MovieChat Forums > Tess (1980) Discussion > Did Tess really exist?

Did Tess really exist?

posted 18 years ago by cengelm
4 replies | jump to latest

Does the novel have some true origin?

[–] gnolti 18 years ago

I seem to remember something to that effect. That the story was inspired by something he read in the newspapers.

"L'audace, l'audace. Toujours l'audace."

[–] artihcus022 17 years ago

Hardy said in a letter that as a boy he witnessed a public hanging of a woman which stayed with him throughout his life. Public hanging is also there in his other books but I think that might have been a case which got him sympathy for persecuted people.

The Victorian Age was a time of superficial morality and hypocritical class divisions and many women as unfortunate as Tess ended up facing persecution from society that refused to understand them.

How much is a good nights sleep worth?

[–] fuchsiasattic 15 years ago

I can imagine there have been many women very similar to Tess throughout the years.

[–] Noirdame79 15 years ago

The hanging that Hardy witnessed as a boy was that of Martha Browne, who murdered her abusive husband. So the inspiration of Tess and her fate from that experience probably isn't insignificant.