Tess [of the d'Urbervilles] was evidently another of those unlucky pushovers, like the Last Duchess, and like Ophelia - we'd studied Hamlet earlier. These girls were all similar. They were too trusting, they found themselves in the hands of the wrong man, they weren't up to things, they let themselves drift. They smiled too much. They were too eager to please. Then they got bumped off, one way or another. Nobody gave them any help.
Why did we have to study these hapless, annoying, dumb-bunny girls? I wondered. Who chose the books and poems that would be on the cirriculum? What use would they be in our future lives? What exactly were we supposed to be learning from them?

"My Last Duchess"