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Tess Of The D Urbervilles Research Paper

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The Victorian Period was a time of much change and development in England. Growing knowledge of technology, medicine, and science accompanied an increase in population, a growing economy, and great prosperity throughout the country (Shepherd). Though this was a time of drastic change and success in England, many of its inhabitants remained trapped by the harsh unchanging realities of lower class life as a female in this era. In Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Tess Durbeyfield encounters difficulties because of her status as lower class woman that illustrate the key issues of extreme class distinction and the expectations for and role of women in Victorian England. The romantic expectations for and treatment of Tess from upper …show more content…

Women of Victorian England were held to high standards of purity, and harshly judged when they did not fulfill these ideals. When Alec takes advantage of Tess, her chastity is tainted in the unfair eyes of society. Though unreasonable, this viewpoint is accepted by most, including Angel Clare. As Tess’s devoted husband, Angel is expected to love her despite her past, faults, and negative opinions that others may have about her. However, after Tess’s confession of her experience with Alec, Angel’s reaction demonstrates that of one heavily influenced by societal standards, as his incredibly judgmental thoughts are revealed to be “slave to custom and conventionality” (267). His unsympathetic decision to leave Tess results from the strong influence that the accepted societal opinions of purity in Victorian England impose on him. Hardy’s reference to Angel as a “slave” reveals the controlling power and effects of the impact these standards have on his life. To be a “slave” to these ideas shows how completely they consume and influence him. Because of these faulted opinions that society has of Tess, she loses Angel, a supposed eternal lover, for a prolonged amount of time. Without Angel, Tess is left to financially provide for herself. Though he leaves her some supplemental finances, she must find employment to support both herself and her family. As a woman in Victorian England, Tess is viewed as inferior in working abilities. At Flintcomb-Ash, she is assigned to perform “work which tried her so severely,” and acknowledges it is “for some probably economical reason it was usually a woman who was chosen for this particular duty” (331). To hire a woman purely for “economical reason” to execute “severe” work reveals that men

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Thomas Hardy also has strong opinions about the roles of women in the nineteenth century. His novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles challenges the thought that women are incapable of making their own decisions and being independent. Hardy utilizes indirect characterization and symbolism to convince the reader that society’s restrictions on women are oppressive and

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But like protagonist Janie Tess is also “fine and handsome girl” (7) telling the reader that Tess is beautiful. Contrary to Janie what made Tess much more attractive was her “peony mouth and large innocent eyes” (7) which “added eloquence to her colour and shape” (7) indicating how beautiful and well shaped her body is. Tess “wore a red ribbon in her hair” (7) Hardy diction gets the reader to question whether Tess is a young lady or a woman. When it comes to portraying strength Hardy portrays Tess as an antithesis to Janie because her actions are weak and not strong as Janie’s action. Tess while at the at the cheerful event the “clubbist” (7) seem to see her father and they “titter” (7) they giggle at how her father is portraying himself as “foolish”(7) next to these girl but Tess speaks out and says “He’s tired, that’s all,”(7) which is an action Janie will not do.

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18-year-old Ethan Couch killed four pedestrians and injured two others while driving drunk in 2013. The media refers to Couch, in headlines and elsewhere, as the "affluenza" teen. Affluenza is a psychological malaise that supposedly affects wealthy young people, symptoms of which include a lack of motivation, feelings of guilt, and a lack of judgment for right and wrong. This disorder may have led him into a sense of irresponsibility and clouded his sense of judgment. The question is; if Couch was truly raised without a sense of right or wrong, then how can we expect him to behave in a way that is acceptable?

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Within the past year, the treatment and perceptions of women have been challenged due to the various marches and movements. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s romance, The Scarlet Letter, presents how women were viewed in a Puritan society, falling into a rigid dichotomy of either being the “saint” or “sinner.” This is otherwise known as the “Madonna/Whore complex,” which is explored through the life of the novel’s protagonist, Hyster Prynne. Her struggles and experiences through this dichotomy ultimately affect her both physically and emotionally as it represses her femininity.

