Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Throughout the novel, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Hardy focuses on the life of Tess Durbeyfield. Starting out as a young, innocent girl, Tess matures throughout the book to become a powerful woman who was capable of thinking for herself. Furthermore, she was also intelligent enough to realize her importance as an individual.
At the beginning of the novel, Tess was portrayed as a young girl with too much responsibility for her age. She was sent out into the world at a very young age, and was unable to see the danger in life around her. Tess was the one who had to fetch her parents from the inn because they stayed out too late. In addition to that, she was forced to do her father's work because he was too drunk to realize what the current situation was. Neither parent cared much about Tess: her mother was always thinking about getting Tess married, and her father was thinking of ways to restore their social order. Due to the negligence from her parents, Alec was able to take advantage of her physically and mentally. By giving Tess's father a horse, Alec was able to exert mental control over Tess in such a way that Tess was obliged to obey.
Yet, Tess was able to overcome her affair with Alec because she possessed a keen sense of justice and morality. She realized that she had sinned, but also came to the conclusion that she should not be punished eternally for one mistake. This realization also reflects upon Tess's maturation mentally. Moreover, because her affair with Alec also resulted in a child, she was forced to mature much more quickly than she would have liked. Tess also had the habit of blaming herself for everything that would not go as planned. The whispering that Tess endures during her visit to Church after her affair with Alec only serves to strengthen her feelings that she was constantly at fault.
Tess's maturation also continued during the period when Angel deserted Tess. Throughout this time, she refused to let anybody criticize Angel. Tess also hides the truth about their separation from either set of parents, for the fear that she will have to endure further criticism. Her simplicity of faith in him is such that, "even the most perfect man could have hardly deserved it." Tess's love for Angel is permanent.
She was sleeping soundly, and upon her eyelashes there lingered tears." 1 She then later fell in love with Angel, and married him. Angel found out about Tess' past experience with Alec, and he could not forgive her, even though it was all Alec's doing. Thus it is clear that casual wrong follows her and yet the wrong is not made by her.
The community and her unsupportive parents’ cold treatment towards Tess following these events emphasize the hegemonic male perspective of society towards women. Furthermore, Hardy shows how women are seen by society through the male gaze as sexual objects, as Tess is blamed for Alec’s lack of self-control. He attempts to justify his cruel actions as he calls Tess a “temptress” and the “dear damned witch of Babylon” (Hardy 316), yet he later says that he has “come to tempt [her]” (340). Tess is also objectified by Alec when he says that if Tess is “any man’s wife [she] is [his]” (325). The narrator’s repeated sexualized descriptions of Tess, such as her “pouted-up deep red mouth” (39), further demonstrate how women are commonly seen through the male gaze in society.
Hound Of The Baskervilles & nbsp; & nbsp; Setting - About 1884-85, most of the story takes place at Baskerville. Hall in Devonshire, England. The introduction and the conclusion of this classic mystery occurs in Sherlock. Holmes' residence on Baker Street in London. Plot- We begin our story on Baker Street where Holmes and Watson talk to James.
All through the plot of the story, we never sense that something bad is going to happen until the events actually start to accumulate towards the final scene of Tessie’s ultimate death. A sense of foreboding starts to settle in the
By stoning Tessie, the villagers treat her as a scapegoat onto which they can project and repress their own temptations to rebel. The only person who shows their rebellious attitude is Tessie. She does not appear to ...
herself for Alec's wrongdoing, and how she is willing to kill herself. to save Angel's dignity. All this evidence leads us to the conclusion. that Tess is a natural victim, trodden by society every day. seemed more was expected of Tess and every day seemed to throw upon her young shoulders more and more of the world's burdens' (Chapter VI).
