A Summary and Analysis of Gillian Beer's Critical Essay, "Descent and Sexual Selection: Women in Narrative"

Summary:

In Gillian Beer’s essay “Descent and Sexual Selection: Women in Narrative, she calls forth a Darwinian idea that has been overlooked by many critics focusing on Darwin and his influence on Hardy, and that is the idea of ‘sexual selection’ and the role of women. She discusses Darwin’s idea that, in contrast with most species, humanistic tendency is for the man to hold the power of selection. In addition, she discusses that men place great emphasis on beauty. She claims, “The emphasis on beauty in the concept of sexual selection opened the debate into the domain of aesthetics as well” (447). Further on in her article she sums up the effect of all these ideas in terms of Hardy. She writes, “For George Eliot subtly, and for Thomas Hardy more frankly, the contradictions, social and psychological, and biological in the man/woman relationship and its identification with genetic succession became crucial to their re-reading of traditional fictional topics,” and she says, “Both George Eliot and Hardy emphasize the discordance between woman’s individuality and her progenerative role” (449).

Analysis:

I think focusing on Darwin’s effect on Hardy really helps give a better understanding of the novel. It helped me see why Hardy places so much emphasis on Tess’s beauty. Beer says, “The social emphasis on virginity, Hardy suggests, cannot be naturalized: ‘she had been made to break an accepted social law, but no law known in the environment in which she fancied herself such an anomaly” (449). I think Tess was a victim of social convention and that although her fate may have led her down this path; it did not have to end with death.

A Summary and Analysis of Gillian Beer's Critical Essay, "Descent and Sexual Selection: Women in Narrative"

Summary:

In Gillian Beer’s essay “Descent and Sexual Selection: Women in Narrative, she calls forth a Darwinian idea that has been overlooked by many critics focusing on Darwin and his influence on Hardy, and that is the idea of ‘sexual selection’ and the role of women. She discusses Darwin’s idea that, in contrast with most species, humanistic tendency is for the man to hold the power of selection. In addition, she discusses that men place great emphasis on beauty. She claims, “The emphasis on beauty in the concept of sexual selection opened the debate into the domain of aesthetics as well” (447). Further on in her article she sums up the effect of all these ideas in terms of Hardy. She writes, “For George Eliot subtly, and for Thomas Hardy more frankly, the contradictions, social and psychological, and biological in the man/woman relationship and its identification with genetic succession became crucial to their re-reading of traditional fictional topics,” and she says, “Both George Eliot and Hardy emphasize the discordance between woman’s individuality and her progenerative role” (449).

Analysis:

I think focusing on Darwin’s effect on Hardy really helps give a better understanding of the novel. It helped me see why Hardy places so much emphasis on Tess’s beauty. Beer says, “The social emphasis on virginity, Hardy suggests, cannot be naturalized: ‘she had been made to break an accepted social law, but no law known in the environment in which she fancied herself such an anomaly” (449). I think Tess was a victim of social convention and that although her fate may have led her down this path; it did not have to end with death.

A Summary and Analysis of Contemporary Reviews Regarding Thomas Hardy’s Novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles

A Summary and Analysis of Contemporary Reviews Regarding Thomas Hardy’s Novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles

Summary:

Many of the contemporary criticisms touched on overlapping issues within Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles, such as: an uncontrollable fate, morality, purity, representation of woman, and other observations as well. However, one contemporary review in particular really brought up an interesting argument. In the contemporary review from The Illustrated London News, the author first claims that Tess of the D’Urbervilles is by far Hardy’s best work he had produced up until that point. The article then defends against criticism saying that, “ The conventional reader wishes to be excited, but not to be disturbed” and that the conventional reader, “… detests an open challenge of that traditional pattern…” (383). Hardy challenges the usual reader and the article says he should be praised for that. In addition to challenging readers, the article also says that he portrays the kind of ‘womanly nature’ that often leads to downfall. “It is the unsuspicious and fundamentally pure-minded girl in whom lie the noblest possibilities of womanhood, who is the easiest victim and who has to fight the hardest fight” (383). It compares Hardy’s novel the story of Diana of the Crossways. In the final section of the review the author also comments on Hardy’s inclusion of not only dark settings, but also of the ‘wholesome’ country life and how these inclusions connect the reader to the characters experience. Finally the article sums up Hardy’s novel by saying, “[The books] essence lies in the perception that a woman’s moral worth is measurable not by any one deed, but by the whole aim and tendency of her life and nature” (383).

Analysis:

After discussing the book in class, I felt like the Naturalist lens really helped me understand the novel better. I feel like Tess was a victim of fate and that is why I connected to this review the most. Looking further into Naturalism, a somewhat broad equation says that heredity plus environment plus chance equals determinism. I think the article makes it clear that Tess’s fate of being a woman and a pure woman at that almost destines her to a downfall. Naturalism can envelop a sort of brutal reality, and I think Tess is a victim of this. Also I really like that article called forth this idea of social convention that forces women like Tess to be caught up in a snag that society will never let her come back from. Hardy’s comments on Victorian society aren’t necessarily as evident as some of the other authors we have read but I think his points are just as important.