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And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!” (Gilman, 185, 186, 187). Jane demonstrates a sense of compassion towards all the other creeping women, as she recognizes their shared predicament, whereas Tessie would willingly have another villager put to death in her place. Another striking difference between the two women is their relationships with their husbands. Although her

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Her refusal to submit to her social destiny shocked many Victorian readers when the novel was first released and this refusal to accept the forms, customs, and standards of society made it one of the first rebellious feminism novels of its time (Gilbert and Gubar). This essay will discuss the relationships Jane formed with the men she encountered throughout the novel and will attempt to identify moments of patriarchal oppression within the story. The first act of patriarchal oppression Jane experiences is quiet early on it the novel, during her childhood years spent at Gateshead. It is here where she must endure to live

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Of course, one almost intuitively understands that the novel’s leading women adhere rather closely to socio-gender norms; both Adeline and Clara, the two women who most represent Radcliffe’s idealized morality, are traditionally beautiful, focus on emotional intelligence via poetry and music rather than on scientific pursuits, and represent the appealing innocence of ingénues. In the same manner that Adeline’s unconsciousness contributes to her integrity, it also appears that her extensive physical beauty results in part from her inherent saintliness, her beautiful eyes linked to some intrinsic purity (7). Further highlighting this ethical preference for femininity, Adeline exhibits fear related directly to the presence of men; in the Marquis’s chateau, her terror specifically abates when she realizes that “elegant” and “beautiful” women surround her, and later the inverse occurs as she balks in fear at “the voices of men” (158, 299). On some level, Adeline seems to recognize that masculinity poses a significant threat to her, and instinctively shies away from its

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The series focuses on sexuality, gender, and social through the eyes of Miss Astley and her self-discovery as a young woman in 19th Century London. The Victorian era was the beginning of women questioning the patriarchal standards of society. Women were oppressed, and confined to the house. Society expected women to have children, raise them and run the household while the husband had opportunities to work and to even make something of themselves in society by working their way up. The working class women had the

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The play An Ideal Husband was written by Oscar Wilde in 1895 in England’s Victorian era. This era was characterised by sexual anarchy amongst men and women where the stringent boundaries that delineated the roles of both men and women were continually being challenged by threatening figures such as the New Woman represented by Mrs Cheveley and dandies such as Lord Goring(Showalter, 3). An Ideal Husband ultimately affirms Lord Goring’s notions about the inequality of the sexes because of the evident limitations placed on the mutability of identity for female characters versus their male counterparts (Madden, 5). These limitations will be further elaborated upon in the context of the patriarchal aspects of Victorian society which contributed to the failed attempts of blackmail by Mrs Cheveley, the manner in which women are trapped by their past and their delineated role of an “angel of truth and goodness” (Powell, 89).

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However, due to the satirical nature of this poem, one can see that Hardy does not fully agree with the restrictions that have been placed on women by society during the Victorian era. The belief of society was that women who had sex out of wedlock were ruined; although, the poem demonstrates how deviating from the values of a society can present options that would not have been available otherwise. This is evident within the tone and title of the poem. “The Ruined Maid” has a conversational tone which suggests

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The story’s author focuses on the customary false teaching because of a girl named Laura, who is the child of the upper class for, in order to explore, and social values and ethical Victorian women who kept back by the impact on their way

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Thomas Hardy in his novel Tess of the D’ urbervilles has highlighted the life of a women who was being exploited by the society and her purity and chastity is questioned upon throughout the novel. In the nineteenth-century society, there were two types of women: Fallen women and good women. Good women were seen as pure and clean i.e. virgins until they get married and their bodies were seen as that of a goddess in a temple which should not be used for pleasure. Their role was to have children and take care of their household chores. The woman who did not fulfill the expectations of the people in the society and their family was considered as a fallen women.

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III. SOCIAL INFLUENCE AND PREJUDICE The society in the Victorian Era was amidst a great change. Having in mind the fact that they were moving from a pastoral life to industrialization, their lifestyle changed. As with every transition, there is the issue of adapting to changes because people tend to hold onto their principles.

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