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Portrayal of women in literature
Portrayal of women in literature
How is gender represented in literature
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Thomas Hardy's novel, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, is driven by the main character's flaws. Like many things in the human race, flaws lead to destruction. Tess's weaknesses draw her into situations unsuitable for a girl her age, and eventually lead to her downfall. The first-and greatest-of Tess's major flaws is her excessive sense of responsibility. The first example of Tess's strong sense of responsibility is her coming home from the May Day dance early because she was worried about the welfare of her family after she witnessed the crazy things her father was saying. Another example was volunteering to drive Prince to the market when she could have asked one of the boys from the town to do the task instead. Later, Tess feels as though it is her responsibility to go to the d'Urberville mansion to claim her birthright because she was the one who had caused Prince's death. Because of her father's addiction to alcohol and her mother's inhibition to properly run a well-functioning household, Tess feels that she must act as the head of the family, and is often the one who keeps the house and family running. Another flaw in Tess's character is her beauty. But Tess's beauty works against her, "It …show more content…
Throughout the course of the novel, Tess's family is able to guilt her into accepting help from Alec, and in turn, Alec is able to conform her to his will. While Angel is pressuring Tess to say yes to his proposal, Tess is unable to bring herself to tell Angel about her past with Alec because she craves acceptance and does not want to ruin the relationship she and Angel have. Tess starts to develop her own character when she goes against her mother's advice and tells Angel about her past, which unfortunately leads to the separation of the couple. When Tess kills Alec, she does not view the murder as a fault, but as a liberation to finally be her own self, free from the judgement and power of
Tess' true strength is her determination to overcome her misfortunes. When the Durbeyfields' horse, Prince died, Tess took control of the situation of the horse's death and the beehive delivery. She takes care of the kids and she had done well in school, even though Tess seems to go nowhere. Also when she leaves her job of taking care of the flock at the d'Urberville household, because of her experience with Alec, it showed she tried to take control of the situation. Even when Alec was following her home on his carriage asking her why she left, 'Her lip lifted slightly, though there was little scorn, as a rule, in her large and impulsive nature.
While both novels show women embodying traditional male roles and characteristics, the chivalric trait of honour in a woman is most prominent in Tess of the D’Urbervilles. While males are dominantly seen as the providers in Western society, Marlow’s aunt secures his position with The Company. Comparably, Tess takes on her inebriated father’s responsibility as a caretaker and provider when she attempts to deliver the wagonload of beehives for
In the entire novel Hardy has highlighted his sympathy for lower class people of England society, particularly for rural women there is a considerable amount of controversy about the life of a women who was being exploited by the society and her purity and chastity is questioned upon throughout the novel. He became famous for his empathetic and often controversial portrayal of a younger women who became the victim by the superior rigidity of English society and his most famous depiction of such a young woman is in the novel. In the nineteenth-century society, there were two types of women: Bad women and good women. Good women were seen as pure and clean until they get married and their bodies were seen as pure as that of a goddess in a temple that could not be used for pleasure. Their role was to have children and take care of the house. Any woman who did not fulfill these expectations was dergraded by the society. While the Victorian society regarded Tess as a woman who has lost her innocence, Hardy seems to be representing her as a pure woman who being a young girl became a
I mean of course we all sorta feel bad for her because she is the most known character in the town to us, the readers. We know Tessie more than any other character so we are all going to feel a little bad that this is happening to her but she does so many things that makes us want to not care that it’s her. Tess’s character really showed evil when she tried to substitute herself for her own daughter and son. A normal good person would not do that. Tess protested the lottery after being choosing and I don’t think she would of done this if she wasn't the one being stoned to
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 ...
The readers to feel sympathy for Tess is to portray Tess as a natural victim. The snare of the victim. We, as readers, have established what a good and natural if. not socially) moral person Tess is, we have seen how her family. manipulates her, how Alec takes advantage of her, how she blames.
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 setting or settings in a novel are often an important element in the work. Many novels use contrasting places such as cities or towns, to represent opposing forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the work. In Thomas Hardy's novel, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, the contrasting settings of Talbothays Dairy and Flintcomb-Ash represent the opposing forces of good and evil in Tess' life.
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.
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.
...e ability to achieve anything in life. Hopefully, readers would learn from this novel that beauty is not the most important aspect in life. Society today emphasizes the beauty of one's outer facade. The external appearance of a person is the first thing that is noticed. People should look for a person's inner beauty and love the person for the beauty inside. Beauty, a powerful aspect of life, can draw attention but at the same time it can hide things that one does not want disclosed. Beauty can be used in a variety of ways to affect one's status in culture, politics, and society. Beauty most certainly should not be used to excuse punishment for bad deeds. Beauty is associated with goodness, but that it is not always the case. This story describes how the external attractiveness of a person can influence people's behavior and can corrupt their inner beauty.
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.