Gender and Hardy - Talk by Tracy Hayes

About

This lecture will provide an insight into 'The Lot of Women' in the 19th Century - particularly figures such as 'the Angel in the House', the 'Great Social Evil' and the 'Kept Woman' and the 'Fallen Woman' - before investigating how Thomas Hardy engaged with such issues in his novels. It is of course Tess of the d'Urbervilles that has the most relevance for Salisbury, with Stonehenge serving as the platform on which Tess sacrificed herself for the sins of others.

Hardy is scathing in his exposure of hypocritical 19th century sexual and social mores.