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Women's role in society during the Victorian period
Analysis of tests of the d'urbevilles
The role of women in the Victorian period
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Tess of the D’Urbervilles is set in the late 19th century England, in an area called Wessex. Tess and her family live in a village named Marlott. Tess Durbeyfield, the protagonist, is an innocent girl who suffers throughout the novel and never seems to find lasting happiness. The first phase of the book is called The Maiden. The novel begins with her father, Jack Durbeyfield, discovering that he is descended from the ancient family, the D’Urbervilles, and he goes off to celebrate at a nearby pub. Tess, contrastingly, is participating in the May Dance, a dance by walking-club females to celebrate the hundreds of years of walking. The walking club is like a sisterhood of sorts. Tess is introduced to the readers as a pure girl with a “mobile peony mouth and large innocent eyes”. She is depicted as child-like in beauty with her “twelfth year in her cheeks or her ninth year sparkling from her eyes and even her fifth year would flit over the curves of her mouth now and then”. To further exaggerate their innocence, all the girls participating in the May Dance are wearing white frocks and carrying white flowers. White is the color of purity and it emphasizes the theme of innocence. Among the spectators of the dance are three boys, one of whom dances with some of the girls and as he’s leaving, catches the eye of Tess. This boy, we later come to discover, is Angel Clare.
When Tess returns home, her mother runs to gather her father from the pub. Tess is left to manage the household with her younger siblings and as the night grows darker, and her parents still have not returned, she goes to retrieve them. Her father has a delivery in the morning and it cannot be late. Seeing as her father is drunk and nowhere near sober, she volunteers to go...
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...urity. Her hardships impact her but not always negatively. She becomes stronger as she deals with them. Thomas Hardy makes it really easy to sympathize with her, to see her point of view, to see the injustices she suffers, and I applaud him for that because he was writing in a society that was too conservative to see this radical view. I feel like I fell in love with Angel Clare just as Tess did and I felt betrayed when he did not forgive her for a rape that wasn’t her fault, especially since he had voluntary slept with another woman. It is understandable though, seeing as Angel plays the part of how someone in their situation would react to such news. The reconciliation at the end however, really demonstrates how Thomas Hardy felt about how the sexual morality double standard should not exist. If Angel could get past Tess’s past, then a society could be more open.
Tessie Hutchinson, or Bill’s wife played a major role in this story. There are many signs of Duality of Human Nature in Tessie. Once Tessie arrived, realizing that she was late, she started to casually talk with Mrs.Delacroix, “Clean forgot what day it was,” she said to Mrs.Delacroix, who stood next to her and they both laughed softly.”. Everyone appeared to be in a good mood, “The people separated good-humoredly to let her through,”. Even her husband was joking around with her, “Thought we were going to have to get on without you, Tessie,” and, “and a soft laughter ran through the crowd as the people stirred back into position after Mrs. Hutchinson's
Tess is no stranger to casual wrong. Throughout her life indifferent nature has occurred. Her parents were not the greatest of parents. She had a tough life, she was poor. When she met Alec d'Urberville, she was considerate and kind, but later on Alec took advantage of her and seduced her in a forest called the Chase, "He knelt and bent lower, till her breath warmed his face, and in a moment his cheek was in contact with hers.
Prince’s death, the rape and her arrest all happen to her whilst asleep. 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
Angel's description of Tess as Demeter, the goddess of chastity, and as Artemis, goddess of the hunt, seems quite fitting for Tess. Tess Durbeyfield is, as Hardy's subtitle indicates, a pure woman and as the men in the novel demonstrate by their actions, a hunted animal.
Hardy incorporated a traditional piece of rural life into his novels using folk songs and church music. He presented folk music in Tess of the d'Urbervilles as a symbolic link between Tess's past and her present circumstances. Tess is reminded of a lullaby sung to her as a child as she is trying on her wedding gown. At that point she realizes the significance of the familiar tune with the current events in her life. In Under the Greenwood Tree, Hardy relied on traditional church hymns to develop the Christmas caroling scene with the Mellstock Church Choir. The tradition of caroling in these rural societies exemplifies the role of church music in the lives of the rustic people.
In the beginning, her father passes away, and she tells the people of the town he is still alive. A few days after his death she finally allows the coroner to come in and take the body away and have a proper funeral. After her father’s death she stays in the house alone for years. The
Feeling Sympathy for Tess in Tess of the D'Urbervilles I think that throughout the novel Thomas Hardy uses many different techniques that lead his readers to feel sympathy for Tess. Through reading Hardy's 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' I have realised that it is. invaluable that the readers of any novel sympathise with and feel compassion for the main character. In writing 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' Thomas Hardy is very successful in grabbing the win.
This showcases the depth of Tess’ love, highlighting how it is both greater and more sincere than Angel’s. Tess overly idealises Angel, in her mind he can do no wrong, she describes how, ‘he inspired her with no sort of personal fear: if he had entered with a pistol in his hand he would scarcely have disturbed her trust in his protectiveness’. In ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’, Blanche creates an illusion due to her longing for the ideal love, which leads her to
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
A significant portion of the novel taks place at Talbothays Dairy, which represents the force of good in Tess' life. At Talbothays, the air is "clear, bracing, and ethereal"; the river flows like the " pure River of Life" and the air "set up [Tess'] spirits wonderfully." The author describes the valley as a kind of paradise, with clean, fresh air and a flowing river. Upon entering the region, Tess reaches an emotional high encouraged by the beautiful atmosphere. At Talbothays, the milkers form "a little battalion of men and women," often "singing songs to entice the cows...
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
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.
Tess’s first encounter of bad luck is when she kills the family horse, Prince. Tess is with her brother Abraham in their wagon whilst discussing about the stars and how they are worlds just like Earth. Tess continues with saying that, “Most of them splendid and sound-a few bligh... ... middle of paper ... ...
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.