Open AccessTess as a Kaleidoscope of Socially Constructed Images in Tess of the D'urbervilles
Author(s) -
Romana Jabeen Bukhari,
Tahira Asgher,
Safia Parveen
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
sir syed journal of education and social research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2706-8285
pISSN - 2706-6525
DOI - 10.36902/sjesr-vol4-iss1-2021(37-43
Subject(s) - kaleidoscope , ideology , identity (music) , existentialism , resistance (ecology) , sociology , gender studies , social identity theory , aesthetics , epistemology , law , social group , social science , political science , art , visual arts , philosophy , ecology , politics , biology
This study aims to examine the Victorian novel Tess of the D'urbervilles to explore the general social construction of women which prescribes images and roles for them and moulds them accordingly. The researcher selected Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, which portrays the plight of women in Victorian England. This qualitative study makes a thorough analysis of the female protagonist who is exploited by the social prescription of her identity and concludes that the female figure is no more than the kaleidoscopic images of hers drawn by others. The study applies the concept of social construction with feministic insight. It hints that women cannot attain full potential until they and society establish their existential rights as empowered and independent human beings. It points out that the resistance against the dominant patriarchal ideologies endows women with a new image and identity, and ensures the possibilities to break away from social prescription.