[hardy-l] Tess's ending

[Pauline Guerin]

Au Contraire Monsieur

 

I agree that reality does sometimes end up on a positive note, but it very
often doesn't, as I can vouch from personal experience.  

 

Similarly, to say that someone can 'simply leave' is very naive, as again I
can vouch from personal experience.  And don't forget we are talking fin de
siecle here, we are talking about 19th century morals and cultural
anomalies.  In those days one could not 'simply leave' very often that
option 'simply' did not exist.  Indeed, even in these far more liberal days,
it is incredibly difficult to 'simply leave'.   To say that she could
'simply leave' is to suggest that life is simple, and it really is not, it
is really very complicated.

 

You are, of course, very entitled to dislike the ending, but I think you
have to dislike it for the right reasons, I'm not sure that you are.  Try
putting yourself into Tess's place, what would you have done, and don't
forget she is a woman, she does not have the same rights or options that a
man has.

 

Besides, does the ending not make the book that much more controversial,
that much more exciting, and yet devastating.  Does it not increase sympathy
for a naive, innocent character who was, allegedly, badly wronged?
Personally I feel that if the ending was changed  into a happy fairy-tale
ending, firstly, we would not be sitting here discussing it, and secondly,
it would have been a very lame and limp old story.

 


Reality sometimes does end up positive..It does not seem credible that a
girl with Tess's history would commit murder when all she had to do was to
simply leave Alec to go with her rightful partner and legal husband, Angel.
That would have been what life is really like. 

 

Kind regards

 

 

Pauline

 

 

Pauline Guerin MA

 

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