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Introduction
Regarding Hardy’s female characters, Lionel Johnson remarks, “Of the women, whose characters and fortunes are portrayed by Hardy most various opinions may be held. Some have that winning audacity, the charm of strength, which marks in diverse manners those gentle ladies. Captain Keellar, Sir Julius, and Count von Rosen, the creations of other eminent hands: some are alternately 'cautelous’ and ‘terne-various’ old words of too exact a meaning to be lost: some have a distant likeness to Miss Austen’s great characters, a likeness that takes us by surprise. Some almost incur from Dr. Johnson the charge of flirtation, since he defines a flirt to be, a pert young ‘Hussey’ I cannot think that any one of them is so powerfully conceived and drawn, as are the best of Mr. Hardy’s men: but more cleverness, more adroitness and dexterity of wit, more research, have gone to their portraits. An admiration of their versatility in maintaining their consistency, is the sentiment, which they provoke: an amazed awe of the infinite ingenuities, which their sincerity can devise for its protection. ‘A very little wit’, wrote Swift, ‘is valued in a woman, as we are pleased with a few words spoken plain by a parrot.’ That is too often the dangerous and important view of woman’s wit entertained by Mr. Hardy’s men with distressing consequences.”
Regarding Hardy’s female characters, Lionel Johnson remarks, “Of the women, whose characters and fortunes are portrayed by Hardy most various opinions may be held. Some have that winning audacity, the charm of strength which marks in diverse manners those gentle ladies, Austen’s Captain Keellar, Sir Julius, and Count von Rosen, the creations of other eminent hands; some are alternately “cautious” and “temerarious” old words of too exact a meaning to be lost: some have a distant likeness to Miss Austen’s great characters, a likeness that takes us by surprise. Some almost incur from Dr. Johnson the charge of flirtation, since he defines a flirt to be, a pert young “Hussey” I cannot think that any one of them is so powerfully conceived and drawn, as are the best of Mr. Hardy’s men: but more cleverness, more adroitness and dexterity of wit, more research, have gone to their portraits. An admiration of their versatility in maintaining their consistency, is the sentiment, which they provoke: an amazed awe of the infinite ingenuities, which their sincerity can devise for its protection. “A very little wit,” wrote Swift, “is valued in a woman, as we are pleased with a few words spoken plain by a parrot.” That is too often the dangerous and important view of woman’s wit entertained by Mr. Hardy’s men with distressing consequences.”
Generally Hardy has treated women with sympathy and kindness. They can be classified under five groups. First there are full-length characters of high order like Tess, Eustacia, Bathsheba and Elizabeth Jane. The second group includes Elfride Swancourt, Grace and Anne Garland. The third group consists of women of less significance though they are fully studied. The women who form the fourth group though full of significance, are not sketchily drawn e.g. Fancy Marty, Arabella Donn, Thomasin. Lucetta etc. In the end come the women like Matilda, Fanny, Charlotte, Marian, Izz Huett, Retfy Priddle, Mrs. Yeobright and Susan Henchard who are studied in the background.
Hardy’s women display his great penetrating power and his great study of their psychology. They are even better than the male ones. But he was not a misogynist. Besides observing their physiognomy, he analyses their mind and hearts. He is a true lover of the fair sex. He presents them both from outside and from within.
Hardy seems to agree with Byron:
“Man’s love is of man’s life a thing apart, ’Tis woman’s whole existence.” Love is there “the end all and be all.” Love plays the most important role in Hardy’s novels most of which are love-tragedies. It is their passion of love that makes them the instrument of fate. They love only to lose the game of life. Tess, Bathsheba, Elfride Swancourt, Anne Garland, Fancy, Grace, Eustacia Vye and Lucetta—all love and all of them are lost. Pierre d’Exidemil has observed, “Of one of his heroines Hardy says that her reason played with her imagination as a young cat plays with a dead bird. This inferiority explains the role of love in the existence of Hardy’s women. This desire for admiration, which we behold in all of them indeed, but most highly developed in Fancy Day and Bathsheba Everdeene (two of Hardy’s heroines from his novels) shows us that Nature herself acquaints them with the destined role of their charm and with the power which it wields, at the same time instructing them in its necessity. With, them a special kind of sensibility is always triumphant whereas in the case of men intelligence tends to emancipate. But this very sensibility accords to love a wider role in woman’s life.”
