Summary:
The critical essay that I looked at was Irving Howe's "Tess of the d'Urbervilles--At the center of Hardy's Achievement" (406-422). This piece of criticism closely examines many aspects of not only the novel, but also Hardy's overall authorship of many pieces of literature. Howe strongly centers on Tess' character and carefully looks at her through nearly each event of the book. Her essay begins with the opening pages of the novel and walks us through the book in its entirety (essentially she adds her commentary in a summary of the book), while commenting on certain aspects of Tess' character and what Hardy may (or may not) have been doing with her. She believes that Hardy's love for women, for the female gender, is where Tess comes from. Howe states, " Though [he] is quite capable of releasing animus toward his women characters and casting them as figures of destruction, he [Hardy] could not imagine a universe without an active, even an intruding, feminine principle" (406). Howe studies the feminism in the Tess character much farther in this essay. She focuses a lot on the idea about how women play a role in chastity, Christianity, the conventions of society of that time, romantics, fate, purity and how Hardy is responding to all of these things through Tess. Howe draws an overall impression or conclusion for Tess, saying, "Through a dialectic of negation, Tess reaches purity of spirit even as she fails to satisfy the standards of the world" (408). The conclusion that is drawn by Howe is that Tess' character, while very complex, is used in a manner by Hardy to do and achieve many things. It is very clear that Irving Howe is a Tess lover. She finds her fascinating and sees that Hardy's use of her was multidimensional.
Response:
I loved what Howe had to say about Tess. It was nice to read a piece of criticism that really analyzed Tess in depth and made very strong arguments for not just her as a character of a fictional novel, but also for Hardy as a writer. I am still kind of shocked by the intensity of emotions that Tess' character brings out in readers; it seems like most either really love her or absolutely despise her. I liked Tess and could see where some could dislike her, but hating her seems extreme. Also, even as someone who enjoyed the character, it is hard to see how some absolutely loved and idolized her....I guess I am just the "middle of the roader" when it comes to Tess. I think that Irving did a great job of carefully stating her thoughts and then completely supporting and backing them up. She was very precise and she took several angles of seeing what Hardy's was maybe up-to in certain areas of the book. Also, I think my favorite part of her essay was the very end; what she said wrapped everything up and made it make a whole lot of sense. She says: "Only one 'character' is almost as important as Tess, and that is Hardy himself", she clarifies this by saying, "He hovers and watches over Tess, like a stricken father" (422). Finally she brings this all to light by concluding, "If we see Hardy's relationship to Tess in this way, we can be a good deal more patient with the passages of intermittent philosophizing that dot the book... they [the passages] are evidence of Hardy's concern, tokens of bafflement before the agony of the world" (422). This is a wise thought because I think if we think of Hardy as he was writing Tess we can almost see what he was trying/attempting to do in most of the book.
Hannah,
ReplyDeleteI analyzed the same essay, and I found it refreshing that Howe was defensive of the representation of Tess, (even though I myself don't care for her) yet still acknowledged that Hardy had some faults in his novel. I also agree that it's great that Howe viewed Hardy as a character in his own novel--a somewhat passive character, but a character nonetheless. I had never really looked at the omniscient narrator in that way, and I think that it was really great that Howe did that.
I love the idea that the most important character besides Tess is Hardy himself! That is so interesting to think about after all of the conversations in class where we have analyzed his moves and tried to form an understanding of where he was going with his characterizations. Between reading your post and the post by Marcy on Howe I understand how relevant the essay is and how it is really useful informing a middle of the road approach to her character. Like you said, the extremes can really feel like too much.
ReplyDeleteThe piece I read for this blog also kind of touched on Hardy's 'love' for the female character and how that plays out in his novels! That comment in your blog kind of made me think about the milkmaids that Tess is friends with at the dairy. We haven't gotten to talk about them much, but I think it's so interesting that they're such minor characters, yet they're so well-developed and stuff. Like it seemed to me Hardy kind of loved those girls in the same way he loved Tess, if that makes any sense. He could have easily made them all terrible people, but it's interesting that he didn't go that route with their characters.
ReplyDeleteI think looking at Hardy himself as being crucial to the novel really brings about a new and better understanding of the novel. Also I think Krysta's comment about the milkmaids is a great one. They are a great example of how well Hardy develops his characters.
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