[Hardy-l] Tess' freedom

[Kevin Taylor]

I came across this nice soundbite that made me think of the recent  
discussion of Tess and her rage.

Karl Rahner, a 20th century Catholic theologian, in a larger section  
on death and how it gives meaning to our lives, discusses how life  
without death would be without significance, as anything could be  
later undone or erased. All decisions and deeds could later be undone.  
So, he holds, that true freedom is "not the power constantly to change  
one's course of action, but rather the power to decide that which is  
to be final and definitive in one's life, that which cannot be  
superseded or replaced, the power to bring into being from one's own  
resources that which must be, and must not pass away, that summons to  
a decision that is irrevocable." (Theological Investigations vol 7,  
page 287).

I think this has some interesting implications for tragedy, where time  
is meaningful and "supercharged," if dangerous and painful. We could  
say that Tess is truly free in her murder of Alec, though this is  
troubling too (it is murder, after all), and would also say something  
interesting about her strange freedom around her arrest and death--her  
freedom continues, in a sense, as she accepts the consequences for her  
actions.

I agree, Rosemarie, that it is Tess' passivity, inherited from her  
parents, that haunts her and creates part of her tragic web, and in  
her murder of Alec she finally throws off that passivity and becomes  
truly active, if in a terrifying way.

Kevin

-- 
Kevin Taylor
thomaskevintaylor at gmail.com
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thomaskevintaylor (skype)

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