Summary Comprehensive study resource: 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles'
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Course
7712B
Institution
AQA
A/A* resource providing an exceptional guide for understanding Hardy's novel, 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' - covering every assessment objective required for A Level English Literature! It offers perceptive, assured, and sophisticated notes. The resource delves deeply into Hardy's authorial methods...
‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’ (1891) Revision by Jenny He
AO5
‘It is on the course of their romantic escape journey that Tess and Angel become truly man
and wife’ (Nagamori)
Tess is disempowered by Hardy’s self-bowdlerising (Rooney); narrator’s jealous inability to
relinquish his sole possession of her causes the censorship of the chapter
Angel adopts the ‘mid-Victorian view of women as creatures of effortless sexual immaculacy’
(Boumetha)
Tess: a more ‘passive victim of male aggression and idealisation than an active participant in
her own disastrous fate’ (Brady); she ‘seduces casual attention’ because she ‘never courts it’
(MacKinnon)
Hardy’s sexual pathology is his ‘undeniably erotic fascination’ with her physical attributes; he
derives ‘sadistic pleasure’ from prolonging her suffering; Hardy is the puppet master of his
male constructs (Brady)
Gregory proposes what seems impossible and a paradox in that the event in CH11 is ‘both a
seduction and a rape’ suggesting how nuanced the scene is - Alec’s guilt is beyond question
and yet Gregory suggests that Tess is also seduced; a feminist would argue that the
distinction between rape and seduction lies in the meaning of the act from the woman’s point
of view
The fact that Tess concedes to Alec refutes Shilling’s statement that Tess has a ‘clear sense
of herself and the strength to remain true to it. However, it is accurate to say that Alec+Angel
are the ‘instrument of her tragedy’
The landscape deepens and intensifies what Tess is experiencing (Alvarez)
Feminists would argue that the patriarchal society means that Tess as a beautiful young girl
is bound to be exploited
Modern perspective that Tess could have made different choices: her rape may have been
unavoidable but her actions afterwards were her own decisions
, 2
Red, ‘the colour of blood’, is ‘associated with Tess from first to last’ (Tanner) e.g. ‘red ribbon’;
‘scarlet blot..had the appearance of a gigantic ace of hearts’, ‘deep red mouth’
AO4
-Throughout Literature of Love, women are typically shown to be oppressed and at the
mercy of men. For example, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ shows the suffering of a female
character bound by the attitudes and limitations of a patriarchal society
-Both Tess and Charlotte Bronte’s eponymous heroine, Jane Eyre, undergo a period of
suffering
-‘I will obey you, like your wretched slave’ CH35 Both Nora in Henrik Ibsen’s play, ‘A Doll’s
House’, and Tess assume a kind of servitude towards their husbands
-Whilst Tess is executed for killing Alec, Hetty in Geroge Eliot’s ‘Adam Bede’ is convicted of
child murder and is sentenced to hang. Both of their crimes are unexpected and ‘unnatural’
and the ‘black cap’ is like the ‘black flag’ in ‘Tess’ that raises to signal her death. In addition,
Whilst Tess seemingly remains calm and peacefully happy or satisfied in Stonehenge before
her execution, Hetty is more fearful and understandably, dramatic: ‘trembling’, wide-open
eyes’, ‘shriek’ and ‘fainting fit’. Furthermore, unlike Eliot, Hardy does not describe Tess’s trial
and death, perhaps to emphasise the idea of self-sacrifice and highlight the inevitability of
her tragic death. This is a strength as it heightens the pathos and adds to the slow-paced
nature of the Stonehenge setting but it can also be argued that it is a weakness as Tess’s
emotions are quite ambiguous and perhaps unrealistic.
(Gothic) Walpole’s ‘The Castle of Otranto’ - noblewomen’s bodies were often pawns used by
their families to forge alliances and gain property and power
Bronte’s ‘The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall’ advocates marriage based on coherent values and
worldview; female subjugation in marriages; loss of love for Arthur; lust defies logic;
deterioration of Helen’s marriage
(Gothic) James’ ‘The Turn of the Screw’ - governess’ unrequited loved + repressed desires &
‘The Romance of Certain Old Clothes’ - repression of passion
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