"Damaged girl[s]" : the commodification of female protagonists in Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Oates's We were the Mulvaneys.

Abstract

Tess of the d'Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy, and We Were the Mulvaneys, by Joyce Carol Oates, both present the female protagonists, Tess and Marianne, as commodities, or less-than-human goods to be exchanged among men. Regardless of the differences between the novels caused by time and geography, each of the novels supports a patriarchal system of beliefs that encourages the subjugation of women by presenting them as lacking any humanity, as merchandise to be bought and sold. This study of the commodification of women's bodies in the novels illuminates the static nature of the subjugation of women throughout Western history, specifically the last century. Precisely because of the differences in time and geography, one might assume (or hope) that the female protagonists would be presented differently in each of the novels. Yet, finding that both the novel from the 1890s and the one from the 1990s presents women as commodities is a distressing reminder that patriarchal thought is still pervasive in Western society. Much has changed in the century between the publication of Tess of the d'Urbervilles and We Were the Mulvaneys, yet the commodification of women in literature remains.