A "good woman" is to be pure and innocent of any sexual encounters. Purity is best understood in terms of it's opposite meanings; dirty, filthy, guilty. Tess was a woman who was once "pure" but her life has now been destroyed and dissipated because of sexual misdeeds. She suffered from a violation that she did not want to take part of and that was not of her own action and has to live her life as an impure woman. Tess has had to take responsibilities of other people's actions and those actions lead to her downfall in society. Hardy uses Tess's submissiveness to her parents and Alec d'Urberville to show the effects of what impurity can do to a woman's future relationship like that of Angel and Tess d'Urberville. .
Tess d'Urberville's first oppressors, Joan and John d'Uberville had set up her path to impurity. Once John had found out he had royal ties to a wealthy family he and Joan decided to send Tess at once so they can gain a greater family title. The parents did not want what was best for Tess, but what was best for them. Since Tess had killed their horse Prince she felt obliged to do what they had requested and work for the other d'Urberville family. When she arrived at the estate she met a man named Alec d'Urberville who immediately referred to her as a cousin and had acted very strange around her as if he was flirting with her. Tess with all her innocence had not liked this at all and asked her parents to not go back to the d'Urberville house. "It is for you to decide. I killed the horse, and I suppose I ought to do something to get ye a new one, But-but- I don't quite like Mr. d'Urberville being there!" (81). The whole family had mocked her and called her a fool for not wanting to return. Tess decided to claim kin only to earn enough money to purchase a new horse in order to please her family."And to please her parent the girl put herself quite in Joan's hands.