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- Title
The deadly misreading of mythic texts: Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles.
- Authors
Bonaparte
- Abstract
Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles is a novel much misread when it is taken, as it is, as a realistic narrative. But misreading of this kind is what Hardy is writing about. Both the characters and the story reenact, in modern dress, the classical myth of Persephone, but there are few in the modern world, Hardy appears to be suggesting, literal-minded as we are, capable of reading mythically. Each of the characters in the novel misapprehends both his/her own identity and the meaning of the events, and does so each time with deadly consequences. But Hardy is not only illustrating in the errors of his characters the misconceptions of his age, he is making a substantive point about the act of reading itself. Reading is interpretation and whether we see a fallen woman or a mythological deity hinges on our interpretive premises. And our readings also have consequences. To read the story of Tess as a myth is to celebrate her fertility--both her physical fertility as well as her more mystical power to bring a spiritual rebirth. To see her as a fallen woman is to drive her to her death as a sinful social outcast.
- Subjects
TESS of the d'Urbervilles (Book : Hardy); HARDY, Thomas, 1840-1928; MYTHOLOGY in literature; FAITH in literature; EMPIRICISM in literature; LITERARY criticism; 19TH century English literature; BOOKS &; reading
- Publication
International Journal of the Classical Tradition, 1999, Vol 5, Issue 3, p415
- ISSN
1073-0508
- Publication type
Literary Criticism
- DOI
10.1007/BF02687695