Talk:Tess of the d'Urbervilles

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I have added a plot summary for this very important novel in British Literature Ivankinsman 19:46, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

Excellent picture that has been restored. Sorry I removed it by mistake! Ivankinsman 12:21, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

User:81.131.134.16, unable to use capital letters, created a duplicate article Tess of the d'urbervilles(see below), which is now a redirect. Someone might want to merge text from here. <KF> 13:59, Apr 4, 2005 (UTC)

Issues-:Many people believed that the novel was too licentious and highly criticised the book. Many also believe that Tess was not raped.

Themes- Fatalism, Double Standard, Rape

Was she raped? Should she have been abandoned? Were Alec and Angel really that different? Does the book prove a point about Victorian social law? What is the symbolism? Is the book licentious?

[edit] Rape vs Seduction

The article, as currently written, takes the unambiguous position that Tess is Raped. However, this is (by my understanding) a point of contention among critics: whether Tess is raped or merely seduced. This is intentional: Hardy attempts to show that the treatment of Tess as a "Fallen woman" worthy of contempt is unjustified even if she willingly slept with Alec.

The literary argument probably isn't encyclopedic, but I'm changing the sentence from "he rapes her one evening as she is sleeping and she becomes pregnant" to "he rapes or seduces her one evening (Hardy is deliberately vague on this point) and she becomes pregnant." Nedlum

[edit] Baptism

I changed the section on the baptism of her child because I couldn't find a clear reference that the parson refused to do it. In that particular night, it is her father who prevents her from calling for the parson:

"It was nearly bedtime, but she rushed downstairs and asked if she might send for the parson ... No parson should come inside his door, he declared, prying into his affairs just then, when, by her shame, it had become more necessary to hide them. He locked the door and put the key in his pocket."

Also, she names the child Sorrow that very night and before.

Another quote to support my change is when she speaks to the parson ("he was a new-comer and did not know her") about the burial:

"Hearing of the baby's illness he had conscientiously gone to the house after nightfall to perform the rite, and unaware that the refusal to admit him had come from Tess's father and not from Tess..."

I'm currently reading the novel, so I hope I can help to make the summary more precise. Please check my grammar and spelling because I'm not a native English speaker. Zora11 12:52, 26 July 2007 (UTC)