if the work is FairForItsDay, it sticks in the teeth of many readers.

* OohMeAccentsSlipping: German-born Creator/NastassjaKinski is not, shall we say, unwaveringly convincing as a naive peasant girl from southwest Britain.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: Rape is not the victim's fault and they shouldn't be blamed for it.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: It becomes pretty clear that Tess is hopeless early on. Hence some readers stop caring early on.

* TheWoobie: Tess.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Some scholars argue that Tess ''acquiesced'' to Alec, rather than being raped by him, in what is arguably a NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization on the part of those scholars. Of course YMMV, but this is not the most commonly accepted reading of the text by any means.
* {{Anvilicious}}: Hardy uses every single piece of symbolism he can to associate Tess with purity, and the omniscient narrator also interjects fairly frequently to reinforce the point. Justified in that it would have taken a lot to convince conservative Victorian readers that a woman who was raped was innocent, although to modern readers who (in most cases) are more likely to be sympathetic towards Tess anyway it can feel like overkill.
** Pretty much everything connected to religion in the novel is Hardy railing against religious dogmatism.

* ItsAllAboutMe: Particurly at Tess's confession, Angel spends time feeling sorry for himself for accidentally choosing [[DefiledForever an impure woman]] as his wife rather than actually giving Tess the comfort she deserves.

* JerkassWoobie: Angel, he suffers a severe fever in Brazil.
** The Alec of the 2008 version seems to have shades of this, since he appears to have a cold relationship with his mother.