[hardy-l] Tess, a pure woman

[carolyn mcgrath]

Apologies to those on the POTM forum to whom I have addressed this in error - twice! Some of us never learn from our mistakes!

"Why was it that upon this beautiful feminine tissue, sensitive as gossamer, and practically blank as snow as yet, there should have been traced such a coarse pattern as it was doomed to receive..." (IX)

You quoted this earlier, Rosemarie and I thought then, and will ask now, what significance do people read into the use of the word 'practically' in this context? 

For me, having sexual feelings or experiences is not what compromises Tess' purity in the text. I don't read loss of virginity as being the concern but loss of virginity to Alec: he is incapable of respecting and valuing the very thing he desires, that is the pity of it. I love the ambiguity of the text - it opens up space for questioning one's ideas regarding premarital sex, the responsibility on women alone to 'say no' and the licence for men to persist for acquiescence regardless to a woman's, or girl's, readiness for such a step. I think the vague period of time after 'the event' indicates a temporary acquiescence on Tess' part for which there is little textual evidence to markedly separate it from 'the event' itself. 

I said in a much earlier post on this topic that I thought the clearest articulation by Tess of her view regarding what had happened is at the moment, on their wedding night, when she is frankly and honestly expressing her confession to Angel. The ambiguity readers have had to contend with up to this point can be resolved by accepting this frank and open admission at face value: her story is the same as Angel's. Why should we doubt her account at this point? For me, this is the truth of the matter. Tess does not consider herself to have been raped but to have been swept along temporarily by something and someone she soon came to despise. Although her readers may consider that she was in a poor position to 'choose', unfortunately for Tess, neither Angel nor society consistently see it that way. 

Tess' agony at discovering the unread letter and shame at her failure to confess prior to the marriage, thus enabling Angel to have a choice, is in sharp contrast to Angel's lack of conscience or real fear that he will be judged harshly by her. It is this finer feeling in Tess that marks her as a pure woman; in my view, her loss of virginity in 'The Chase' only compromises her because it is to Alec, who is a predator regardless to her having consented. A Victorian readership may have had difficulty in ascribing purity to a young woman who consents to premarital sex, but purity, or 'pure womanliness' cannot be limited to 'girls who say no', surely.

best wishes

Carolyn McGrath