Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Tess D'Urberville--or Durbyfield--what a headcase! She starts off as an intense prude, proceeds into a masochist, becomes a sickingly devoted lover/wife wherein she doesn't even have a thinking brain of her own, instead opting to become an intellectual clone of her husband (because he's so damn wonderful that whatever he does or thinks just has to be right!), and finally----hold on a minute----
SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!
she becomes a murderess and is happy about it. Fickle and complicated--yes Tess is definately a female.
I'm also beginning to doubt if her sex with Alec wasn't consentual after all.
Just finished the book last night. Hardy is one of my favourite authors but Tess D'Urberville is not among my favourites as a character.
tess of the d'urbevilles. who's the baddy?
the boring answer is >alec< but i like him. for me, >angel< is the baddy in tess of the d'urbervilles. a number of reasons:
Alec's love for tess is unconditional
Angel's love is on condition that she is pure
Angel's double standard about himself not being pure
Angel ran away from his problem
Alec was told to leave and honoured this request until Tess came back serendipitously.
tommy.