Notesale: Turn your study into money

Document Preview

Extracts from the notes are below, to see the PDF you'll receive please use the links above

---

Bethany Lee Thompson

Literature Coursework

10/02/2015

Further and Independent Reading – Novels
A comparison of fallen women and tragic heroines in Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles
and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter
Before the advent of feminism in the 19th and 20th century, women were portrayed in literature as inferior to
men, most likely due to the Biblical creation story when it was Eve that was inclined to evil and disobeyed God,
whereas Adam did not fall from God’s grace
...
A fallen woman is a female who loses her reputation, usually for sexual
misconduct, which is considered a sin against God
...

A tragic heroine faces hardship and ruin that inevitably results in her death – like Tess and Hester
...
Hawthorne’s talent and use of tragedy often hailed him as ‘the
American Shakespeare’
...
Although both male writers use women who are ‘tragic’ or
‘fallen’ as their centre of consciousness, they are both perhaps using these ideas of women to comment on
male behaviours and social injustice as the audience sides with the women, who are pitiable, whereas men are
portrayed as villains
...
Both use fallen and tragic women in their novels, perhaps to present their views on women and the lack
of rights they had, despite most likely being written for upper-class, educated men
...

The women are judged initially on appearance, but mostly their purity, rather than their character
...
Hester Prynne, from The Scarlet Letter, also has a baby out
of wedlock, yet she is punished by being brandished by a red ‘A’ on her breast while the secret partner goes
unpunished
...
Although
neither of them are to blame for their downfall, both of their cruel fates are at the hands of men who aren’t in
control of their primitive desires
...
It
highlights societal double standards
...
He employs an archaic
register to do this
...
Like in the bible, women
were either worshipped for being ‘pure’, like the Virgin Mary, or were held responsible for the wrongs of the
world, the sin and the impurity, like Eve from the story of creation
...
At the time, witchcraft was a sin but in The
Scarlet Letter, Mistress Hibbins is a witch associated with “the black man” (devil) but isn’t trialled because she
is a rich women with the protection of her brother, the governor, whereas a woman from a lower class, if
associated with a scandal, would be punished
...

Both texts employ imagery and symbolism to present the downfall of their protagonists
...
Red has connotation of passion and sin to
reflect the meaning of the ‘A’; adulterer
...
Tess is often described as wearing white - "the only one of the
white company who could boast of such a pronounced adornment"
...
White represents purity and
innocence as at this point in the narrative, she is virginal, but red symbolises her fate
...
As both are set in agricultural worlds (a new colony
in America and Wessex England) nature is in the background of every scene, often simply used for setting or
pathetic fallacy
...
Above them rose the primeval yews and oaks of The
Chase, in which were poised gentle roosting birds in their last nap; and around them the hopping rabbits and
hares
...
Nature is used to highlight male dominance
...
The isolated woodland setting of both novels allows the male characters
freedom from the restrictions of society
...
Alec rapes Tess in the wood, away from
man-made laws and unseen by peers as it would be a crime and tarnish his name, making him appear more
primitive and animalistic by being unable to control his passions
...
This suggests that women are strong and dignified, despite being victims
...
The horse is killed when the shaft of the cart he was attached to pierces his breast, a
phallic symbol that parallels Tess’ destiny
...
This then results in her death in the
denouement as she is hanged for the murder of her attacker
...

The novels share character traits
...
They both have sex out of wedlock because of men, yet still crave male love
...
Angel had sex out of wedlock yet left Tess on their wedding night because he couldn’t
forgive her for the same ‘mistake’, despite that hers was non-consensual
...
The antagonists are both dominating males who punish
the women yet are responsible for their crimes
...
Both novels expose social
hypocrisy – women are punished, whereas men guilty of the same crime aren’t
...
They both have expositions to introduce the female protagonists and
set up the story
...
The audience is immediately made aware of Hester’s past in the exposition as
they are told of her case and the scarlet letter
...
For
example: Tess’ rape, giving birth, the death of her baby and Angel’s departure on their wedding night
...
The
Scarlet Letter’s crisis points are used similarly, as well as to add to the idea she is fallen; her husband arrives
and threatens her, she is under threat of having her daughter (Pearl) removed and Dimmesdale is sick
...
Tess murders Alec and is hanged for her
crime, despite doing it as revenge for her rape
...
Hester’s love dies, she
leaves Boston then dies of old age, alone in the world as her daughter has left her to be wed
...
Yet one tombstone served for both”
...

Some readers may argue that these women are simply weak, not tragic or fallen, as they allow themselves to
be punished for what they believe to be right, as well as depending on men throughout the novels but they are
pre-feminist novels that don’t show women as independent
...
Both writers try to get the audience to reconsider ideas of women, though they still
conform to the ‘princess’ character type
...

In conclusion, tragic heroines and fallen women are used in literature to express author opinions on the
subject of women and how society treats them
...




---