They resemble Hardy at least in one respect that they have no faith in God. For them, passion is more important than religion. They are controlled by sudden and constantly changing passions and surrender themselves to the men they love.
Hardy found complexity in women. In this connection a critic has observed, “Hardy is above all a painter of women. Nothing indeed is as rare as a writer capable of depicting with equal success the characters of both sexes. Hardy does not handle masculine psychology with the same penetration. His male characters are either sensual or effeminate or else victims of a kind of internal attraction. He doubtlessly discovered in a woman a complexity which remained more prominently before his eyes; a submission to instinct which involved her in more intimate relations with the whole ordering of things.”
Hardy calls them the radiant daughters of nature. But he makes them suffer more than men. For example in Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Tess suffers more than any other character in the novel. It is only because she belongs to the weaker sex. Moreover she like other women of Hardy, is guided by her passions and falls a prey to the cruel fate. “Eustacia Vye, Lucetta Templeman, Arabella, all conjure forth from their desire the sensual whirlpool of love. One is conscious of their abdication before the masters of their hearts and of their submission to the fleshly instinct and to everything which must lead them to disaster. These are the passions driven among the women. But there are also Sue, who is almost lacking in sex, Elizabeth Jane, and the smiling group of girls who belong to two lovers, and many others who see coquetry and feminine refinement make charming creatures of them, and whose misfortune it is to be condemned always to choose the inconstant or unworthy suitor and to turn aside from a warm and more certain affection. In their frank and native arbor of their passion,, the women in Hardy’s gallery are only comparable to Shakespeare’s women. All these women in Shakespeare closely resemble their sisters in the Wessex Novel, for their love is often a love that knows no limit and is almost always born at first sight.”
Hardy represents their minutest fluctuations of emotional experience and make them real and actual. Rickett observes, “But if his best characters are not subtle and complex, the art that depicts his characters assuredly is; for he can record the minutest fluctuations of emotional experience, and make them real and actual, it is this power which brings home to us with sureness the vital, full-blooded, and essentially fine-hearted Tess. I am not sure, however, that Eustacia Vye is not drawn with even greater power than Tess—for the philosopher obtrudes less often here than he does with the latter creation.”
Cyril Alfred rightly remarks, that Hardy “excels above all in the portrayal of passionate, emotional types, chiefly women, who predominate in the novels. Yet he manages to balance them with restrained, self-controlled characters thus for a Henchard or Eustacia or Felice there is a Farfrae or Thomasin or Marty, even in his last work the contrast is marked between Jude’s questioning hesitancy and Sue’s impulsive certitude.”
Women Treated with Sympathy and Kindness
Generally Hardy has treated women with sympathy and kindness. They can be classified under five groups. First there are full-length characters of high order like Tess, Sue, Eustacia, Bathsheba and Elizabeth Jane. The second group includes Elfride Swancourt, Grace and Anne Garland. The third group consists of women of less significance though they are fully studied. The women who form the fourth group though full of significance, are not sketchily drawn e.g. Fancy Marty, Arabella Donn, Thomasin Lucelta etc. In the last come the women like Matilda, Fanny, Charlotte, Marian, Izz Huett, Retty Priddle, Mrs. Yeobright and Susan Henchard who are studies in the background.
The Women Governed by Love and Passion
Hardy’s women display his great penetrating power and his great study of their psychology. They are even better than the male ones. But he was not a misogynist.
Besides observing their physiognomy, he analyses their mind and hearts. He is a true lover of the fair sex. He presents them both from outside and from within.
