EngLit

Selena Acqui · Plunger Data inscrierii: 08/Noi/2016 Mesaje: 33

1. When Angel and Tess arrive at Stonehenge, which Tess calls “The Temple of the Winds”, because of being tired, she decides to lie down on a slab. Following to this, Angel expresses his opinion regarding the stone on which Tess has found a place for rest by saying that the stone looks like an altar. Stonehenge is believed to be a place where rituals were held, some experts considering the place to have been used for funerals. Even if we know she has committed a crime and such an act is always connected to a punishment, does this scene give us certitude, in terms of symbols, regarding the future price she has to pay for her sin?

2. In Phase The Sixth, the author describes what the meaning to the Old Lady-Day meant to the villagers, and how they used to migrate from one place to another, some even forced by the circumstances, which would take place on April 6th. I have read that this date represents the beginning of the fiscal year in England. Could there be any link between this event and the fact that Tess and her family were forced to leave their cottage?
What about the celebration presented in chapter 2, in Phase The First? The May-Day, as far as I know, is a Celtic festival (which the Celts used to call Beltane), and it celebrates the richness of the earth, the revival of it. Are these events only some which the author wanted to use so he could offer some more details to adorn the novel and to describe the way traditions used to be sacredly followed in the South, or is it there a connection to Tess and Angel’s unplanned meeting with the celebration of the May- Day?

3. Related to our discussion at the seminar about how the events from Tess’s life are dictated by faith, I would like to add that, from my point of view, the game in which she gets involved might also be connected to the average- minded people’s desires. Her parents are common people, who can only afford average conditions to them and their children, with flaws that only make things worse: the father drinks, and the mother doesn’t see the consequences of actions. In their desperation to reach a better social status, they try to cling to every opportunity that can bring them a better living. When finding out about their ancestral and highborn kin roots, they already imagine their future brighter, start making plans, and, instantaneously use Tess as the object to their material happiness, without thinking about the consequences and about the fact that Tess will always be „ inked” with an emotional trauma, never to be removed and forever wounded by the thoughts of a precoce experience. At the same time, her parents want her to get married to a wealthy man, so they could also get on a better position in the society, and to demonstrate all the inhabitants of the village that their noble name makes them different and higher on social terms. I think this might be snobbery and the everlasting desire of the narrow-minded person to be assured in terms of wealth and material caress. I also think that Tess is the symbol of the balance between sin and redemption. Her thoughts, reactions and actions that she is forced to face highlight the idea that happiness is only momentary, it is a state of mind that never lasts and it is made up of instants which will fade away because she has to pay for her sin.

CCD · Dunker Data inscrierii: 26/Oct/2015 Mesaje: 21

1. At the beginning of the book (Phase the first, Chapter IV), there is a fragment in witch Tess said she lives on a “blighted star”, anticipating her tragic end:

"Did you say the stars were worlds, Tess?"
"Yes."
"All like ours?"
"I don't know; but I think so. They sometimes seem to be like the apples on our stubbard-tree. Most of them splendid and sound--a few blighted."
"Which do we live on--a splendid one or a blighted one?"
"A blighted one."
"'Tis very unlucky that we didn't pitch on a sound one, when there were so many more of 'em!"
"Yes."

On the basis of the fact that the place where the couple took refuge used to be an altar where victims were sacrificed to the gods, I find this to be an indication of the inevitable end that is near.

3. The social conventions of that time also have a considerable role in how Tess’s life evolves. Tess was labeled by this society as being an “immoral woman” that had made “queer unions”, regardless of her unstained soul. Moreover, it was not important that her sin was not “of her own seeking”. Were it not for the idea that being a “pure woman” is more important that being a decent person, Tess’s fate would have been different, as she was good, modest and loyal. Also, Angel’s demeanour at the moment he finds out Tess’s secret emphasize the great impact the rural Victorian world played in the young people’s mind (supposing they were more open-minded then the older), because Angel Clare was too blinded by his moral rigidities to see his young wife’s redeeming points (“With all his attempted independence of judgement this advanced and well-meaning young man, a sample product of the last five-and-twenty years, was yet the slave to custom and conventionality when surprised back into his early teachings…. In considering what Tess was not, he overlooked what she was, and forgot that the defective can be more than the entire”).

Ciocotişan Diana

Ananie Sorina · Dunker Data inscrierii: 01/Noi/2015 Mesaje: 18

Ananie Sorina

Tess of the dUrbervilles is by nature a pure woman simply by not receiving an education, or rather some warnings about how much pain a man can cause when he believes he deserves everything, especially a woman. Therefore, not knowing all these things, Tess has not been able to see the hidden intentions behind Alec's gestures apparently full of kindness. So, she fell into the trap that Alec set up for her with so much precision.

Tess's purity also lies in her thinking, and in her actions too. For exemple, the fact that she is capable to sacrifice so often for the good of her family denote that she has a pure and full of kindness soul.