Laila and Rasheed marry, and tension arises between the women. Rasheed makes Laila his priority and makes fun of Mariam in order to impress Laila. Throughout Mariam’s and Rasheed’s whole relationship, Rasheed has jurisdiction over her and yet she keeps putting his needs above her own and does whatever to make him happy, i.e. letting him marry Laila and make fun of her. This cowardly flaw of Mariam’s is a huge weakness because it allows Rasheed to do whatever he wants to Mariam because he knows that she will not do anything to stop him or fight back in any way. This human condition gives Mariam a fearful attitude and doesn’t allow her to succeed in life, because she’s always scared. And in Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Alec has a huge jurisdiction over Tess by raping her and Tess still having their child together and continuing to get back together with him. Tess allows Alec and Angel to push her around, making her more and more insecure and weak but by the end of the book events and tragedies finally lead Tess to a new inner
The narrator also compares Tess to a “fly on a billiard-table of indefinite length, and of no more consequence to the surroundings than that fly.” By comparing Tess to a fly he is saying that her life, is small and unchanged by her environment, as she is working on a huge farm and is of no real importance, much like a fly. The narrator also states right after that quote that she is much like a heron, with no real importance to the valley. She and her environment are not affected by one another. The only way Tess has changed is her spirit has become more dull. The narrator describes that “Tess followed slowly in the rear.” Tess has changed to follow the pragmatic but lethargic routines of the dairy farm life, and is doing the daily motions to get through the
...cept her. ?Unadvisable? gives the impression that Angel does not really care one way or another. All of this is unfair to Tess, as Alec?s decision to rape her was not her fault in any way. Also, Angel?s sexual history is more promiscuous than Tess?s, and yet he sees only her flaws. Hardy uses specific word choices and diction to thoroughly inform the reader of the injustice of Tess?s circumstances.
Tess is a single mother due to the death of her late husband who still manages to keep her work life intact with her personal life. Although she is getting remarried, she was still the only one to look after her children. As a single parent, Tess learns to handle situations calmly especially when Anna and her brother bicker about minor issues. Freaky Friday portrays Tess breaking the stigma around single mothers as she is independent as well as financially and emotionally stable. However, since Tess had to provide for her family alone, she was unable to spend enough time with her children which made Anna feel as if Tess did not care for her. This lead to a lot of misunderstandings between Tess and Anna, which eventually allowed them to confront their
Tess, the protagonist and heroine of Hardy's novel, becomes a victim of rape and in turn, her life grows to become degraded, humiliating and depressing; of which none of these things she deserves. Although initially striving to be heroic and providing for her family, (after she was responsible for the death of Prince) the position she takes on at the d'Urbervilles' ultimately leads to her death as she is raped and then pursued by her seducer Alec d'Urberville until she must murder him. This courageous yet dangerous decision to murder Alec epitomises her character as a heroine as she is brave enough to perform such a malicious act in order to kill her suffering at the root rather than being passive and perhaps choosing to take her own life instead.
She stood there like everyone else and accepted what was coming to everyone until her husband picked up the slip of paper that had the black box. Tessie’s actions instantly changed, she started to become more frustrated and protective. She had stated that “You didn’t give him time enough to take any paper he wanted.” This statement shows the change of tone Tessie had from the beginning of the story to the end. In the end, Tessie was the one that was prosecuted and even if she had done nothing wrong, she was still murdered.
However her constant bad luck caused her to make bad judgements which then caused us the readers to believe it is fate. To conclude Tess’s innocent and beauty proved to do her no good and she was also unaware of her sexuality. Her lack of common knowledge and wanting from her also made her susceptible to other men.
Tess' two "choices" as her husband, Alec d'Urberville and Angel Clare, hold many of the patriarchal stereotypes of the Victorian Age, chasing Tess as more of a metaphorical piece of meat than a passionate lover. As their secrets are revealed on their wedding night, it becomes harder and harder for Angel to love Tess, seeing her as "another woman in your shape" (Hardy 192). The author, at this point in the relationship between Tess and Angel, perfectly exemplifies the values and culture of the Victorian age. Though both Angel and Tess are guilty of the same misbehaviors in their pasts, Angel believes that "forgiveness does not apply to [Tess'] case" (Hardy 191). Under the reign of Queen Victoria, the role of men in sexual relations was strictly reproductive, and the sex act was considered a release of helpless energies, basically holding no sins of love or conjugal travesties. For women, however, it was a softer, more passionate act, meaning more of the love than the fertilization, and emotionally pulling the sex partner too close to just scoff the happening off and move on with life (Lee 1). Such conflicting views in the perspective of sexual intercourse make it nearly impossible for Angel to "forgive [Tess] as you are forgiven! I forgive you, Angel" (Hardy 191). Jeremy Ross also believes that Hardy "abandoned his devout faith in God, based on the scientific advances of his contemporaries" (Ross, Jeremy 1).
Hardy’s novels are ultimately permeated upon his own examination of the contemporary world surrounding him, Tess’s life battles are ultimately foreshadowed by the condemnation of her working class background, which is uniquely explored throughout the text. The class struggles of her time are explored throughout her life in Marlott and the preconception of middle class ideals are challenged throughout Hardy’s exploration of the rural class. Tess of the D’Urbervilles revolves around Hardy’s views of Victorian social taboos and continues to be a greatly influential piece from a novelist who did not conform to the Victorian bourgeois standards of literature.