Feminist Critique of Tess of the DUrbervilles :: Essays Papers

Feminist Critique Tess of the DUrbervilles Tess of the DUrbervilles November 19, 1999 Ellen Rooney presents us with a feminist perspective which addresses a few key conflicts in the story, fling qualification if not answers. Essentially, Rooney argues that Hardy is unable to represent the meaning of the control in The Chase from Tesss point of view because to present Tess as a speaking subject is to risk the possibility that she may go forth as the subject of desire. Yet a figure with no effectiveness as a desiring subject can only formally be said to refuse desireHardy is blocked in both directions. (466) According to Rooney, we do not hear from Tess in this instance, for if we were to, it would only reward the notion of Tess the seductress. Yet, in various versions, Tess is presented as a seductress. Even by her nature as a beautiful women, Hardy presents the reader abstruse messages should we see her as a willing seductress, or as a victim who must suffer because of her bodys effects on others? Rooney argues that Hardy never comes to a conclusion on this issue, barely enables Tess to found over her body, utterly silenced and purified, not by Hardys failure to see that she might speak, but by his unflinching translation of the inexorable forces that produce her as the seductive object of the discourses of man (481). Rooney writes a capable piece of gender criticism, in that it is defined as how women need been written. Gender issues seem permeate the story and the author doesnt concur a definitive stand on them. Rooney attempts to examine what role Tess plays in the story, how her interactions with Alec and Angel Clare form her identity, and how she triumphs over her afflictions. Ironically, her biggest affliction is her natural beauty its something men simply cannot pass up, and just by her looks, she becomes seductive.Rooney brings this point up, but much to her credit, does not unleash an attack on Hardy or men because of it. Often feminist criti cs bear the burden that they are disclose to get men, yet when there is an apt argument for doing so in Tess, Rooney refrains and simply addresses the issues. Overall, her article was quite helpful in addressing the most vacillate conflict in the whole story.