bobbie 20/10/2022
Could it actually be a surprise?
You read stories about a woman in the eighteenth century and you know she'll suffer. You read stories about a woman in the nineteenth century (such as this one) and you know she'll suffer. You read stories about a woman anywhen and you bet she'll suffer. Driven by her ambitious parents, especially her father, very young Tess is pushed into pursuing rich and notoriety by intruding into an age-old family which is allegedly her own, only with an uncorrupted surname. Almost tragically impelled to obey, she sets out to accomplish that goal, but ends up finding only disgrace and dishonour. But Tess is a fighter and a righteous one: determined not to let the tragedy put her family name to dirt, she goes away in pursuit of a new anonymous life, one in which she works hard and can be respected again. Then she meets a dream boy - by the suggestive name of Angel -, one who despises conventionalities and blind faith. They fall in love and yet, Tess is fearful and dragging the boy's name in the dirt, so much so that she avoids his every invest in her and a future marriage, unless she is able to tell him the truth about her, which he blatantly refuses to hear. After they get married, he tells her of a past dishonorable deed of his, which she forgives, only to reject her after hearing the confession of her past misfortunes. Expectedly, they part ways: Angel can't bear to carry such a wife to his name. Tess is heartbroken, but she "knows" it's the right thing to do. Hardy rubs it in our faces how hypocritical men can be and the extent to which women would lower and diminish themselves in the face of a sexist society. Tess borders the absurd in how she subjects and humiliates herself to Angel. The reader is left no alternative but to not want the couple to be together - Tess deserves so much more than Angel - but the end of the novel comes crashing down on our heads, as the expected unexpectedly happens (the paradox is deliberate). It goes to show just how absurdly and unfairly women have been treated for centuries. It is meant to make us feel repulsed at characters such as Angel Clare and Alec D'Urberville.