[Hardy-l] Tess and Alec

[Stacy Hauth]

i read fascinating womanhood and the author likes to study feminine characters in novels so i reread Tess and i remember she was called what a fair and virginal creature of nature
the novel can give you some purity and it influenced my thinking i remember i left my boyfriend and said an attractive girl is a virgin and not someone with a boyfriend i was falling in love wiht other men and felt i had ruined myself wiht mark 
and in st paul paul says that an unmarried woman can devote herself to God body and spirit and dont live by the flesh live by the spirit and i think that this book might have helped my relationship wiht God He likes the virgin refusal and i was offering love songs to God every morning like whitney houston and drawing roses from my garden and God started to speak to me i was trying to be a virgin who loves God and was thinking about joining a convent  

--- On Sat, 1/10/09, sheskijoan at hotmail.com <sheskijoan at hotmail.com> wrote:

From: sheskijoan at hotmail.com <sheskijoan at hotmail.com>
Subject: RE: [Hardy-l] Tess and Alec
To: "Betty Cortus" <hardy-l at coyote.csusm.edu>
Date: Saturday, January 10, 2009, 2:02 PM




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I think Art's approach is an important one, especially with regard to suspending judgment about, not only the event in the Chase, but also the complexity of Tess and Alec's relationship, and above all, Tess herself.  He indicates that Hardy, by omitting conclusive details, is asking us to sustain the tension of unknowing, perhaps so that we will consider more deeply the personal and societal dimensions motivating and restraining Tess.  

Another aspect of his work asks us to identify emotionally with Tess as well as other characters.  I agree with Art about the validity of this process.  Art, I hope you'll post some excerpts about the Chase from your book, so that everyone can benefit from reading them.  I, along with Keith and some others, did not watch the latest visual effort to portray this novel.  There is much layered imagery and information in TH's words to engage my attention on intellectual, philosophic, and emotional terms; I find film portrayals impoverish and reduce these complexities to conclusive banalities.  

To assign carnal innocence or knowledge, to decide whether Tess is child or woman, to assume she either acts independently or not...all such conclusions miss the mark, I believe.  Perhaps Tess, like each of us, contains all these dichotomies.  If we can allow for such contradictions, we can begin to delve more deeply into why this particular woman, this character, means so much to us.  

Joan Sheski

      

> Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 21:02:38 -0500
> From: efron at buffalo.edu
> To: hardy-l at coyote.csusm.edu; efron at buffalo.edu
> CC: 
> Subject: [Hardy-l] Tess and Alec 
> 
> Evidently there still is much disagreement over the passage in the novel 
> that tells about what happened been Tess and Alec in the Chase without 
> telling what happened between Tess and Alec in the Chase. I am impressed 
> once again with the sincere interest of the many readers trying to 
> understand this passage. It is interest and effort centered on 
> something that matters.
> 
> In my book on Hardy's novel, I take a different approach to the problem 
> than any I have seen elsewhere. It is not a problem susceptible to 
> simplification. I find no mention of my effort in the many messages I 
> have been reading this past week on this list. Not surprisingly, I 
> believe I made a contribution to understanding. Regardless of whether 
> anyone might concur with what I wrote, may I ask if anyone here knows 
> about the approach I took?
> 
> This is simply a question.
> 
> --Art Efron
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> .
> 
> 
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> Hardy-l mailing list
> Hardy-l at coyote.csusm.edu
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> 



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