Myths and redemption in Tess of the D'urbervilles - H. Kosicki

Résumé du document

Myths and redemption in Tess of the D'urbervilles - H. Kosicki.2 pages



- Hardy's credited with symbolist tendencies and an interest in studies in myth and rituals, yet most critics on his book continue on levels of psychological realism

- Yet, Tess is repeatedly referred to as a sacrificial victim : her death has been interpretated as a re-enactment of the crucifixion or of the death of a Greek tragic hero

Extraits

[...] His beliefs are variations of the myth of redemption , he rejects guilt in nature and time, rejects the church's vision, yet his renunciation of Tess will be far more ascetic and pessimistic than any of his father's deed He leaves the church because he can't accept the resurrection of Jesus incarnate in the body, yet he accepts Tess as sun goddess incarnate - first cycle : Tess considers herself a murderess for killing Prince : she must atone and brng back economic means to her family . [...]

[...] Entanglement of one cycle over the other = Alec returns to serve as agent for the myth of redemption - each protagonist= one mythic world view - Tess = of the pagan powers in nature ( may-day dance, believes in omens, dancing, ‘pantheistic as to essence'), embodies the life force of the primal sun (she's finally sacrificed to it, near great flame- shaped Sunstone'), sensuality - Mr Clare = vanishing type of clergyman, Conversionist, a man of Apostolic simplicity in life and thought', considers man as totally fallen, but wrapped in luminous faith because Christ the redeemer purged the world's guilt. Ability to act out an imitation of Christ, bearing blows and converting brutes in godly men - Angel = relies on ‘intellectual liberty' to discern the innocence of Wordsworthian nature and the goodness of man. [...]

[...] MYTHS OF REDEMPTION IN HARDY'S TESS OF THE D'UBERVILLES H. Kosicki - Hardy's credited with symbolist tendencies and an interest in studies in myth and rituals, yet most critics on his book continue on levels of psychological realism - Yet, Tess is repeatedly referred to as a sacrificial victim : her death has been interpretated as a re-enactment of the crucifixion or of the death of a Greek tragic hero - Besides, difficult to accept naturalistically Tess's passivity ( in the woods with Alec, on her wedding night with Angel) , Angel's transformation from adoring lover to loathing husband, and Tess's final conversion to kept woman and murderess - truth of the myth of redemption : from symbolism to behaviour (guilt, sacrifice and redemption developed in several ways) - Tess's the ritual sinner in a double cycle of salvation : - purges the guilt of a “blighted star” in nature by ritual sacrifice - purges the guilt of the d'Ubervilles, in history, by ritual killing - role of pagan, sacrificial victim/hero = Greek tragedy but also judeo- christian pattern in which a fallen world demands a Christ as sacrifice - Angel= modern intellectual , his spiritual base is the principle of innocence in a romantic nature worship. [...]

[...] To him, Tess is a Christ substitute in a perfectible world. Revelation during the wedding night = resurgence of the demonic metaphysics he had rejected with his father's evangelicalism, demand upon him for an imitation of Christ - his collapse = fragility of the romantic religion which drives Tess as scapegoat into the wilderness. [...]