H04012 "TESS AND MEDUSA MYTH" 1/30/04 HARDY FORUM ARCHIVES
From: srogers@mailhost.sju.edu
Subject: [Hardy-L] Tess and Medusa Myth
Date: January 30, 2004 9:45:08 AM PST
Hello all,
I was listening to a discussion on NPR just a few minutes ago on my
drive in. Nancy Vickers was talking about her new book on the Medusa
myth and it prompted me to make comparisons to Tess. I have nothing in
front of me, so pardon me if this has been covered elsewhere--but I
can't seem to recall either any work done on it, or of Hardy himself
making an explicit comparison. With that said, it seemed like a
potentially fruitful topic for discussion.
According to the myth, Medusa was a woman of uncommon beauty--arresting
beauty, one might say. She has a "relationship" with Poseidon, one
which begins with a questionable seduction/rape. This questionable
moment, which occurs in the temple of Athena, angers the goddess, who
then makes Medusa a monster--all who look upon her face will be turned
to stone. If it is a rape, Athena has unjustly punished a rape victim,
not the attacker. If seduction, perhaps there is no other reason for
punishment than petty jealousy. Her later decapitation by Perseus
results in the birth of the beautiful Pegasus, who inspires the Muses
and is symbolic of a host of other lovely ideals--freedom, I think, is
one.
The comparisons to Tess are striking---she has an arresting sort of
beauty. That beauty is powerful enough to attract the attentions of a
god of sorts, in an economic and social sense, if you compare Alec's
position to Tess' own. The moment of consumation remains questionable
throughout the novel, and again, the woman is unjustly persecuted and
punished. She is made morally monstrous and later, literally
monsterous as a murderess. Her "revenge" in killing Alec can be looked
at as turning him to stone in that he is rendered fairly speechless by
Hardy, who does not describe the murder. The Pegasus moment in Tess
could be related to both her own sense of fulfillment at the end, and
Angel's ability to forgive and have the questionable freedom to embrace
a newer, idealized relationship with Liza-Lu, although this is
problematic.
Besides just opening this up for discussion, I was curious if this is
something Hardy himself obliquely refers to in the text (I remember
comparisons to Artemis and Demeter, but not Medusa) and if others have
made a similar connection.
Best,
Shannon
Shannon Rogers
srogers@sju.edu
From: rnemesva@stfx.ca
Subject: Re: [Hardy-L] Tess and Medusa Myth
Date: January 30, 2004 12:42:23 PM PST
In response to Shannon's question, I can't think offhand of any direct
allusions to Medusa in *Tess.* Certainly if Hardy wanted a model for this
he could always have called upon Eliot's *The Mill on the Floss,* in which
Maggie Tulliver is directly connected to Medusa twice, and that's leaving
aside the slightly more tangential reference to her "whirling round like a
Pythoness." Eliot constantly uses Maggie's hair as a symbol of her
rebellious nature, and for me that marks Eliot's, or any author's, evocation
of this myth. It is her snake-locks that define Medusa's ugliness and her
threatening phallic power, but Hardy pays comparatively little attention to
Tess's hair, choosing instead to concentrate (some critics have argued
fetishize) on her eyes and mouth.
I would say there are definite thematic links between *Mill on the Floss*
and *Tess* (gender inequality, tragedy, constructions of masculinity, class
conflict), but the Medusa imagery associated with Maggie communicates the
ambivalence Eliot feels towards her main character, and I don't think that's
reproduced in Hardy's text (or at least not in the same way).
Just a few random observations.
Richard Nemesvari
Department of English
St. Francis Xavier University
rnemesva@stfx.ca
From: srogers@sju.edu
Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: [Hardy-L] Tess and Medusa Myth
Date: February 2, 2004 4:34:18 AM PST
Richard, thanks for the reply.
Perhaps I should elaborate a bit more----a few random thoughts more of
my own.
I was thinking more about Medusa as an archetype, and what Vickers
seems to pinpoint as her power in her beauty and ability to make men look
at her. Also, the later superimposed overtones of snakes, temptation, and
fall from Eden.
Of course, I'm no Medusa expert (and I only heard Vickers being interviewed--
I haven't read her book), so I can't name specifics, but apparently there is a
strong tradition of her dichotomies--beauty vs. monster, poison vs. antidote--
which go much further than focusing simply on her as the snake-haired monster.
For instance, in the Burne-Jones painting of the late 1870s, Medusa doesn't
strike me as hideous (unlike the famous Caravaggio painting), although the
snakes are there certainly.
I guess I was thinking more of Hardy's subconscious, which we of course cannot
speculate too much upon, but also on what tropes and allusions are inspired
in the reader's mind by these towering sorts of archtypes in the general cultural
consciousness.
Cheers,
Shannon
Shannon L. Rogers
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of History
Saint Joseph's University
5600 City Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19131
(610) 660-3353
shannon.rogers@sju.edu
From: rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu
Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: [Hardy-L] Tess and Medusa Myth
Date: February 2, 2004 6:45:10 AM PST
Shannon, -- fascinating subject!
We don't really need to speculate about Hardy's sub/unconscious: monster
mythology was prevalent in Victorian culture and this includes the cult of
the Medusa.
At just one level alone, as a gallery enthusiast, Hardy would have known
paintings such as Millais' "Knight Errant" or Gale's "Perseus and
Andromeda" where Perseus rescues the innocent, naked maiden tied in bonds
(later marries her) -- but of course first has to sever the Medusa's head
and slay the dragon and so on. The Burne-Jones' "Medusa" themes are
especially interesting for the hermaphrodite aspects of of the "rescuer."
Among several interpretations of the Medusa/Perseus myth there are those
that include: "initiation into manhood," models of "masculinity" (the
"rescuer of weak and vulnerable woman," "the protector" [of same], the
"fearless & brave," etc), the destruction of the enchanting,
sexually-active woman and her fatal power, (essentially evil by virtue of
her sexuality), which is tied up with "fear of female sexuality," and
(obviously) "bondage fantasies/the eroticization of dominance and
submission" and inevitably, the Oedipal aspect whereby the erotic power of
the mother figure has to be destroyed (the Medusa has to be looked in the
eye-- mirror symbolism -- note the eye to eye of "son" and "mother" -- and
some say the penile eye of the male is threatened by the sexual power of
the all-powerful female). Then, there is the defining of a binary gender
system in the archetypal figures of the Medusa and the dragon-- both
monsters which sometimes merge but are more often polarised (as also within
domestic culture ).
Well, there are many ramifications but the point is that the culture was
saturated (Richard has already pointed to Eliot), -- Pater, Hopkins,
Kingsley, Leighton, Rossetti, and more-- so what with the cult of heroism
and your own prime minister playing knight errant in the London streets at
night to "rescue" the fallen woman, Hardy couldn't escape the Medusa cult
if he tried.
Apologies for the bombardment.
Cheers,
Rosemarie
I guess I was thinking more of Hardy's subconscious, which we of course
cannot
speculate too much upon, but also on what tropes and allusions are inspired
in the reader's mind by these towering sorts of archtypes in the general
cultural
consciousness.
Shannon