Romantic Notions of Love and Desire in Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles: An Analysis of the Novel with Focus on Plotting and the Reader's Anticipation of Retrospection
Author
Jungersen, Stine
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2016
Pages
62
Abstract
This thesis situates Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles within a late-Victorian context where belated Romanticism meets realist critique of social norms around desire, love, and marriage. Building on the novel’s controversial reception and Hardy’s rejection of the conventional happy ending, it examines how romantic notions are first invoked and then dismantled through the design of the plot. The study adopts a formalist approach focused on plot and uses Peter Brooks’s concepts of plotting and the reader’s anticipation of retrospection, supported by psychoanalytic insights from Freud on desire and the teleological pull toward endings. The analysis is structured around key sequences in the novel: the d’Urberville master narrative, the romantic love triangle, the repressed event in The Chase, the courtship at Talbothays, the confessional episode, and the ending’s construction of retrospective meaning. The aim is to clarify how Hardy’s narrative design and ironic turns challenge readers’ expectations of the romantic love plot and expose Victorian double standards; specific findings are presented in subsequent chapters.
Denne specialeundersøgelse placerer Thomas Hardys Tess of the d’Urbervilles i en sen-victoriansk kontekst, hvor en belated romantik møder realistisk kritik af samtidens normer for begær, kærlighed og ægteskab. Med udgangspunkt i romanens kontroversielle modtagelse og Hardys modstand mod den konventionelle “lykkelige slutning” analyseres, hvordan romantiske forestillinger først fremkaldes og siden nedbrydes gennem handlingens opbygning. Specialet anlægger en formalistisk tilgang med fokus på plot og anvender Peter Brooks’ begreber om plotting og læserens forventning om retrospektion, understøttet af psykoanalytiske indsigter fra Freud om begær og teleologisk stræben mod slutningen. Analysen organiseres omkring centrale forløb i romanen: slægtsmyten om d’Urbervillerne, kærlighedstrekanten, den undertrykte begivenhed i The Chase, kurtisen på Talbothays, bekendelsesepisoden samt slutningens retroaktive meningsdannelse. Målet er at belyse, hvordan Hardys narrative design og ironiske skæbnedrejninger udfordrer læserens forventninger til den romantiske kærlighedsplot og synliggør victorianske dobbeltstandarder; konkrete resultater præsenteres i de senere kapitler.
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