Is Tess a pure woman? If yes, how? If not, why not?

Clearly, Hardy believes that Tess is a pure woman.  He says so
in the subtitle to the work and he often refers to her as pure or innocent.  So the author
clearly sees Tess's purity.

Scholars argue over whether Tess truly
is pure.  Those who think she is not pure point to the fact that she sleeps with more than one
man in the book, not always while married.  In addition, she kills a man.  Both of these are,
arguably, signs of someone who is not pure.

On the other hand, some
scholars point to the idea that she does not act out of any motives that are impure.  Her worst
actions come when she lets Alec have her body and when she kills him.  But in both cases, she is
only doing it because of her desperate situation.

So an argument can
be made both ways and you should decide which argument is more compelling to
you.