Latest Articles by Sarah Canice Funke
I watched Tess last night, sandwiched around fencing practice, since the film is longish to get through in one go. And I am noticing a Thomas Hardy pattern: one deeply troubled woman marries, loses husband, marries someone else, husband #1 (the one she really loves) returns, and someone has to die. Or do they?
What are the legal ramifications in this case? It seems as if the woman would still be married to the first man, and have every right to return to him without killing someone in the process. In Far from the Madding Crowd, at least, husband no. #2 shot husband no. #1 and was hanged for it, so Bathesheba was conveniently free to marry the faithful Farmer Oake. Perhaps this relatively happy ending is the reason I enjoy Bathesheba's story more than I embrace the tale of Tess. I don't mind endings where the protagonist perishes miserably, but to me, such stories are always half-finished, waiting yet for the time when "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Rev. 21:4)
Posted by funke at 26.01.06 8:27 | TrackBack | Posted to LiterazziI have read most of Thomas Hardy's novels and it is frustrating that someone always has to die. Yet it always seems to be for a different reason. In "The Woodlanders" the good guy (the one who's right for the gal) dies from sickness out of a sacrifical duty to someone else who is dying. I sometimes think he uses death just to be melodramatic, but there is probably something more there...for instance, he spends a lot of time describing bleak English landscapes which seem to parallel the death...land is important. Those are my random thoughts.
Posted by: Anna Kaufmann at 26.01.06 12:52Daytime soaps are always on the TV down in the breakroom during my lunch break, so I feel that the past few years have made me something of an expert on dsyfunctional romantic relationships. Therefore, with great authority I can state that yes, she would be still married to the first husband the second marriage would be avoided. Having the extraneous husband die is really the only resposible means for the author to resolve the love triangle. If husband #2 is still hanging around, then the potential for future heartbreak exists. Thus, ensuring that the poor heorine would never find peace and happiness and that's just cruel.
Posted by: sarah at 26.01.06 15:38