Table of contents
Introduction 1
Chapter 1. The Victorian Era 3 Chapter 2. Tess, the tragedy of an unfair existence 14 Chapter 3. Rape or seduction? 27 Chapter 4. Anna Karenina and Tess of the D’Urbervilles, a tragic destiny …show more content…
This class was formed of successful industrialists and extremely rich bankers or poor clerks. “Within the middle class, those with the highest social standing were the professionals (sometimes referred to as the old middle class or upper middle class). They included Church of England clergymen, military and naval officers, men in the higher-status branches of law and medicine, those at the upper levels of governmental service, university professors, and the headmasters of prestigious schools." Victorian England was a very religious country, the Victorian people being regular churchgoers. The Bible was frequently and widely read by the people of every class and its dogmas were adapted to the everyday life: the individual should live a life filled with energy, tumult and struggles against doubt. Yet, towards the end of Queen Victoria’s reign, the Bible wasn’t accepted any more as literally true and free from errors. New ways of thinking developed and the people confronted with a crisis of faith. In the Victorian age, women were seen through men’s eyes. They were the most important characters in the domestic sphere, the family life being …show more content…
8. Wojtczak, H., “Women of Victorian Sussex”, Hastings Press, 2003.
Chapter two
Tess, the tragedy of an unfair existence
Is Tess a victim or a blemished woman?
Is Tess’s tragedy inevitable?
“Tess of the D’Urbervilles is the product of Hardy’s fascination with women of beauty, energy and intelligence who find themselves trapped between these gifts, the aspirations such gifts justify, and their society’s assumption that respectable women must be either submissive or obtrusively and harmlessly aspiring. With few exceptions, Hardy’s most interesting characters are his unconventional women including Tess who, so unconventional both before and after, is, predictably both the conventional ruined maid of fiction and a ruined maid like no other that has existed in British fiction.” Tess of d’Urbervilles appears regularly in the literary magazine „The Graphic‟ thorough the 1891. This was an original method of Hardy. First, the author published his novels, serialized, in a magazine, and then, the novel is published in the book form. The book’s subtitle, „A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented ‘is the first evidence that Hardy’s novel will shock his readers. The heroine will definitely reject the Victorian rules and
Introduction 1
Chapter 1. The Victorian Era 3 Chapter 2. Tess, the tragedy of an unfair existence 14 Chapter 3. Rape or seduction? 27 Chapter 4. Anna Karenina and Tess of the D’Urbervilles, a tragic destiny …show more content…
This class was formed of successful industrialists and extremely rich bankers or poor clerks. “Within the middle class, those with the highest social standing were the professionals (sometimes referred to as the old middle class or upper middle class). They included Church of England clergymen, military and naval officers, men in the higher-status branches of law and medicine, those at the upper levels of governmental service, university professors, and the headmasters of prestigious schools." Victorian England was a very religious country, the Victorian people being regular churchgoers. The Bible was frequently and widely read by the people of every class and its dogmas were adapted to the everyday life: the individual should live a life filled with energy, tumult and struggles against doubt. Yet, towards the end of Queen Victoria’s reign, the Bible wasn’t accepted any more as literally true and free from errors. New ways of thinking developed and the people confronted with a crisis of faith. In the Victorian age, women were seen through men’s eyes. They were the most important characters in the domestic sphere, the family life being …show more content…
8. Wojtczak, H., “Women of Victorian Sussex”, Hastings Press, 2003.
Chapter two
Tess, the tragedy of an unfair existence
Is Tess a victim or a blemished woman?
Is Tess’s tragedy inevitable?
“Tess of the D’Urbervilles is the product of Hardy’s fascination with women of beauty, energy and intelligence who find themselves trapped between these gifts, the aspirations such gifts justify, and their society’s assumption that respectable women must be either submissive or obtrusively and harmlessly aspiring. With few exceptions, Hardy’s most interesting characters are his unconventional women including Tess who, so unconventional both before and after, is, predictably both the conventional ruined maid of fiction and a ruined maid like no other that has existed in British fiction.” Tess of d’Urbervilles appears regularly in the literary magazine „The Graphic‟ thorough the 1891. This was an original method of Hardy. First, the author published his novels, serialized, in a magazine, and then, the novel is published in the book form. The book’s subtitle, „A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented ‘is the first evidence that Hardy’s novel will shock his readers. The heroine will definitely reject the Victorian rules and