silver

It makes me smile every time Angel Clare comes up on meme and piles of people talk about how much they hate him. I hate his guts. I hate him so much. I love a lot of characters usually, I like antagonists and villains and protagonists and most characters. But I can't stand Clare. He makes my blood boil. I mean, I liked Alec better than him, and Alec is a rapist. THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG THERE if I like Alec better. I hate him so much that I went through and stripped out a lot of the italics and capslock I used but guys, normal text formatting isn't enough to contain my seething hatred and loathing for him.

I think it's a combination of Angel basically dismissing Tess after he finds out her past, running off like a huge prat, and then--when he gets back--doing absolutely nothing. What is the use of repenting if you never do anything?! "Let her wake naturally"--oh thank you so very much, Angel Clare, that's all you can do? That's all you do in the whole thing! Oh my god, why are you such a horrible person? Maybe this comes of being weaned on stories where it's normal for the protagonist(s) will do something (anything) to help each other. I'm not asking him to whip out a weapon and fight through all the men surrounding them. But he literally leaves her to be killed.

Also, he never gets his comeuppance. At least the husband in the Mayor of Casterbridge does. No, he just goes off with Lizzy-Lou and presumably marries her in a bit. It reminds me of the closing stanza of "Clementine."

I really have to get around to reading Jude the Obscure. I don't like Hardy's poetry (I can't get over his Titanic poem. It was an abomination) but I love his novels, and that's the last of the big ones I haven't read.

I'm in the beginning of Far From the Madding Crowd and find that though the language hasn't really changed (still thick, but it's getting much easier for me to read it), this novel is far more humorous. Whereas The Mayor of Casterbridge is kind of a darker study into what humans are like, this is so much more--I hesitate to say cheerful. Lighter, I guess. I'm still trying to see if any of main The Mayor of Casterbridge characters show up in this one--it's the same universe, some of the very, very peripheral characters have shown up--and Farmer Oak passes through Casterbridge!

Edit to fix typo. Another one.