Renunciation in Tess of the D’Urbervilles

[vlodi]

Hi everybody,

I have a paper to write about renunciation in Tess of the D’Urbervilles.
I have plenty of "small ideas" but struggle with the main thread of my essay.

It would be greatly appreciated if some of you could chip in with some fresh ideas. I'm stuck and need help...

Cheers to all!

[kelby_lake]

Could you put up some of these small ideas? Perhaps we could probe them further.

[vlodi]

I’m afraid I fing the subject quite complex and go about it more instinctively than methodically and that’s my problem – I need to give my paper some structure and direction.
I thought I would stretch it / make it swing between the renunciation (as giving up / abstention and also rejection / denial, surrender, struggle) and acceptance, reunion, adherence, harmony
I see there the connection to the cliché question of nature and culture. I wanted to make some sort of remark about the flow of energy in nature and it culture.
Control and freedom; limits and no boundaries;
The abundance of nature and the limits of culture (religion), cultivation, production, wild, natural vs. controlled
Tess – a PURE woman, one that tries to reject the impurities (renunciation of vice, rejection of sin) all along but in the end achieves her cleansing through crime.
The process of tergiversation, resignation;
Guilt, fear,
Also what might be interesting could be the question of how renunciation gives us the feeling of being in control, we do something in exchange for a divine favour, when we give up giving up we feel powerless (Tess at SH – “I’m afraid”)
At the end , I would certainly trust my ears and hear the implicit presence of 'enunciation', and 're-enunciation' in the topic as well.
What do you think? I badly need ‘stage directions’ here please!

[Brock]

If you're after 'stage directions', you're probably best consulting a book on essay writing and follow some advice on how to turn the ideas you have into a piece that flows easy and makes sense in its direction. I mean, how many words have you got to play with?

You have a vast array of ideas; you need to shave some off if you're limited in length.

Perhaps one interesting idea of renunciation is to look at Angel Clare rather than Tess. How does Angel eventually renounce his own view of Tess after he has found out about her child on their marriage night? He goes off to Brazil and something makes him renounce the idea that Tess isn't who he at first thought she was. Why? I find Angel a really interesting character to study.

In the end, both Angel and Tess practically renounce the societal expectations. What once seemed so important to Angel, and what Tess so much feared, was codes of conduct that would alter them in the eyes of society. In the end, they cast this aside, and eventually Tess (knowing all is lost) casts the idea of life itself aside, allowing the inevitability of her punishment to proceed without hinderance.

Renunciation is formal rejection, typically a belief. This is what you need to make sure you're focusing on when using the great ideas you've obviously already thought of.