Hester and Tess

A comparative analysis of books, "The Scarlet Letter", by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and "Tess of the D'urbervilles", by Thomas Hardy. Written in 2004; 1,468 words; 2 sources; Paper Summary: .
How do Nathaniel Hawthorne and Thomas Hardy present the suffering of women due to a patriarchal society in The Scarlet Letter and Tess of the dUrbervilles? Tess of the dUrbervilles was a novel of anger against their usual conventions. Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American writer who wrote The Scarlet Letter because of a fascination he derived when coming across the actual scarlet letter. Indeed, in 1845 he speculates in his journal what life would be like for a woman, who, by the old colony law, was condemned always to wear the letter A, sewed on her garment, in token of her having committed adultery. The Scarlet Letter is an example of the grief of an ostracised woman; Hawthorne uses her to make a point about gender equality quite poignant in an age when women were considered to be mere chattels of men by many societies. Indeed, society in the 17th Century, the time The Scarlet Letter is based in, was very patriarchal, meaning the man or husband was instituted by God as governor of his family and household and the women, children and servants were likewise meant to serve them and show complete obedience. Women were continually instructed that their spiritual and social worth resided above all else in their practice of reputation for chastity. Above all else, women just werent seen fit to be important people in society; their social, economical and political quality was hindered by patriarchy and this was the cause of much of the outcry that started to develop at the time Hardy and Hawthorne wrote their novels. Feminism was of course a powerful movement, but this did not truly develop until later, at the start of the 20th Century with the suffragettes. Before this, women found it really difficult to stand up from their oppression, but some still expressed their desire for equal rights between men and women. Hardy and Hawthorne were proto-feminists, writers with not necessarily new ideas (many writers wrote of how women, when oppressed, were prone to madness or murder) but both with a very new, powerful way of saying them. One can at first begin to look in detail at the womens suffering, and mans contribution to this, in the most powerful entities working in both the novels the keeping of a tragic secret. Hawthorne and Hardy make both Hester and Tess, in most parts of the tales, hold very powerful and extremely important facts of their past which, when revealed, have dire consequences. It is important to point out that sometimes the inability to share or tell the secret causes more pain to the women

than from other factors, especially in The Scarlet Letter where Hester cannot bear the fact she knows Chillingworth, her husband, is slowly ruining Mr Dimmesdale but is under oath to not say anything, though the pain obviously becomes too much as she ends up telling Mr Dimmesdale anyway, displaying a great feeling of sin and anxiety in doing so: That old man! the physician! he whom they call Roger Chillingworth! he was my husband! The same can be seen in Tess of the dUrbervilles where Tess, in the midst of blissful joy is under the constant pang of pain because of her deep desire to tell Angel Clare the truth, though too afraid of the consequences: I am so anxious to talk to you I want to confess all my faults and blunders! she said with attempted lightness. However, Hardy actually presents Tess as incredibly brave throughout the novel as she attempts to tell Angel, though he arrogantly keeps telling her to say it later, thinking nothing of it, and we even see Tess deliver a letter to him, though Fate does not allow Angel to receive it. Some feminists would see Hardys presentation of Angels uncaring attitude to Tesss secret, as a distinct part of masculine behaviour one of the many traits men possess that inevitably cause oppression to women. The feminist, Luce Irigaray, has actually investigated men and womens everyday use of language and found that men mainly talk about things that encourage themselves, as Irigaray put it self affection. We can see this in Angel Clare throughout mainly in Angels lack of regard to Tesss desperate attempts to tell him something he even admits it himself: Why didnt you tell me before? Ah, yes, you would have told me, in a way but I hindered you, I remember! This could be argued as the fact that Tess only found herself capable of revealing her secret on their wedding night. This idea could also be said to appear in The Scarlet Letter where Hawthorne presents Dimmesdale thinking not about Hesters situation but constantly about his own guilt as a different entity to Hesters. Though he knows Hesters shame and guilt is evident, his is more important in his mind. Of course this changes when Hester convinces him to move away with her when talking in the woods, which just highlights how valid womens views are and so can be said to be a cry out for them to be respected and noticed more. The secret of Tesss (her sexual deviance with Alec dUrberville) identified, we can compare this with Hesters main secret and distinguish how male dominance has caused the pain and suffering which follows the secrets and inevitably causes more pain. Hester Prynne, like Tess, has also had sex outside marriage and this is shown by Hawthorne as more a disgrace to society than Hardy showed in of Tesss case. Hester, while being made to stand on a stage in front of her whole town, is told to

