Universitatea Hyperion, Bucuresti Facultatea de Litere si Limbi Straine

Womens status and women types in THOMAS HARDYs novels

HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Chirieci (Badea) Adelina Anul III, Semestrul I

Womens status and women types in THOMAS HARDYs novels Tess DUrberville, Far from the Madding Crowed, Jude the Obscure
The unconventional women in Hardys novels are often more complicated and engaging than their male counterparts. A nameless 1879 review of his novels remarked that Hardys story is always the story of one woman in her relations to two or three men; and it is part of this scheme that, though the men do not lack individuality, they are chiefly introduced with reference to the women, and only fully developed at the points of contact with them. Even Hardys remarkable ability to depict vivid female characters may have been the factor which led early reviewers to suspect that his works were in fact written by a woman. In a review essay written in 1883, Havelock Ellis once again referred to the question of Hardys gender: Even when this was seen [that Hardy was not George Eliot], many people were still uncertain about the sex of the new writer, and reviewers of Thomas Hardys works were occasionally doubtful whether to speak of him or her. The cause of this uncertainty is not hard to find. The minute observation, the delicate insight, the conception of love as the one business of life, and a singularly charming reticence in its delineation, are qualities which, if not universally characteristic of womens work in fiction, are such as might with propriety be attributed to itat all events from an a priori standpoint. Some wonder whether Hardy was a critic of current social situations or simply another author reifying the current patriarchal ideology. Margaret Higonnet points out that Hardy's texts [...] have been censored for their sexual content, admired for their frankness, decried as misogynist, and described as feminist. With every new novel, Hardy seemed to have been capable of persuading both his editor and himself that the story envisaged would not actually transgress [...] the unwritten conventions governing publications of the time. However, as each new story took shape it proved to dwell not incidentally but centrally upon questions of sexuality and technical immorality almost certain to provoke criticism and complaint . Some critics believe that Hardys characters are in keeping with the prevalent image of woman in the Victorian era. He often portrays women in their most noble role of spiritual guide and loving nurturer. M. Houghton emphasizes how Tess of the dUrbervilles shows the heroines capacity for suffering, while he regards Sues pride in Jude the Obscure as the source of her inability to compromise with life. On the whole he finds Hardys women so small and helpless that Hardy is pleading for the weaker sex in depicting them. Similarly, while Virginia Woolf believes that women comprise the greater part of Hardys interest, they stand as the lesser of the two sexes. She claims that men carry the force of rebellion in his novels; women serve to demonstrate a capacity for suffering. Some of the negative public responses of the nineteenth century seem to have come from women readers. Edmund Gosse suggested that women did not like Hardys novels and attributed this phenomenon to the authors concept of the feminine character. He later pointed out that the modern English novelist has created, and has faithfully repeated, a demure, ingenuous, and practically inhuman type of heroine, which has flattered womankind, and which female readers now imperatively demand as an encouragement. Some other feminist critics tend to view Hardy as either a sinner or a saint, a proud defender of female honour or a villain willing to pitiably abase women to serve his own creative needs. As Judith Mitchell wonders: How does a female readerparticularly a modern feminist reader read Thomas Hardy? Does she applaud his feminism? Deplore his sexism? She further observes that feminist critics seem undecided whether to accept Hardy with distaste or to reject him with reluctance. Much of the criticism Hardy received was centered on the way in which he characterized his heroines, resulting in the characters, and Hardy himself, being viewed as

highly immoral. In 1881, Charles Keegan Paul, a contemporary of Hardys, had this to say about Hardy's female characters: They are all charming; they are all flirts from their cradle; they are all in love with more than one man at once; they seldom, if they marry at all, marry the right man; and while well-conducted for the most part, are somewhat lacking in moral sense, and have only rudimentary souls. Based on the responses of many critics, it is evident that there are many complexities and paradoxes in Hardys female characters which are not yet completely defined. However, I believe that Hardy, in his female characters description, he somehow overestimated his power in creating a perfect authentic image. He wants to present us the women as they were in the Victorian age, full of social constraints, living their lives in a way that they were not happy with and punishing themselves for reasons that today are insignificant, but he also punishes them so hard that it was almost impossible for me to read his novels. That makes me think again if he really wanted to promote a new way of living for women or he wanted to scare them in such a bad way that they will never dare to believe in a happy life with the man they love. Somehow, it is possible that Hardy was influenced in his womens descriptions by his own disappointment in real life and maybe that is why he considered them shallow and selfish. All the heroines of these three novels (Tess DUrberville, Far from the Madding Crowed, Jude the Obscure) suffered just because they were women and they were born in those times: Tess suffered because she was just a child and she didnt know how to take care of herself, Bathsheba suffered because she was too proud and Sue suffered because she was too smart for a woman of that age and because she wanted to be free to choose. Although Bathsheba manages to have a happy end by marrying the right man, Tess and Sue share a tragic life and a tragic end. They both suffered a lot in love because they wanted to be above the social constrains and they also have the most tragic punishment by burying their own babies and they both dye: Tess was killed and Sue dyed by giving herself to the man she didnt love. Analyzing the women types in these three novels it is easy to see that you can find only two distinct kinds of women. The first is the women who accept the constrains of the society and who plays by the unfair rules of the age for example Arabella (Jude the Obscure), who tricks Jude to marry her by telling him that she was pregnant. The other type of women is the one represented by Tess, Bathsheba and Sue. They are the women who fight with society constrains in order to be happy and free, although that leads them to a tragic end. All of the female characters come from the middle class of the society. They are not very smart, because they were not educated to be smart as the society wanted them docile, but the ones who studied alone, for example Sue, had a very sharp mind. The others used their instinct and their hearts to pass over the obstacles of life. From the physic point of view, none of them is very beautiful, but in the eyes of their lover they are the most extraordinary human beings and it seems that Hardy had an addiction for dark curly hair, because all his heroines had black or brown hair. Also all his female characters come from the countryside so they are very fresh and pure, but despite their appearance, they have very complex feelings and I have to say again that shallowness is not the word which defines them. In the end, a question rises again: did Hardy wish to defy Victorian norms, or was he simply so confident in the worth of his writing that he did not consider the possible negative reaction to his work? Michael Millgate believes that Hardy's peculiar difficulties with his editors were largely the product of his own indecision, of a characteristic reluctance to take firm positions, if that is true, the only way to discover if Hardy was a womens savior or a judge is to read his novels and find out.

Bibliografie Didem Yilmaz - Through the eyes of Thomas Hardy: Status of women within the socio-cultural context of victorian society Ankara, 2008 Nikandam Roya - Women As Commodities In Two Selected Novels Of Thomas Hardy Putra Malaysia, 2009 Thomas Hardy Tess DUrberville Bucureti, 1992 Thomas Hardy Departe de lumea dezlnuit Craiova, 1992 Thomas Hardy Jude netiutul Bucureti, 1965