Hardy Seems to agree with Byron:
“Man’s love is of man’s life a thing apart,’This woman’s whole existence.”
Love is their the all and be all. Love plays the most important role in Hardy’s novels most of which are love tragedies. It is their passion for love that makes them the instrument of fate. They love only to lose the game of life. Tess, Bathsheba, Elfride Swancourt, Anne Garland, Fancy, Grace, Eustacia Vye and Lucetta—all love and all of them are lost. Pierre D’Exidemil has observed, “Of one of his heroines Hardy says, that her reason played with her imagination as a young cat plays with a dead bird. This inferiority explains the role of love in the existence of Hardy’s women. This desire for admiration, which we behold in all of them indeed, but most highly developed in Fancy Day and Bathsheba Everdeene (two of Hardy’s heroines from his novels) shows us that Nature herself acquaints them with the destined role of their charm and with the power which it wields, at the same time instructing them in its necessity. With them, a special kind of sensibility is always triumphant whereas in the case of men, intelligence tends to emancipate. But this very sensibility accords to love a wider role in woman’s life.”
They resemble Hardy at least in one respect that they have no faith in God. For them passion is more important than religion. They are controlled by sudden and constantly changing passions and surrender themselves to the men they love.
Hardy found complexity in women. In this connection, a critic has observed, “Hardy is above all a painter of women. Nothing indeed is as rare as a writer capable of depicting with equal success the characters of both sexes. Hardy does not handle masculine psychology with the same penetration. His male characters are either sensual or effeminate or else victims of a kind of internal attraction. He doubtlessly discovered in a woman a complexity which remained more prominently before his eyes; a submission to instinct which involved lier in more intimate relations with the whole ordering of thing.”
Daughters of Nature
Hardy calls them the radiant daughters of nature. But he makes them suffer more than men. For example in Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Tess suffers more than any other character in the novel. It is only because she belongs to the weaker sex. Moreover she like other women of Hardy, is guided by her passions and falls a prey to the cruel fate. “Eustacia Vye, Lucelta Templeman, Arabella, all conjure forth from their desire the sensual whirlpool of love. One is conscious of their abdication before the master of their hearts and of their submission to the fleshly instinct and to everything which must lead them to disaster. These are the passions driven among the women. But there are also Sue, who is almost lacking in sex, Elizabeth Jane, and the smiling group of girls who belong to two lovers, and many others who see coquetry and feminine refinement make charming creatures of them, and whose misfortune it is to be condemned always to choose the inconstant or unworthy suitor and to turn aside from a warm and more certain affection. In their frank and native arbor of their passion, the women in Hardy’s gallery are only comparable to Shakespeare’s women. All these women in Shakespeare closely resemble their sisters in the Wessex Novel, for their love is often a love that knows no limit, and is almost always born at first sight.”
Hardy represents their minutest fluctuations of emotional experience and makes them real and actual. Rickett observes, “But if his best characters are not subtle and complex, the art that depicts his characters assuredly is, for he can record the minutest fluctuations of emotional experience, and make them real and actual, it is this power which brings home to us with sureness—the vital, full-blooded, and essentially fine-hearted Tess. I am not sure, however, that Eustacia Vye is not drawn with even greater power than Tess—for the philosopher obtrudes less often here than he does with the latter creation.”
Hardy’s Genius in Female Characterization
Thomas Hardy is a great painter of female characters. This point is quite clear from the Wessex novels and Tess of the d’Urbervilles in particular. Hardy is a genius in the characterization of women. His women are superior to his men in many ways. The present novel illustrates these points very well. This novel shows to us how Hardy excels in the portrayal of passionate, emotional types, chiefly women who predominate in Wessex novels in general and the present one in particular. The character of Tess bears an ample testimony to this thing.