name the father of the child and so they can address and deal with the full ambiguity of the crime. Of course, the leaders and ministers of the town are all men and ironically the important figure asking Hester Prynne the guilty mans name is in fact the guilty man himself! So, Hawthorne allows us to see the harshness of Hesters secret and the pressure surrounding it due to the supposed cruelty and meanness that society has given Mr Dimmesdale the power to do to her. It can be argued that Hawthorne presents Hester here as showing great amount of willpower to do what she believes is morally right and not to simply give in under the heavily religious patriarchal society. Some feminists would argue that this highlights how superior women can be in relation to men, and that it is a sad case that the women are almost forced to endure the suffering because they are able to put up with it. Indeed, there is a feminist theory, put forward by Irigaray that suggests to have a vagina is to be deprived of a voice, because if the vagina is regarded as a hole it is therefore a negative space. So it could be argued that Hester and Tess simply have the ability to fill up what they are given by men and indeed it seems they do. However, Mr Dimmesdale shows awe in her behaviour, in the ironic scene on the stage, as it seems he expects the truth to unfold: She will not speak! murmured Mr Dimmesdale, who, leaning over the balcony with his hand upon his heart, had awaited the result of his appeal. He now drew back with a long respiration. Wondrous strength and generosity of a womans heart! She will not speak! Likewise, Tess shows a huge amount of strength, pride and decency (though this still could be interpreted as negative space she cannot have the power or tact/thought to refrain from telling the secret) to be honest enough to reveal the secret of her past to Angel. One could say Hardy presents the decency of women as a major factor in their inevitability to suffer it allows them to be more vulnerable by the unfairness of men. One could argue, in fact, that Irigarays described empty space is in fact a void of decency and moral ready to be stained by men (Alec, Angel). But to truly see how men themselves, rather than the womans faults/weaknesses, indeed initiate and cause the pain in the secrecy, and the suffering when told (in Tesss case) or untold (in Hesters case), we have to look at religion in this case Christianity. Christianity plays a major role in how the men and women behave in Hardy and Hawthornes novels and society at those times as a whole. It is a powerful theme constant through both of the novels. Many people view Christianity (and other religions) as highly patriarchal, or at least it easily allows other people to interpret the teachings in this way. Indeed, Hardy himself was born in to a religious family and grew up with a good knowledge of Christianity but he was never actually religious. He once stated he had spent his entire life looking for God but never found him. In the late 19th century many people actually began to question religion and peoples faith began to waver as new ideas were being put forth. Charles Darwins Origin of Species explained the theory of evolution, defying typical religious beliefs

