I was looking into Tess of the d'Urbervilles and discovered that Tess was raped in the book when trying to research if Far from the Madding crowd had any rape included. I could not find whether it did or not, it would be great help. I am quite sensitive to topics as so.
2 Answers
The Book Trigger Warnings entry for the book does not mention rape.
- Animal death
- Death
- Faked death
- Murder
- Property destruction via storm
- Sexism
- Shooting
Given that rape is mentioned in the entry for Tess of the d'Urbervilles, I suspect they would have mentioned it if it were an aspect of the book. Lastly, I scanned the Wikipedia plot summary, and I see no mention of any sort of sexual assault.
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Your link is to the plot summary of 'Far from the Madding Crowd'! Commented Jul 17 at 18:52
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1My mistake - I didn't read the question carefully enough, and assumed it was about how graphic the scene in 'Tess' was. Commented Jul 18 at 8:19
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1As a side note, the title keeps feeling like it's going to be a punchline for a Monty Python skit, "Oh, well, there's just a little rape in it." "Can I get it without?" "Probably not, writing process being what it is, there's bound to be a little rape. You know, it's like glitter. Gets everywhere, you know." Commented Jul 18 at 14:56
Far from the Madding Crowd was published in 1874, and at that time publications in England were censored according to the Obscene Publications Act 1857, which made it impossible for authors to refer to sexual activity in detailed or explicit terms. (See this answer for more on the subject.) This meant that in Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891), Hardy had to imply the rape of the heroine and not describe it. This is all that he wrote:
Why it was that upon this beautiful feminine tissue, sensitive as gossamer, and practically blank as snow as yet, there should have been traced such a coarse pattern as it was doomed to receive; why so often the coarse appropriates the finer thus, the wrong man the woman, the wrong woman the man, many thousand years of analytical philosophy have failed to explain to our sense of order. One may, indeed, admit the possibility of a retribution lurking in the present catastrophe. Doubtless some of Tess d’Urberville’s mailed ancestors rollicking home from a fray had dealt the same measure even more ruthlessly towards peasant girls of their time. But though to visit the sins of the fathers upon the children may be a morality good enough for divinities, it is scorned by average human nature; and it therefore does not mend the matter.
Thomas Hardy (1891). Tess of the d’Urbervilles, chapter 11. Project Gutenberg.
In Far from the Madding Crowd there is nothing as explicit even as the paragraph quoted above. However, there is an episode which we can interpret as representing a sexual assault, but in symbolic form. The heroine Bathsheba takes a fencing lesson from the dashing Sergeant Troy:
“That outer loose lock of hair wants tidying,” he said, before she had moved or spoken. “Wait: I’ll do it for you.”
An arc of silver shone on her right side: the sword had descended. The lock dropped to the ground.
“Bravely borne!” said Troy. “You didn’t flinch a shade’s thickness. Wonderful in a woman!”
“It was because I didn’t expect it. Oh, you have spoilt my hair!”
“Only once more.”
“No—no! I am afraid of you—indeed I am!” she cried.
“I won’t touch you at all—not even your hair. I am only going to kill that caterpillar settling on you. Now: still!”
It appeared that a caterpillar had come from the fern and chosen the front of her bodice as his resting place. She saw the point glisten towards her bosom, and seemingly enter it. Bathsheba closed her eyes in the full persuasion that she was killed at last. However, feeling just as usual, she opened them again.
“There it is, look,” said the sergeant, holding his sword before her eyes.
The caterpillar was spitted upon its point.
Thomas Hardy (1874). Far from the Madding Crowd, chapter 28. Project Gutenberg.
The sword here symbolically represents Troy’s penis.
