The Passionate Heroine

Heather Dugan Class of 1997
Thomas Valeo Class of 1997
Gettysburg College

The nineteenth-century woman was defined by her adherence to submission and resistance to sexuality. She was portrayed by most writers as a naive, accepting figure with strong concerns about living up to the prescribed societal ideals for a respectable w oman. The women in Jane Austen's novels offer a clear representation of the nineteenth-century woman. Austen refuses these women any sexual expression and focuses more upon their concern with marriage and society. Thomas Hardy resists AustenĘs sociall y accepted depiction of the female with his radically independent heroines.

Hardy redefines the role of women in his novels, focusing on sexuality. By emphasizing the physical aspect of femininity in his unorthodox representation of the sexual female, Hardy threatens the Victorian model of women. Sexuality is evident in Far From The Madding Crowd when Bathsheba unknowingly admits her passion to Sergeant Troy. "If you can only fight half as winningly as you can talk, you are able to make a pleasure of a bayonet wound!" Bathsheba realizes her impulsive expression of sexuality and when she attempts "to retrieve it," she makes the situation worse claiming, "Don't however, suppose that I derive any pleasure from what you tell me"(chapter xxvi). Allowing Bathsheba to disclose her sexuality, Hardy begins to emphasize the sexual qualities of his female character. In redefining the female, Hardy's passionate heroines display characteristics previousl y found only in male characters.

In The Return of The Native, Eustacia Vye combines the strength of a man with the beauty of a woman. Like the heath, Eustacia is untameable, dark, and wild. Her association with the heath illustrates her masculine qualities. The Victorian ideal displayed in Eustacia's feminine desires conflicts with this masculinity. "She had the passions and instincts which make a model goddess, that is, those which make not quite a model woman"(chapter xi ). Eustacia wants to escape the environment that keeps her from finding independence. Hardy creates an unconventional woman antagonized by the desires of passionate love and the independence of a male.

A similar conflict occurs in Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Tess, defined by sexuality, is characterized as a "lush bit of nature, a sexual being" (S. Morgan, 43). In contrast with this sexuality, Tess possesses certain qualities inherent in ma les. The thriving passion of Tess serves two purposes in Hardy's novel. In her defiance of the Victorian ideal Tess is empowered and strengthened. This passionate sexuality also results in her isolation from society and ultimately her death. Portraye d as a strong woman, Tess is capable of proving her purity and innocence despite the criticism of a cruel Victorian environment.

Independence and strength separate Hardy's heroines from the previous idea of the Victorian heroine. The combination of sexuality and masculine qualities in Hardy's passionate heroines exemplifies a new characterization of women.

Bibliography

Bibliography

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Morgan, Rosemarie. Women and Sexuality in the Novels of Thomas Hardy. New York: Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc., 1988.

Morgan, Susan. Sisters in Time. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Pearson, Carol, Pope, Katherine. The Female Hero in American and British Literature. New York: R.R. Bowker Company, 1981.