THE PASSION OF “TESS”

Powerline ^ | May 1, 2015 | Scott Johnson

[C19fan]

We’re finishing the Victorian novel class I have been taking at a college in St. Paul with Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles. I want to offer a few notes on the novel in the hope that some readers may share their thoughts and others may take up the novel if they haven’t read it before. It is an essential novel.

Our great young teacher has structured the course with four novels that evoke the plight of women in Victorian fiction. With Tess we reach the summit (or a summit) of this plight. Tess is an extraordinarily lovable woman who experiences great suffering. The proximate cause of her greatest suffering is the application of the double standard by the good man whom she marries to her premarital encounter with the villainous Alec D’Urbervilles.

[C19fan]

I am a big Thomas Hardy fan. I hope someday to go to England and roam the Yorkshire moors like the Bronte sisters and visit Hardy's Wessex, actually Dorset and some surrounding counties, and run into the ghost of Eustacia Vye waiting her lover on a wind wept hilltop. The Bronte sisters and Hardy are the greatest tourist promoters in history. :) Hardy was portraying the world of rural England that was disappearing. The prices of agricultural products plummeted during Hardy's time as the great grain producing regions in the Americas started to flood the English market. One interesting aspect of "Tess" is how Hardy described the fear of devolution in the form of the D'Uberville family. Darwin's theory of evolution was having a huge influence on Victorian society and some thought if species can evolve the opposite can happen. If you are a Hardy fan or a fan of period pieces a new film version of "l Far from the Madding Crowd" will be released this month starring Carey Mulligan as the heroine Bathsheba Everdine. As a side note, the author of the "Hunger Games" series was inspired to name her heroine Katniss Everdine by Hardy's work.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Longest movie I ever watched in a theatre. There was an INTERMISSION for goodness sake!!

[IronJack]

[Spoiler alert]

What bothers me about Tess' story is that when she murders her antagonist, there is no consideration for mitigating circumstances whatsoever. She killed him so she must hang. Period. The closing scene of the bell tolling into the surrounding hills is haunting in its mournfulness. One suspects that the bell sounds for more than just Tess' passing.

It definitely shows how Victorian "justice," so rigid in its conformity, could be anything but "just."

And you're right. Hardy captures the supposedly bucolic countryside culture of England in much the same way Dickens painted the industrialized urban centers. And their respective visions were equally critical and bleak, even if underlaid with a peculiar romance.

[madameguinot]

That is terrific! I just read an article online on the Intercollegiate Review website, titled, “3 Ways the Liberal Arts Will Enrich Your Life”, by James Matthew Wilson.

The article is a distillation of Plato’s idea of education in the liberal arts, which should “initiate you into the imaginative, theoretical, and practical dimensions of human life”.
Veritas es lux.

[C19fan]

Although in “Far from the Madding Crowd” the murderer in that novel avoids the death penalty and gets committed to a psychiatric facility by royal pardon.

[struwwelpeter]

It was a good read. For me it was captivating, much more than most modern literature.

[ETL]

Had a mad crush on Nastassja Kinski, the gorgeous young actress who played Tess in the film (1979?).

A strong-willed young peasant girl becomes the affection of two men.

Director: Roman Polanski
Writers: Gérard Brach (screenplay), Roman Polanski (screenplay),
Stars: Nastassja Kinski, Peter Firth, Leigh Lawson

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080009/

[OttawaFreeper]

Didn’t Polanski dedicate this movie to Sharon Tate’s memory? (BTW, watch a few reruns of “Beverly Hillbillies” to see her play Mr. Drysdale’s secretary).

[jtal]

haha

[IronJack]

True. My observation was pertinent to “Tess” only.

[ETL]

Apparently you’re right. Had to look it up. Also didn’t know Sharon Tate played Drysdale’s secretary.

“Roman Polanski gave away all of his possessions after the murders, unable to bear any reminders of the period that he called “the happiest I ever was in my life”. He remained in Los Angeles until the killers were arrested and then traveled to Europe. His 1979 film Tess was dedicated “to Sharon”, as Tate had read Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles during her final stay with Polanski in London and had left it for him to read with the comment that it would be a good story for them to film together.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharon_Tate#Legacy

[Tennessee Nana]

In the new Poldark the countryside of Cornwall is considered a “character”

Its gorgeous in the 2015 season that just finished..8 episodes that are great..

I watched it on line...last Sunday was the final..

The first 2 books of Winston Grahams series were used..next year is suppose to be the 3rd and fourth books..

[Publius]

One of my favorite books. I’ve read all of Hardy’s novels, both good and not so good, but of the 8 that I thought special, that one was tops.

[JoeFromSidney]

I read Tess as part of an undergraduate course in Great Writers. Interesting that the prof never mentioned any connection with Paradise Lost, even though we read that in the same course.

[jtal]

Sorry I thought you were referring to the Miss Hathaway character.

[OttawaFreeper]

Not a problem, Sharon Tate played an attractive Girl Friday in that series, little did we all know of course that was one of the few instances she twinkled so brightly as a Hollywood star before that unspeakably terrible episode took place.