[Hardy-l] Tess

[carolyn mcgrath]

Sorry to those who subscribe to POTM and the Forum - I have been sending my messages to the wrong group in error!

I'm surprised that Jackie thinks the 'seduction scene' was left ambiguous as I saw it quite clearly as rape: Tess' naivety and lack of mature sexual desire had been clearly signalled earlier, there was little shared intimacy, the act was clearly painful and distressing and the scene immediately after, in the dawn, showed Tess with clothes torn and lying in an almost catatonic state. Alec, standing with his back to her, coolly and dismissively leaves her saying she can keep his coat. On her return to work, the knowing laughter of the 'Queens' at Tess' dress being muddied, is all the more cruel for our knowledge of the nature of what has taken place. That Tess is unable to blame Alec entirely for the rape is not surprising. She left a drunken party late; she was in a fight with a baggage; she voluntarily mounted his horse; she found herself returning his embraces when he surprised her as she slept on the ground in the fog - she can find many reasons for
having 'asked for it', and so could everyone else. I don't know whether Hardy would have written a more explicit rape scene himself, social mores permitting, but the ambiguity in the novel seems more demanding of an audience when considering the 'purity' of Tess and Angel's treatment of her. I'd have thought a C21st TV audience would have the capacity to wrestle with that one. 

As far as sex in the second mansion goes - yes, it was clearly shown but that doesn't make it gratuitous. I think it was made necessary by the explicitness of the earlier rape scene and to clearly show that Angel has been changed - even if you don't want to let him off the hook! How can he not consumate their marriage if he knows himself to have been wrong in his treatment of her and to be responsible for her pain and suffering. He needs to submit to her will, which is to be allowed to love and to be loved. If they'd shown Tess and Alec bonking in the boarding house - that would have been gratuitous! 

One further query, I don't know why Joan suggested that the portrayal was surreal. Maybe you could come back on that one, Joan. Was it the photography of landscape that made you say that? I quite liked the repeated use of the same camera position as Tess returned to places. I suppose it was none too subtle but that's not necessarily a fault in itself either.

I did enjoy it and still have it on recorded viewing - I will no doubt spend another 4 hours watching it again quite soon!

best wishes


Carolyn McGrath