such as Creationism. These ideas heavily affected Hardy himself and this became apparent in Tess of the dUrbervilles. Indeed it can be said that he uses the men in the story as a way of putting forward his own views. Hardy points out Angel Clare, in Tess of the dUrbervilles, as quite un-religious with a more modern mind, believing in the glory of man rather than the glory of God: What is the good of your mother and me economising and stinting ourselves to give you a University education, if it is not to be used for the honour and glory of God? his father repeated. Why, that it may be used for the honour and glory of man, father. This un-religious, modern idea is held with him all the way through the story up until Tess reveals her secret and then our view of him changes dramatically. Even though he professed to a crime deemed as equal to Tesss, he actually regards Tesss crime as worse: O Tess, forgiveness does not apply to the case! You were one person; now you are another. My God how can forgiveness meet such a grotesque prestidigitation as that! One could explain this by Angels heavily religious upbringing and therefore deeply internal ideas (his father being a clergy man). He has inevitably grown up with the sense that men are superior and somehow not to blame for their sins whereas women are. This idea can be backed up by the story of Adam and Eve and the way civilisation has grown to see woman as the original sinner . So, the views religion places on men could be said to be the machine driving forth the sexist views that decide how they act to women thus acting as the main causation of womens pain. It is Hardys way of highlighting the many faults of religion. The love-driven pain, which Tess endures, is horrendous and Hardy points this out well by the beautiful scenario described while incorporating Christianity an interesting contrast, arguably to show us that religion is useless to the end (as upon uttering the words, Tess in fact finds them inappropriate): Was there another such a wretched being as she in the world? Tess asked herself; and, thinking of her wasted life, said, All is vanity. Hardy almost has a certain degree of love and jealousy for Tess himself and so does well in creating such a painful picture of the suffering Tess, therefore allowing no pity to Angels actions. This leads the reader to have a very pitying, sympathetic identification of Tess, naturally causing us to feel anger towards the patriarchal society. J. Hills Miller, a Hardy critic, points this out in by saying: 'I for one find the description of Angel Clare's failure to consummate his marriage to Tess almost unbearably painful' , which I think exemplifies the effect Hardy was after. Miller shows that Hardy almost makes the reader fall in love with Tess, with his beautiful

descriptions of her, and when we see the pain she falls in to we concoct a hatred at the society that inflicted the plain. In comparison, the scenarios of suffering are quite different in The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne presents Mr Dimmesdale as a character deemed by society to be incredibly religious and pure, and indeed to the reader he seems to be. But the very fact he is guilty of his crime denies this thought. The reader, however, doesnt realize the mans guilt and it is slowly exposed through the story. This could be said to be Hawthornes method of slowly making us realize the error of the mans ways and how terrible he has therefore treated Hester. By exposing the guilt slowly, Hawthorne does well in making us tell ourselves it cannot be so, but when Chillingworth reveals that the supposition of guilt is in fact true, it shocks us as we realize our own views of the supposed innocence of the pure minister are wrong. Our own bias in favour of religion and the supposed pure man shows us our false ideas, and highlights just how guilty the supposed good, religious patriarchal society is. Mr Dimmesdale could be said to be Hawthornes representation of patriarchal society as a whole. Though Angel Clare and Mr Dimmesdale can in fact be seen as opposites one being heavily religious and the other being heavily anti-religious, there is still a sense of similarity in that they both live by high, strict morals and the fact that their morals prove so powerful, forces them to act in the way that they do to the women, for example Angels distinct morals heavily affects Tesss opinions of everything, and Dimmesdale suffers guilt through a slow degradation because of his views. But the very fact that Hawthorne has Dimmesdale as the minister highlights how much mens own stubborn beliefs cause women oppression. It could be argued that the whole cause of Hesters solitary suffering is that Dimmesdales religion is such an integral part of him and that to expose himself would be much too horrific (arguably much more so than Hester) and this keeps Hester in torment of holding on to a secret alone. So, by this charater, Hawthorne highlted how the selfish beliefs of men cause women pain, and begs us to reconsider mens moral beliefs in general. Indeed, Dimmesdale is torn between the two powerful entities religion and moral values. This shows how the ideals put on men from a patriarchal society truly pressures them to behave in a powerful way. Dimmesdale has been given huge authority and when given a choice to either help Hester and admit guilt or simply deny it, he denies it because he cannot bare the disgrace against the society. In other words, societys gigantic expectations of him pressure him to behave in the way he does: The directness of this appeal drew the eyes of the whole crowd upon the Reverend Mr Dimmesdale a young clergyman, who had come from one of the great English universities, bringing all the learning of the age into our wild forest-land. His eloquence and religious fervour had already given the earnest of high eminence in his profession coming forth, when occasion was, with a freshness, and fragrance, and dewy purity of thought, which, as many people said, affected them like the speech of an angel.

