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Compare the ways in which women in the two texts attempt to find happiness (Tess of the d’Urbervilles but Thomas Hardy and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini)R198,57
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Compare the ways in which women in the two texts attempt to find happiness (Tess of the d’Urbervilles but Thomas Hardy and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini)
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Course
Unit 2 - Prose
Institution
PEARSON (PEARSON)
This essay explores how women attempt to find happiness when faced with deeply entrenched patriarchies in their societies. It offers a deep analysis of language form and structure and explores and compares different contextual factors.
COMPARE THE WAYS IN
WHICH WOMEN IN THE TWO
TEXTS WOMEN ATTEMPT TO
FIND HAPPINESS
When the patriarchy is so deeply entrenched within a society, women’s happiness can
be hard to come by. This is especially true for Victorian Britain and modern day
Afghanistan as within both of these societies, women were deemed as the inferior sex
and their happiness was unimportant, as women were only seen as vehicles to serve
men. Therefore, within ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ and ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ both
Thomas Hardy and Khaled Hosseini explore how women are unable to find happened
though male relationships, but rather find true happiness through female relationships
and ultimately, the tremendous sacrifices they make for themselves and to ensure
that these other women are happy in their demise.
Within the novels, both authors explore how female relationships bring the protago-
nists a greater sense of happiness than their male partners; in ‘Tess of the
d’Urbervilles’ Hardy explores how Tess attempts to find happiness through providing
aid to her sister ‘Liza-Lu, however Hardy takes a more critical perspective of the en-
trench patriarchy as he explores how Alec ultimately takes advantage of this to further
his control over Tess. Whereas in ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’, Hosseini explores a
much more moving depiction of how Mariam finds happiness in becoming a substitute
motherly figure to Laila, protecting her from their violent, hegemonic husband,
Rasheed. Hardy explores how Tess’ love for her sister is rooted in her desire to protect
her. When ‘Liza-Lu come to find her when their mother is il, Hardy explores how Tess’
first throughs on seeing her are her fears and worries about ‘Liza-Lu growing up; “her
thin legs, visible below her once long frock, now short by her growing; and her uncom-
fortable hands and arms, revealed youth and inexperience”. The verb phrase “re-
vealed youth and inexperience” reveals Tess’ worries that ‘Liza-Lu is not prepared for
life as a Victorian woman as in the beginning of the novel Tess is also described
through the noun “inexperience”, perhaps Hardy is hinting at how ‘Liza-Lu could easily
meet the same ruinous fate as Tess, of being a “failed women”. ‘Fallen women’ in vic-
torian society were views as ‘sexually corrupted’, immoral and were outclassed from
society. Additionally, Tess finds happiness when protecting her sister from her fathers
“ill-health” when Hardy describes “the necessity of applying herself heart and soul to
their needs took her out of her own cares”. The noun phrase “heart and soul” indicates
her totally caring nature and the verb phrase “tool her out of her own cares” highlights
how she reaches happiness when caring for others, allowing harsh to paint her as to-
tally selfless. However, hardy explores how men in Tess’ life - in particular, Alec - take
advantage of this caring nature, allowing Hardy to explore the patriarchal dominance
of victorian men. Alec manipulates Tess by offering her money in exchange for her
love, and exploits her love for her siblings, stripping her once again of her happiness
yer again; “‘Your brother and sisters’ he resumed ‘I’ve been thinking of them’”. Hardy
describes how through the metaphor “he was touching her in a weal place”, this ma-
nipulation exploits the good qualities of Tess - her “affection” - for his own selfish gain.
Hardy ultimately explores how Tess’ attempts to find happiness through caring for her
sister is futile because of the evil intervention of Alex, allowing Hardy to criticise the
patriarchal nature of Victorian society. Similarly, Hosseini explores how Mariam finds
happiness from becoming a maternal figure to Laila, protecting her - not from the im-
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