Alec: moustachioed, partly pantomimic & predatory/conniving villain becomes adversary to whom Tess's fate is locked
Angel: provides hope that her fate may be altered, hypocritically fails her & his change of heart comes too late for meaningful reversal of
1 of 20
Function:
- Country characters
- Tess's parents
- Angel's parents
Country characters: choric function
Tess P: contrast daughter's simple virtue
Angel P: blindness of power to suffering
2 of 20
Ibsen & Strindberg - working class
- Conscious attempt to introduce tragic feelings in audience in relation to middle class protagonist (as opposed to Classical/Renaissance tragedies w/ noble/royal protag
- Hardy's P member of rural working class, but he works hard to aggrandise her status
3 of 20
Greek Tragedy - Antigone, Sophocle
- central protag as woman controlled by fate in form of the Gods (Tess: "president of the immortals"), victim of patriarchy, deceived/controlled by male figures ("you use your cruel persuasion upon me")
4 of 20
Hardy - definition of tragedy
"the worthy encompassed by the inevitable"
- controversial at time of publication but modern readers see Tess as 'worthy' - H wants to elevate Tess as novel subtitled 'A Pure Woman'
5 of 20
Heap - men's fault
Tess as "violated by one man and forsaken by another"
6 of 20
Howe - Alec & Angel
Alec - certain charm in his amiable slothful way - may X be admirable but can be likeable as commonplace vice easier to bear than elevated righteousness
Angel - bears aura of tense moralism
- Each represents deformation of masculinity, one high & one low
7 of 20
Jung - personality
"the personality determines the fate of life"
8 of 20
Miller - flashbacks
"that terrible moment when the voice of the past is no longer distant but quite as loud as the voice of the present"
9 of 20
Miller - ordinary man
"the ordinary man is as apt a subject for tragedy as kings are"
10 of 20
Miller - cautionary note
"path is opened for those who wish to call Willy merely a foolish man even as they themselves are living in obedience to the same law that killed him"
11 of 20
Context - Brooklyn neighbourhood
- used to be removed from hustle & bustle of NYC - early 20th century viewed as space for expansion/to own arable land
- now besieged by "tall, angular buildings", sunlight barely reaches yard - parallels W's pride becomes besieged & infected by doubts h
12 of 20
Context - AD
- set of ideals: freedom includes opportunity for prosperity, success & upward social mobility for family
- 1930s (great depression) economics dominated politics & AD became nightmare - land of hope, optimism, symbol of prosperity > land of depression & d
13 of 20
Krutch - Willy as victim
"Willy is a victim of society. But he's also a consenting victim, or a victim of himself. He accepted vulgar, debased and false systems of values"
14 of 20
Fromm - commodities
"Man does not only sell commodities, he sells himself & feels himself as a commodity...if he's sought after, he is somebody"
15 of 20
Tragedy is the consequence of...
a man's total compulsion to evaluate himself justly
16 of 20
Carrol - pathetic
"a pathetic little man caught in an undertow that's too strong for him"
17 of 20
Van Ghent - Alex and Angel
"metaphors of extreme human behaviour - when the human been cut off from community and individualised by intellectual education or by material wealth and traditionless independence"
18 of 20
Hutton - instinct
"though pure in instinct, she was not faithful to her pure instinct" - betrayed herself
19 of 20
Higonnet - pliable
Not a simple victim but a girl made 'pliable' by her economic dependence on Alec
20 of 20
Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
Country characters: choric function
Tess P: contrast daughter's simple virtue
Angel P: blindness of power to suffering
Back
Function:
- Country characters
- Tess's parents
- Angel's parents
Card 3
Front
- Conscious attempt to introduce tragic feelings in audience in relation to middle class protagonist (as opposed to Classical/Renaissance tragedies w/ noble/royal protag
- Hardy's P member of rural working class, but he works hard to aggrandise her status
Back
Card 4
Front
- central protag as woman controlled by fate in form of the Gods (Tess: "president of the immortals"), victim of patriarchy, deceived/controlled by male figures ("you use your cruel persuasion upon me")
Back
Card 5
Front
"the worthy encompassed by the inevitable"
- controversial at time of publication but modern readers see Tess as 'worthy' - H wants to elevate Tess as novel subtitled 'A Pure Woman'
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