fantine525 's review for:

Tessa d'Urberville by Thomas Hardy

4.0

dark emotional reflective sad

Plot or Character Driven: Character

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  Who would’ve expected, that a man born in the XIX century would understand women’s oppressed position in society and have more empathy towards them, than some people living today? I genuinely think, that that one man, who gave this book a one star review on Goodreads and stated it was because Tess was dumb for not running away, should loose his rights. I wouldn’t want to live in a country, where such a victimblamer has a vote in the elections. That man wrote an entire „letter” to Tess, where he kept on asking her why didn’t she do anything, as if a poor woman in Victorian England could do anything more, than to move to a town a few miles away. 
    This book definitely took me by surprise by how compassionate and understanding it was for women, especially since it was written by a man. And how beautifully it was written! It made me so sad and so angry all at once and then, as a tiny compensation, presented me with such a soul-crushingly gorgeous sentence.
   I can’t believe I’m saying this, but this is probably the only instance, where i agree with a death sentence, not because Tess did anything wrong, but because forcing her to live after all this would be inhumanly cruel.