A Male Feminist: Hardy's Portrayal of When Rosemarie Morgan Claims, "Hardy's Women ... Must Have Confused Many Readers Caught with Mixed Feelings of Admiration and Alarm, " (Morgan, Women and Sexuality in the Novels of
When Rosemarie Morgan claims, "Hardy 's women ... must have confused many readers caught with mixed feelings of admiration and alarm," (Morgan, Women and Sexuality in the Novels of Thomas Hardy xiii) she brings forward a duality of reaction which reflects Hardyan heroines ' characters. The confusion she refers to can be understood within the novels ' historical contexts, as these female protagonists were most likely to have been quite unusual at the time of their creation. Concomitantly, today 's readers are likely to be perplexed while reading Thomas Hardy 's novels, as his presentation of women seems to stand out from his contemporaries with his attempts at breaking down the stereotypical characters presented in his day. Hardy 's women have their faults as well as their qualities and thus they become more complete and real. This complexity makes them more human; they are not representations of the ideal Victorian housewife who is characterised by her perfection at all times. They are not only confronted with their own problems and have to make reasoned decisions, but can be just as composed and feeble as their male counterparts. As Rosemarie Morgan 's comment suggests these Hardyan women provoked varied emotions, through their trials and tribulations, and my aim is to explore in what way Hardy presents his female protagonists to entice such a varied palette of reactions.
Far From the Madding Crowd 's Bathsheba and Jude the Obscure 's Sue have often been compared through their radical views on marriage. These two novels represent benchmarks in Thomas Hardy 's career, and although his views may be offered in a different way, they do not seem to have changed from the earlier novel to the latter. Bathsheba may be rather more voluptuous and vain than Sue, nevertheless their preoccupations are similar and they appear to make the same errors in judgement. Both protagonists, as Rosemarie Morgan suggests, are "Humanly imperfect," (Morgan, Women and Sexuality in the
Far From the Madding Crowd 's Bathsheba and Jude the Obscure 's Sue have often been compared through their radical views on marriage. These two novels represent benchmarks in Thomas Hardy 's career, and although his views may be offered in a different way, they do not seem to have changed from the earlier novel to the latter. Bathsheba may be rather more voluptuous and vain than Sue, nevertheless their preoccupations are similar and they appear to make the same errors in judgement. Both protagonists, as Rosemarie Morgan suggests, are "Humanly imperfect," (Morgan, Women and Sexuality in the
Bibliography: Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd, 1874. Ed. R. Blythe. London: Penguin Classics, 1985. Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure, 1895. Ed. P. Ingham. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Rosemarie Morgan, Women and Sexuality in the Novels of Thomas Hardy. London; New York: Routledge, 1988.