So far we have not discussed any of the villains in The Scarlet Letter and Tess of the dUrbervilles as these work very differently to the other men in the novels. The villain Hardy presents in Tess of the dUrbervilles, Alec dUrberville, can, on the surface, be ultimately blamed for all of Tesss grief. After all, Alec forced a situation on her (sex) when she hardly knew what to do: I was a mere child. It could be heavily argued that Alec felt he could abuse Tess merely because he was a male in a patriarchal society a sort of idealized self-recognition he had the right (indeed felt it almost his duty) to do what he pleased. Again this could be argued to have stemmed from religion as he has adopted the typical Christian patriarchal views. Alec carries with himself a sense of manly pride a womaniser throughout the beginning of the novel, for example when Tess says she did not know what Alec wanted of her until it was too late hears the reply: Thats what every woman says. This type of character, expertly selected by Hardy, is the perfect care-not-for-women (the contemporary masher) attitude that so easily allows Tess to fall in to the life of shame and secrecy discussed. As mentioned before (using Irigarays idea), it could be said that the man fills up her hole of emptiness. By this, Hardy makes us think how the gay, happy behaviour often so popular with men actually causes much of oppression to women. It allows the reader to rethink his views on how morally a man should behave. It can be argued that Alecs pursuit of Tess, and in some cases his making her a pursuit of him (though rarely), is purely from physical attraction, unlike the spiritual attraction seen between Tess and Angel. We can see this in Alecs bodily language and attitude the full lips, the curled moustache, the bold rolling eye, the cigar and the fast gig. So, here we can understand how Alec uses his features for getting Tess not his aura or deep personality as Angel does. There appears to be no concrete evidence of love at the start of the novel as when he talks of love it is so unconvincing: We know each other well; and you know that I love you, and think you the prettiest girl in the world, which you are. Maynt I treat you as a lover? Looking at the villain in The Scarlet Letter Roger Chillingworth we see how, rather than wanting to obtain Hester and have sex with her (as Alec does to Tess) he is more attached to the idea of revenge: I shall seek this man, as I have sought truth in books: as I have sought gold in alchemy. There is a sympathy that will make me conscious of him. I shall see him tremble. I shall feel myself shudder, suddenly and unawares. Sooner or later, he must needs be mine. It could be argued that, unlike Alec, he is old and passed it, therefore perhaps not being attracted to Hester. Indeed she is not meant to look attractive when wearing the scarlet letter: As if there were a withering spell in the sad letter, her beauty, the

warmth and richness of her womanhood, departed like a fading sunshine, and a grey shadow seemed to fall across her. Hawthorne presents Chillingworth as thinking he has the right to cause more strife and pain. He feels that he, being a man, if unable to obtain Hester lovingly or sexually, has to exact some stage of power. So, in this light we can agree with the wise chiasmus in Mary Leapers Essay on Woman 1751: Despised, if ugly; if shes fair, betrayed. This seems to sum up how Tess, being very beautiful, is used and betrayed by Alec, and Hester, not being so fair, is despised and revenged upon by Chillingworth. Some feminists would be quick to point out that this highlights how men would be more interested in physical attractiveness and beauty rather than spiritual love. Hardy and Hawthorne do well in exemplifying the crudeness of men and how their basic morals make them a hazard to women. This idea can also be seen with Angel Clare, as well as Alec dUrberville, and indeed may even show Angel as maybe more of a villain than Alec! With Angel we see his love for Tess as very idealistic it can be argued that he is not in love with Tess, but with the idea of women in general which she represents, and this shows much more harm to women, as if Angel does not love Tess herself what is he actually in love with? It would appear merely his own wishful, imaginative, creature: It was then, as has been said, that she impressed him most deeply. She was no longer the milkmaid, but a visionary essence of woman a whole sex condensed into one typical form. He called her Artemis, Demeter, and other fanciful names Indeed, Hardy presents this idea seems true when he falls out of love with her on the wedding night when his vision of her alters. This can be compared with how Hawthorne presents Chillingworth in The Scarlet Letter as he fails to show any kind of love towards Hester when he sees her on the balcony, in fact only anger: he slowly and calmly raised his anger, made a gesture with it in the air, and laid it on his lips. So, it could be argued that Hardy and Hawthorne show us that the major factor in the suffering of women is due to the different, more artificial types of love given and taken by men and their effect on women. Indeed Sigmund Freud actually believed that women had more to lose by being in love, like Tess losing Angel, when he states: It is precisely in women that the danger-situation of loss of object seems to have remained the most effective. In conclusion, we can see that Hardys Tess of the dUrbervilles and Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter both show the suffering of women to be caused by a patriarchal society in very different ways, the supposed good and bad characters behaving very differently. Though some feminists would argue Tess dUrberfield does not truly act as a generalisation of all womanhood and that she is a character distinct and

