Compare the ways in which the writers of your two chosen texts
present the experience of happiness. You must relate your
discussion to relevant contextual factors.
Happiness for the protagonists of these two novels are of different types.
In ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’ (‘Tess’ from here on), Tess attempts to find
happiness away from the domineering patriarchy of the Victorian era,
whereas Clarissa’s search for happiness in ‘Mrs Dalloway’, a circadian
novel, is located primarily within her relationships and longing for inner
contentment. Both novels track the character’s searches for happiness in
circumstances that don’t easily lend themselves to experiences of
happiness.
In both novels, societal conventions act as a barrier to the protagonists’
pursuit for happiness. Tess’s agency is restricted by the patriarchy and
social order of the Victorian era in which the novel is set. Her dependency
on the men in her life for the socio-economic stability they provide
restricts her ability to escape their control. Her parents’ failure to provide
(primarily father’s as men were the primary breadwinner at the time) for
her and her siblings (“the shiftless house of Durbeyfield”) forces Tess to
go “claim kin” from relations in Trantridge, where she meets Alec who
becomes “the blood red ray in the spectrum of her young life”. However,
the first tragedy occurs before that: the killing of Prince, the family horse.
This event acts as prolepsis for the ending of the novel, as it begins the
colour symbolism around the colour red. Throughout the novel, Tess is
depicted in white (“the white frock that Tess had worn”) to indicate her
innocence and purity of being; the use of the colour red is used to
symbolise the various tragedies that befall her. Though Tess can be
blamed for nothing more than negligence in the death of Prince, she feels
immense guilt and “regard(s) herself in the light of a murderess”. The
symbolism of the “crimson drops” that “splashed (her) from face to skirt”
is indicative of the guilt she feels, and foreshadows her killing of Alec. Her
initial meeting with Alec is due to her father’s attempt to secure the
financial status of their family, and she is once again forced to
compromise her happiness for her family’s when Alec offers to house
, them after her father’s death (“Now why not come to my garden-house
at Trantridge?”), due to the pressure she feels to provide for her family.
The socio-economic deprivation that Tess was born into and lives in
significantly hinders her ability to actively pursue her happiness.
Despite Clarissa’s economically privileged position in society, she too is
entrapped by its expectations. ‘Mrs Dalloway’ is set in the early 1920s,
after WW1 (1914-18), and has a strong tone of social criticism underlying
the story. After WW1, the power the British Empire had amassed over the
past decades began to crumble as the country suffered huge financial
losses as its colonies started fighting for independence. Woolf was highly
sceptical of power and authority, in particular imperial power, and the
English upper class of the novel are shown to be clinging to a lifestyle that
no longer exists. The continual use of vague descriptions throughout the
novel suggest that there is an emptiness residing in the heart of power,
beginning with “The motor car with its blinds drawn and an air of
inscrutable reserve”. The ambiguity around the occupant of the car
(“Even the sex was now in dispute”) is never resolved, and the car
appears to be simply “an enduring symbol of the state”, outdated and out
of touch with the realities of a post-war society. The futility of classism is
reinforced through the character of the Prime Minister: he is meant to be
a “symbol of what they all stood for, English society”, yet “nobody looked
at him” and in reality he is just “ordinary”. Outwardly, Clarissa appears to
have relatively few social constraints on her due to her high economic
status, but Woolf’s use of free indirect discourse allows the reader to
learn about Clarissa’s romantic feelings towards women that she is forced
to repress: a society that represses emotions prevents Clarissa from truly
coming to terms with her sexual identity and pursuing fulfilling
relationships. Though Clarissa belongs to the aloof upper class of the
novel, as David Lodge notes, use of free indirect discourse allows for a
more sympathetic portrayal of a character who may otherwise be
disliked, as compared to a 3rd person omniscient narration, like in ‘Tess’.
However, Hardy is also able to create sympathy for Tess during her
