Lady Dedlock from 'Bleak House' v. Tess d'Urbeville
A Comparison Les Foins (Haymaker) by Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848-1884), from 1877.Public Domain, courtesy of 'Wikipedia'. The purpose of this post is to look at the plight of two fictional characters 'Lady Dedlock' and 'Tess', created some 40 years apart, but dramatically depict how a woman who had a child 'out of wedlock' could be 'ruined'. Both Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy were highly critical of the treatment of their plight. A great deal of Charles Dickens's 'Bleak House' (first published via installments 1852-1853) concerns hidden past, and how the power that those individuals who have discovered a secret about another person can wield. Lady Honoria Dedlock, has had an illegitimate child before her marriage. She keeps this from her husband Lord Lester Dedlock, but once this fact is discovered, her life crumbles. The child is actually the joint narrator of