Tess——A Feminine Victim In The Patriarchal World

Tess, one of Hardy抯 most famous novels, describes a girl that is seduced by one man and deserted by the other. In this thesis, I抣l try to analyze this work from the female point of view to disclose the various predicaments that Tess faces in the patriarchal world, and the limits of the author, and then to draw such a conclusion: put in such a patriarchal world by a male writer, Tess stands no chance to escape from the patriarchal fence. Surrounded by it, Tess抯 tragedy is unavoidable.The article is mainly divided into five parts:The first part of the thesis introduces Hardy抯 creation and the characteristics of the Victorian age in which he lived. In the male-dominated Victorian age 慏ouble standard?is the predominant standard in judging sexual affairs.The second part begins to interpret the predicament that Tess faces in the patriarchal world. Alec and Angel, the two men of the novel, torture Tess physically and spiritually respectively.Part Three looks into Tess抯 predicament from another perspective by analyzing the character itself. Although we don抰 deny her good qualities, we should admit Tess抯 unavoidable limitations. She has to live by the moral standards that the male-dominated world puts on women. Instead of man, woman is the only one to be responsible for all that have happened. Just As the title of Phase V says, The Woman Pays? Tess is doomed to be the victim.Part Four mainly talks about Tess抯 predicament made by a male writer. Hardy put 慳 pure woman?on the title page of the first edition of Tess of the d扷rbervilles. He defies the tradition by asserting Tess抯 purity even as she fails to satisfy the moral standards of the world. However, with the rising of the position of women, we more and more find the limits of Hardy. Hardy抯 sympathy for Tess is genuine and compelling, but it is not without ambivalence. The novel is full of unusually overt maleness in the narrative voice:(1)Tess is kept the object of the erotic male gaze. More the object than the subject of desire, she is a victim of male visions of that sexual succulence. Not only in the eyes of the characters, but in those of the narrator as well. She is altogether an object of the reader抯 consumption. Time and again the narrator seeks to enter Tess through her eyes, her flesh, her lips, her mouth and her breasts. And the two men also observe her with the lustful eyes. Angel抯 departure exposes Tess once more to the dangers of the male-dominated world. Hard as she may try to resist the male advances, Tess cannot escape her role as an object of erotic fascination. At the end of4the novel, Tess dies as a victim of male desire.(2) Hardy抯 female characters are reproduced in the image of an ideological construction of woman. Frail, weak, irrational, dominated by her passions she appears as man抯 fateful or idealized Other. We have reasons to conclude that, Tess, to some degree, is Hardy抯 idealized woman. It represents the culmination of Hardy抯 own locality----centered daydreams on a womanly image.(3) Many critics often notice Hardy抯 fatalistic outlook on life. He frequently uses chances, circumstances, and coincidences in the development of his plots. However, what many people don抰 pay .attention to is that, for Hardy, his fatalism is always tied with women. A critic once originated the term Tessimism?as a synonym for pessimism. Woman and Fate are one and the same to Hardy himself. Woman is Fate抯 most potent instrument for opposing Man抯 happiness. Woman抯 passiveness makes her an especially poignant illustration of that frailty, that dependence on fate. Closer to primitive feelings than men, women are helpless in the hands of Fate and carry out Fate抯 work.The last part is the conclusion of the thesis. Tess is the victim of that patriarchal world---on the one hand, she can抰 escape from the standards of the patriarchal society in which she lives; on the other hand, she can抰 escape from the alter-ideology of woman by a male writer. Caught in a web of tragedy by her weakness, her tendenc...