Theme Of Women In Tess Of The D Urbervilles

One universal fact that cannot be denied is that men have dominated all the institutions- the State, economy, education, religion, family. It is the judgment of men and their established stereotypes by which women are measured in society. The stereotypes are guided by the portrayal of women as belonging to either the ‘good’ or ‘bad’ category thereby presenting them either chaste or pure virgin or as femme fatale whose sexuality tends to threaten the social order. This notion of segregation of the character of women as belonging to either category has been proposed and approved by social and religious doctrines. The available and advocated interpretation of the religious texts have either denounced the status of women terming them as inferior

They are thought to possess extreme emotional sensitivity, selflessness and a dislike for the sensual aspect of life. A woman who falls prey to the sexual passion is condemned as a harlot or a fallen woman even while similar sexual appetites in a man are assumed natural and acceptable. The ritual of May-Day Dance in Tess of the D’Urbervilles is one in hundreds of examples of cultural formulations that have a propensity to diminish the status of women as human being. Tess is any other girl in the group in May-Day Dance where “some had beautiful eyes, other a beautiful nose, others a beautiful mouth and figures; few, if any, had all” (Tess 34). The voyeuring eyes value her not as a human but as a sensual being who had “a fullness of growth” and “bouncing handsome womanliness” (Tess 65). It is the demand of nature as represented by the girls in the group in May-Day Dance who become self-conscious while the glances become voyeuristic. The anxiety of the innocent girls is quite visible in their attempts to present themselves in the best possible picture. A difficulty of arranging their expressions in this dehumanizing exposure to public scrutiny, an inability to balance their heads and to dissociate self-consciousness from their feathers was apparent in them. It all showed that they were genuine country girls, unaccustomed to many eyes (Tess 34). With his portrayal of the scene,

This is demonstrated in Tess of the D’Urbervilles where he assigns this privilege of formal education to Tess who achieves a few years of formal education up to sixth standard. This definitely places Tess in a superior position to other country girls and even her mother. Arnold Kettle puts forth his opinion that is in line with the educational advantage imparted to Tess: “If she had not, as Hardy reminds us more than once, had a different sort of schooling from her mother, she would not have been what she is” (Kettle 24). The essential difference that education positions is necessary to raise women from a mere dumb recipient of incomprehensible social force to an individual who can utilize resources efficiently. Initially Tess experiences some discomfort of her social place but having no option but to support an idle crumbling family and growing poverty she exhibits her ability to utilize the resources available to