Because of its wide range of justifiable interpretations, Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" is an appropriate novel to use to help students become better critical readers. Scholarly criticism continues to debate the topic of Tess's character, yet recent feminist and deconstructionist approaches, as well as recently published social histories and textual studies, give readers a different perspective on the subject. Teachers might explore these perspectives by giving a sequence of writing assignments that require students to confront the complexities of the text. To help students see how Hardy guides readers' perceptions of characters and events and how these interpretations develop as the story unfolds, instructors might invite students to analyze a motif--foreshadowing, patterns of color, or images of light and darkness--through the course of the entire novel. Students can be given the opportunity to wrestle with the ambiguities of the book by writing a series of papers discussing conflicting views of the reasons for Tess's suffering. Whatever topics are assigned, students will have to return to the text repeatedly to locate ample primary support for their readings. In the process they will become more independent and confident readers, taking more pleasure in the richness of the literature they read. (A 48-item reference list is appended.) (MM)