Oh my gosh, the second and final part of Tess of The D'urbervilles last night was enough to make you want to slit your wrists. I felt so depressed afterwards, that after going to bed I had to turn the lamp on again and read something cheery for a few minutes.Had I known how the story ended, I may not have been willing to sit through the amount of hardship that poor ol' Tess goes through.
Hey, let's make up a main character, put her through the wringer (raped, outcast, her child dies, her husband racks off for no apparent reason, she becomes homeless and destitute, her loser drunk dad dies, she gets pushed into marrying her rapist) for the entire book, and then have the story happily end with her going to the gallows. Yeah, that'll be a barrel of laughs.
It depressed the heck out of me. There was not one redeemable male character in the whole story (don't you dare say that Angel was redeemable because he came back to her either- he'd been an absolute hypocrite, and nicked off for several years), and basically every single female character was victimised. Happy days.
7 comments:
I watched it too.
It was harrowing. Yet at the same time mesmeric.
All the men were awful. Angel as bad as any. His hypocrisy was astounding. And what about the way that Christianity was portrayed? Brutal. But an honest reflection of what happened then, and what happens today I suspect.
5 stars.
Well, the novel after all, has been categorised in the genre of tragedy... so it certainly delivered on that.
Hey, Al, thanks for stopping by.
I just read a few interesting bits and pieces about it. The subheading for the novel 'A Pure Woman', so obviously Thomas Hardy was on her side, and pointing out the injustices and hypocisies surrounding her.
Another interesting thing, was the idea behind Stonehenge at the end. Her asleep on that big slab was like her getting ready to be sacrificed on an alter.
A tough story, but a lot of food for thought in there.
Christine, oh yeah, it was certainly that.
I thought the Stonehenge thing was a bit OTT and gothic. There are more subtle ways to suggest sacrifice than putting the poor girl on an altar at Stonehenge.
I didn't watch it but did see a scene between Tess & Alec - good acting on the part of the girl playing Tess; didn't wait long enough to assess anyone else's acting.
We had to read a Thomas Hardy novel for Yr 12 English - I think it was Far From the Madding Crowd - Mum bought me an omnibus edition that had three books in it including Tess.
Apparently, Tess was inspired by Hardy's having seen a hanging when he was a young child and being scarred by it. Watching hangings was a bit of a pastime for the rest of the citizenry in those days. Urk.
Bonnie- I guess it was a bit over the top, but the gothic aspect appealed to me.
Laetitia- Yes, the acting was good throughout. Actually all of the production values were really high. I thought the cinamatography was great.
You might have the same omnibus as me- mine has Tess, Mayor of Castorbridge and Madding Crowd. Yet to read any of them!
And that's why I didn't watch it...
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