Tess of the D'Urbervilles

[Black Flag]

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.

[Lara]

Quote by Black Flag
<Fickle and complicated--yes Tess is definately a female. >

What are you implying?!
You're not a hater, are you?

Someone might get terribly offended by that remark.

I'd love to comment on the book, but I haven't read it.

[amuse]

i have and decided this thread wasn't worth responding to because of that comment. then i figured maybe i needed to disregard things like that completely. then i read your comment, and, la!

[Lara]

Ya Amuse, sometimes things are just not worth getting too excited over, especially when one is not certain of the true meaning of someones words. Perhaps Black Flag was trying to be humorous, or perhaps he didn't realise the potential scope of the comment. I don't know, he hasn't come along to explain yet.

[Black Flag]

It was a half-serious comment. That is all. Lighten up kids!

[amuse]

half-serious, aye? so you have a problem with murderesses and women don't because we're all half-fickle and complicated?

[Black Flag]

Please don't get offended over this too

[Black Flag]

Yeah, something like that....I guess

[amuse]

i see!

so what part(s) of the book did you like?

[Lara]

It's okay Black Flag, we're just stirring the pot, I am anyway. I know, us females, we are a complicated species, but doesn't that just make us intriguing?

[Black Flag]

Yes, there's never a boring moment when embroiled in the drama of approaching and sustaining a relationship with one of your "species".

I liked Tess best when she wrote Angel that last letter (for those who have read the book,you know what it said). Of course, I admire Tess' pride in not appealing to Angel's parents for money, and I like the way she sustained herself after the "disagreement" between herself and her husband (I'm trying to be as subtle as possible concerning the events in the book, for those who haven't read it yet).

[Koa]

I actually liked it... the comment I mean The world has also evil in it... and if the female world has more, the better Come on it can't be *that* serious...

As for Tess, well I was supposed to read it for school once but I didn't...I remember the summary tho I think one day I'll read it, the enthusiasm here makes it seem like much more than the pathetic story I thought it was from the title...

[amuse]

i tried reading it for years and finally did so last summer. she was a bit of a headache, but i really liked that one comment about getting out of one's body. all of a sudden i really liked hardy.

[Black Flag]

SPOILER!!!!! (IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK YET YOU MIGHT NOT WISH TO READ THIS POST)









Is there anyone else who thinks that maybe--just maybe--Tess wasn't raped after all? In Hardy's day it was commonly believed that in order for a woman to conceive she had to have an---.......ummmmm........what should I say (for the sake of any kids reading)...... she had to "Enjoy" the time spent with a man in that sort of way. Therefore, if Hardy belived this too, Tess had consentual sex with Alec in the heat of the moment as it were (of course regretting it later). Just a thought.

[amuse]

see i never thought of that. because i assumed of course she was. interesting take...