[Hardy-l] Re: Thoughts on 'Tess'

[Rosemarie Morgan]

- Yes I agree -- I'm happy to let it remain an unresolved "mystery" 
too.    Nothing is cut and dried - far from it  (but this is not the place 
for giving a lecture). A previous post talked about whether Tess remained 
sleeping or not. That's not the point- She was sleeping when "appropriated" 
(Hardy's word) and surely one would awaken under such circumstances if for 
no other reason than from the sheer physical pain.  Hardy evidently thought 
very carefully about this scene--- in another version he has Alec force an 
intoxicating liquor down her throat before appropriating her body (an act 
included under the current law on "rape"). Hardy was not a magistrate for 
nothing - he knew his law.

But to clear up a few other misinterpretations:

1. Re your claim "In the light of what happened subsequently in the ongoing
relationship" --  As far as I can recall there's nothing to indicate in 
Hardy's text that Tess and Alec enjoyed a sexual relationship during the 
remainder of her stay (remember how difficult it was for Alec to get just 
one kiss out of her when she leaves?). She leaves when she discovers she is 
pregnant (back to text) This would account for the Chase incident of approx 
3 month's prior (2-3 months is the customary yardstick   --- for reasons I 
don't need to explain here).  Hardy, incidentally, is also fairly precise 
in his account of Fanny Robin's departure from Weatherbury  in FFMC (work 
out the chronology, clearly delineated by TH, and  you'll find she was 
pregnant on departure - hence her urgency in hunting down Troy at the 
barracks). Back to Tess's continued stay at the mansion, there is every 
reason to think that she would be traumatised by Alec's assault and as you 
know that can  produce extreme reactions in the victim including an 
instinctive resort to various cognitive mechanisms that allow them to cope 
with their sudden victimization (coping mechanisms). One of these is to 
identify with the oppressor.

2. "Real people" ? We have in a sense to rely on the fact that there is a 
parallel world beyond the novel. If there were not the outrage and uproar 
incited by *Tess* and *Jude* would be of little account. If the "parson's 
daughter" is to be corrupted by such works (as LS maintained) then it's 
likely that this is because she might relate to them. We are not talking 
about Mickey Mouse narratives, we are talking about what Victorians called 
"realism."  Moreover, we are not speculating about "what
might have happened beyond the bounds of the text" we are speculating about 
Tess (& one can't discount Hardy's other narratives concerning this event).

Of greater interest to my mind is the extent to which Hardy's narrator is 
so explicit in this troubling scene (from the male trace upon her gossamer 
tissue through to the knightly rapines of old). If we compare Tess's 
experience to Hetty's (Eliot) or to Ruth's (Gaskell) the degree of candour 
in Hardy is quite startling -- although it must be said that leaving the 
reader to figure out that poor little Hetty is pregnant when all we have 
encountered is one scene in which Donnithorne kisses her (witnessed by 
Adam) results in quite an arduous rethinking of the text to try and figure 
it all out. In that respect perhaps the less said the more there is to be said

All best
Rosemarie
________________________________

B:59 PM 1/9/2009, you wrote:
>The textual and (for what it's worth) the legal situations are much less
>cut and dried than you are making them here, Rosemarie.
>
>
>Best,
>
>Keith