Description For your third essay, choose one of the topics listed below, and write at least one thousand words on it. If none of the topics appeals to you, then see me to clear a topic that you may wish to select on your own.  You must, however, clear that topic with me before you begin working on the paper. Your essay is to be argumentative and interpretative in its approach. That is, you are to create a thesis statement that reflects your interpretation (your opinion) of some aspect of the novel. The thesis must have a specific focus. Once you have clarified this thesis, choose passages and incidents from the text to argue that your opinion is a valid interpretation of whatever topic you've chosen. In your writing, I'm looking for a reasonable tone and for logical explanations and connections within the work. I don't want an essay based on emotions. I want critical thinking that reflects intelligence and thoughtfulness, supported by specifics from the text.  In your essay, do not discuss Thomas Hardy's biography. Once again, you are not required to use outside sources (critics) for this assignment; however, if you are influenced in any way by your reading of such sources, you must document them, both in-text and in the works cited page. Do not use the Bible, other fiction or poetry, or insignificant websites like Spark Notes. One other point: In the topics below, I don't want to know what you think about exploitation, abuse, and the role of men and women in Victorian society.  I want you to tell me what you think Thomas Hardy thinks. The essay should use the standard MLA form of documentation that is included in the back of the Diana Hacker text, Handbook for Writers, which all of the English composition courses use on campus.  Format of the Essay In writing your essay, I want you to adhere to the standard format for manuscripts; that is, type the paper, and be sure to double-space it; please be kind to my aging eyes and use a twelve-pitch font. A readable text is important, so don't rely on a weak ink cartridge. In the upper lefthand corner of the first page, include your name, English 244, Essay #3, and the number of the topic you've chosen. If you've created your own topic, with my approval, please write out that topic at the top of the page. Also, be certain to create a title for the paper that connects with the thesis. On the second and succeeding pages, include your last name and the page number (Alvarez 2, Alvarez 3, etc.) in the upper right hand corner.  For additional hints about how to write a paper about literature follow this link. Confine your direct quotations to no more than fifteen percent of your paper. And don't waste a great deal of time summarizing the plot of the novel. We've all read it.  As a general guideline, you should include two-to-three sentences of analysis for each sentence of summary. If you do little more than summarize the story, you will earn no higher than a "D." I want to know what you think about this work, how you interpret what Hardy is saying, and how you evaluate it. As long as you are willing to support your points with evidence from the text, don't hesitate to say "I think." Do the best you can with this paper. No one can ask more of you. Due Date The due date for the essay is on the syllabus. Topics 1. The English novelist and critic E. M. Forster observes that Thomas Hardy's novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles reflects Hardy's view that humans have no control over their lives, that human choice is an illusion. Rather, in Hardy's world, fate controls his characters.  Taking Tess as the focus of your essay, argue that fate controls her life.  In your argument, consider what Hardy might be saying about the source of fate and what the motivatiion behind such a manipulative force is. 2. Roy Morell, another critic of Hardy, argues that it is not fate that controls Tess.  Morell says that Tess is a victim of Victorian society.  That is, who Tess is and what her position in society is are responsible for her choices and decisions.  In this view, fate is not cruel; Victorian society in all its restrictions and mores is cruel.  Agree with or dispute this argument. 3. Arnold Kettle's interpretation of Tess reflects a third way of looking at Hardy's novel.  Kettle says that Hardy's story is an allegory about the destruction in Victorian society of the individual peasant, that Tess, a woman of the land, is ruined by Alec d'Urberville, the rich, bourgeois man who has gained money from manufacturing, not farming.  By the end of the novel, the peasant Tess is forced to work on a steam-threshing machine, a further sign that she has been alienated from her bucolic background as a milkmaid and has become victim of the machine age in England.  Agree or disagree with this argument. 4. One feminist critic, Ellen Rooney, raises the question about what actually occurs on the night of the market and fair in Trantridge.  On their way home that night,  Alec d'Urberville and Tess remain in The Chase--the oldest wood in England--where they have a sexual relationship.  The result of that night changes Tess's life.  Given Tess's character and the situation that Hardy describes prior to, during, and following this scene, do you believe that the novelist wants his readers to think that d'Urberville has raped Tess in the woods?  Or does Tess's ambivalence toward Alec's advances imply that she was a willing participant in the sexual act?  In response to Alec, Tess does say, "'I don't know--I wish--how can I say yes or no when--'" (85). Given your answer to this pivotal question, how would Hardy's theme be affected in this novel? 5. In the early stages of his development, Angel Clare seems to be a favorable male character, a character who wants to break through the rigid class-consciousness of Victorian society.  However, at a critical moment he turns away from Tess.  What is Angel Clare's role in the novel?  What is Hardy saying through him, and what is the implication of his walking off at the end with Liza-Lu? 6. Tess is often described in the novel as being beautiful, as a woman whose looks attract, even tempt men.  In fact, in one scene after she has been accosted by a farmer, Tess tries to strip her body of its beauty by dressing in old clothes, by making her eyebrows look unattractive, and by covering her face.  What is Hardy saying about Tess's physical beauty?  Is beauty a curse of nature from which Tess must suffer?  Is beauty so much a part of her identity that it virtually defines her, suppressing her spiritual self? Or is physical beauty not Tess's burden but the burden of the men in the novel--perhaps even Hardy himself--who are seduced by it? 7. If none of these topics appeals to you, you should email me with your own topic before you start your paper.  I will have to approve that topic.  If I don't approve of it ahead of time, I will not accept your essay.