“Why didn’t you tell me there was danger in men-folk?” -Tess Durbeyfield, Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
This quote epitomizes Tess’ pure innocence and naivety. She has been living under a proverbial rock her entire life, and her unfortunate incident with Alec was her first exposure to the coldness of the outside world. She asks her mother the question in the quote, expecting her to have the answers. She feels cheated and betrayed by her parents, she feels that if her parents really cared about her they would look out for her and “tell her the danger.” Her ideas of men and love were ones of wild fantasy, the kind that she had read in her fairy tales. However, as all people come to realize either gradually or harshly like Tess, life isn’t a fairy tale. The cold realities and nature of humanity are often magnified in the matters of love; unfortunately Tess’ first “love” had to treat her so terribly. One has to think in alternate realities to fully understand things though, and to take into account Hardy’s recurring elements of fate. If you postulate that if Tess’ parents had in fact told her of the “dangers of men-folk,” would she have met Angel? Tess, listening to her parents her entire life, would most likely have remained in her house heeding the warnings of her parents. Then if you begin to understand the elements of fate that Hardy injects into the story, it seems that Tess’ curiosity would likely overcome her. She would find out for herself the “dangers in men-folk,” and become a stronger woman because of it.
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4 comments:
isn't it weird how our real lives seem to have shadows/tentacles (sp?) that relate to random happenings, like what we read in A.P.English?
This is a very thorough analysis. You can really apply this to psychology and learning how our minds develope over time; depending on the environment in which we're brought up.
so if tess would have, according to hardy, been raped no matter what. do you feel the same way? do you belive we are bounded by fate or do you have a more independent outlook?
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
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