extraordinary, it is obvious she inevitably highlights a great deal of oppression capable of men all the way through the novel. We see that Hardy presents Tess at the end of the novel as being killed off, just like the pheasants that Tess puts out of their misery and the animals described in the farm: and the standing corn was reduced to smaller area as the morning wore on. Rabbits, hares, snakes, rats, mice, retreated inwards as into a fastness, unaware of the ephemeral nature of their refuge, and of the doom that awaited them later in the day when, their covert shrinking to a more and more horrible narrowness, they were huddled together, friends and foes, till the last few yards of upright wheat fell also under the teeth of the unerring reaper, and they were every one put to death by the sticks and stones of the harvesters. Hardy, here, tells us of a situation which in fact happens to Tess. Tess is no different to the doomed animals, and, and this points out just how false society is (to treat women like animals) and highlights how much change needs to be done to the oppression of women. Though it could be argued that Hester Prynne does not suffer as much as Mr Dimmesdale, particularly through guilt, one cannot argue that the patriarchal system set in the seventeenth century is not to blame for most of the suffering Hester herself endures (after all Dimmesdales suffering is his own fault). Indeed, it is Hawthornes aim to really highlight the unfairness of the patriarchal society not just to women but to men, too. Hawthorne uses Hester Prynne as a means to convey his proto-feminist views: Indeed, the same question often rose into her mind with reference to the whole race of womanhood. Was existence worth accepting, even to the happiest among them? As concerning her own individual existence, she had long ago decided in the negative, and dismissed the point as settled. A tendency to speculation, though it may keep women quiet, as it does man, yet makes her sad. She discerns, it may be, such a hopeless task before her. As a first step, the whole system of society is to be torn down and built up anew. Then the very nature of the opposite sex, or its long hereditary habit, which has become like nature, is to be essentially modified before woman can be allowed to assume what seems a fair and suitable position.

Bibliography: Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Scarlet Letter, (Wordsworth, 1992) and Thomas Hardy - Tess of the dUrbervilles, (Wordsworth, 1993) and Luce Irigary - I Love To You: Sketch of a Possible Felicity in History. Trans. Alison Martin. New York: Routledge, 1996. and

J. Hills Miller - Fiction and Repetition: Seven English Novels, Harvard University Press, 1982 Ellen Moers. Literary Women, Anchor Books, NY, 1977 and Sigmund Freud - Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety, 1926 and Joanna Cullen Brown Hardys People: Figures in a Wessex Landscape, Allison and Busby, 1991 and Trevor Johnson Literature in Perspective: Thomas Hardy, Evans Brothers Ltd, 1971 and Newton Arvin Hawthorne, Little, Brown & Co, Boston, 1929

Similarities
by SylvieProuvaire1832 Thu Oct 02, 2008 1:43 am
So currently in school, we've been reading 'The Scarlet Letter' which is a really fantastic book, and it really struck me as funny how similair Hester Prynne and Fantine are. They both have children out of wedlock in time periods when it wasn't acceptable, both found themselves ostracized from society because of it, and both let themselves suffer in order to care for their children. When the book talked about how Hester dresses her little Pearl in all the fancy clothing, and is dressed soberly herself, it reminded me of the scene where Fantine is travelling with Cosette and she's dressed prettily beyond Fantine's means. So, what do you think? Any other characters from other books that make you think of Les Mis? I just thought it would be an interesting thing to discuss.