When Rosemarie Morgan claims, "Hardy's women ... must have confused many readers caught with mixed feelings of admiration and alarm," (Morgan, Women and Sexuality in the Novels of Thomas Hardy xiii) she brings forward a duality of reaction which reflects Hardyan heroines' characters. The confusion she refers to can be understood within the novels' historical contexts, as these female protagonists were most likely to have been quite unusual at the time of their creation. Concomitantly, today's readers are likely to be perplexed while reading Thomas Hardy's novels, as his presentation of women seems to stand out from his contemporaries with his attempts at breaking down the stereotypical characters presented in his day. Hardy's women have their faults as well as their qualities and thus they become more complete and real. This complexity makes them more human; they are not representations of the ideal Victorian housewife who is characterised by her perfection at all times. They are......
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