Essays in Criticism

Out of the many essays in this section, I chose to read 'Hardy's Moment of Vison' by Virginia Woolf and 'Decent and Sexual Selection: Women in Narrative' written by Gillian Beer. Woolf's begins her essay by stating, "Some writers are born conscious of everything; others are unconscious of many things," (400). Woolf places Hardy under the category of the 'unconscious' and says it is part of his strength as well as his weakness as a writer. Hardy's imagery throughout all his novels seems to take the reader to that particular place and time and make him feel as if he is seeing what the characters are seeing, and more. Woolf mentions this as Hardy's "moments of vision," (401). However, she says that after these 'moment of vision' the novels often become, "lumpish and dull and inexpressive," (401). She also says, "It is as if Hardy himself were not quite aware of what he did, as if his consciousness held more than he could produce, and left it for his readers to make out his full meaning and to supplement it from their own experience," (401). After this paragraph, Woolf begins to relate and compare many of Hardy's other characters (not in Tess) and the way they are all somehow linked by this great amour of imagery and unconscious thought. I have not read any other hardy novels so I can't make the connections she makes. 

The next essay I read was Gillian Beer's 'Decent and Sexual Selection' which, in the beginning, talks more about Darwin and his writing than Hardy's writing. Beer discusses how Darwin flipped the natural sexual selection from female selecting males to males selecting females. In almost very aspect of the animal kingdom, females make the sexual choices; however, Darwin takes this idea and argues that, in the human world, men select women. In Darwin's The Decent, Darwin says, "Man is more powerful in body and in mind than woman… therefor it is not surprising that he should have gained the power of selection," (447). Beer also mentions the idea of "survival of the fittest" and how women way of survival come from their beauty. Men are more likely to choose a beautiful woman and that woman's genes are the ones to be passed on. So, although Tess is supposedly from a rich family from her father's side, her beauty is the source of all the male attention. This beauty comes fro her mothers side. 

I thought it was very humorous to come across a quote like Woolf's after today's discussion in class (Ryan I thought you in particular would get a kick out of it). "It is as if Hardy himself were not quite aware of what he did." This quote seems to support or theory that Hardy's explanation of Tess' fate was not completely truthful, mainly because he doesn't really seem to be sure what kind of message he is trying to send. I realize this may not be exactly what Woolf was saying, but I thought it was interesting that it's almost exact what we talked about today in class.