Annie and Tess

I recently finished reading two books that had two female leads that, while not necessarily similar, reflected similar aspects of being a woman that I found interesting. I always over-identify why anything I'm reading.

The first is Joy in the Morning by Betty Smith (who wrote the lovely and beautiful A Tree Grows in Brooklyn). This is a simple book about Carl and Annie, two crazy kids who decide to get married when they're 20 and 18, respectively, the summer before Carl starts his last year of law school at a college in the Midwest. What's really sweet about this story is that it's the love story that's generally not told--the one after the couple gets married. It really is just Carl and Annie dealing with their first year of marriage, getting pregnant, and wondering how they'll make everything work. There's nothing earth-shattering or exceptional in the novel, and I suppose that's what life is like in general. Right after they get married, Annie says, "But it was so quick! It takes longer to buy a hat than to get married. I don't feel married." This sums up exactly my thoughts on marriage. Annie is quite strong-willed and friendly to everyone. I just really love her. Carl is afraid that if his wife starts reading she'll start having thoughts of her own and then  not need him anymore. I suppose I can forgive this for the time period it's set in, and Carl actually realizes the lame-ness of thinking that.

The other I recently finished is Tess of the d'Urbervilles. This story is really quite tragic (it's written by Thomas Hardy so what do you expect). Tess, a pretty country girl, is forced to make a connection with her wealthy relatives. She unfortunately gets taken advantage of by her "cousin" and ends up with an illegitimate child who dies before he's one. She vows to never get married because she does not feel worthy of it. However, she is pursued by a gentleman at the dairy farm where she works and, against her better judgement, decides to accept his proposal of marriage. When she confesses to him, on their wedding night and after he's confessed to his own "sins", he decides she is not the person he fell in love with and leaves her. He goes off to Brazil and leaves Tess to fend for herself. She's so shamed to admit to anything, for fear she'll sully her husband's name, that she must endure many difficulties. It is really quite tragic to see how tied her life is to her husband's, and that she essentially has no path of her own. She's certainly capable of making her way through life, but she defends and defects to her husband so often that I just want to shake her. Obviously the late 1800s were a different time period than now, but I really just feel sad for Tess.

There were aspects to both Annie and Tess that I could relate to. Their stories are both happy, sad, tragic, beautiful, and incredible. I think that women and their roles and what is expected of them have come a long way and for that I'm glad.