The Characterization of Tess
Tess comes before us as a vessel of emotion rather than of reason. Her creator reveals her soul to us. She is an innocent maiden. She suffers at the hands of a cruel society. Fate works against her chance of happiness. Alec brings about her physical ruin similarly Clare causes her spiritual tragedy. Heredity and environment also play their parts in effecting this tragedy. She thinks that if she had not seen the light of this world, it would have been a good thing. She suffers for her will to enjoy. She is more sinned against than sinning.
Tess’s Mother
Mrs. Joan Durbeyfield is the mother of Tess. The heroine has invented her beauty and hardworking nature. She has got a kind of yielding nature to her mother. She is admirably drawn. She forces Tess to go to the place of her seducer. She is not a wise woman. She is aware of the presence of wicked people in the world. Tess suffers for her foolishness and ignorance. It is because of her mother that she drives herself to her own tragedy by trying to solve the economic problem of her family twice. Mrs. Joan is simple-souled, light-hearted and vain woman. She is fond of music. She is proud of her ancestry also. She has a very slack attitude towards morality and religion. There are two other old women in Tess of the d’Urbervilles. One of them is Mrs. Crick who is the shadow of her husband Mr. Crick. She is a good common woman. She is one of the two witnesses of Tess’s marriage with Angel Clare. Mrs. Brooks is the landlady of the lodging house at Sandbourne where Tess stabs Alec d’Urbervillc to death. Both of them are but minor characters. They are there, for they come into contact with the heroine in the course of her tragic journey across this vale of tears.
The three Chamber - Maids
The three chambermaids of Tess are the other female characters in Tess of the d’Urbervilles. They are interesting maids. They play a very useful part in the scheme of the novel. These three chamber-maids are Marian, Izz and Retty. They are the minor characters or rustics of the novel. Their presence at the famous dairy of Talbothays adds to the romantic character of the pastoral or idyllic setting. They work with the heroine. They take part in the story in their own way. Marian and Izz are with Tess both at Talbothays and Flintcomb-Ash. They meet her on her way to Kingsbere after the death of her father. They love Angel Clare but their love is not returned. They make the heroine postpone her date of the wedding for a number of times. It is because of them that she writes a letter of confession just before her marriage. It is the news of their suffering due to their disappointment in love that Tess makes a confession to Angel Clare who deserts her. Marian shows a lot of sympathy and consideration for her at Flintcomb-Ash. It is Izz who tells Angel Clare that unlike Tess she cannot die for the sake of love. This thing raises Tess in his estimation and love. When Tess sees her making love with her lover named Am by Seedling at Flintcomb-Ash her desire or will to enjoy is roused. Perhaps this thing is one of the several reasons that make her surrender herself to Alec d’Urbervilles.
Of the three Marian is the eldest. She is passionately in love with Angel Clare. She wanted to marry a dairyman at Stickleford before she arrived at the dairy of Talbothays. She is a frank and open-hearted woman. She is narrow-minded ir. respect of her passion for Angel Clare. When Angel is married to Tess, she is so much disappointed that she takes to drinking. She is not at all jealous of Tess. She tries to help her in her work when Farmer Gorby exacts very hard work from her Izz is a saucy and caustic girl with a pale face. She has dark hair and sharply-molded lips. She is also hopelessly in love with Angel Clare. She once kisses the shadow of Angel Clare’s mouth on the wall. She is a calm and sensible girl. She gives little trouble when Angel Clare takes her across the pool of water on the road. She is very kind and generous to Tess. She is really great in her confession of Tess’s superiority to herself in love. Retty is the youngest maid with the pretty and fresh-looking face. She is frank and free like a child. She is very timid, so she is unable to assert herself. Indeed she is an innocent child of nature. She has no knowledge of the world and its people. When she comes to know that Ange! Clare does not love her, she begins to shed tears. She wished to have died at this time. She tried to commit suicide, for she went to drown herself to death in the Great Pool. But this poor victim of blind cupid was saved from being drowned to death by a waterman.