Tess of the d’Ubervilles
Presentation of Tess.
Tess is left alone in a cruel world which refuses to offer her help or pity. Eventually she is condemned by society although the author implies that in spite of the murder she has committed she remains pure woman. The novel shows Victorian double standards of morality. Tess has a strong sense of responsibility and is committed to doing the best she can for her family. When their horse Prince was killed in collision, she realizes that such lost will be economically negative for her family. She is overcome with guilt. She returns ashamed, but no one blames her more than she does herself. Tess is a beautiful young woman who lives with her family in the village called Marlott. She is very loyal towards her family. Tess is the central character of the novel. She comes from poor family, but intelligent, she wanted to be a teacher. There is aristocracy in Tess’s blood, visible in her graceful beauty. She is forced to work as a farmhand and milkmaid. She is shown as a hard worker, working in the fields, at the dairy. She tries to do what is right, but her well-meaning actions bring more harm than positive sides. Her effort to help her family by going to the d’Uberville estate ends with seduction. When she tries to tell Angle about what happened between her and Alec she is unable to until after the wedding. She murdered Alec in desperation, knowing that if he had only gone away when she told him to, she could have been happy with Angle. As the book ends she is hung for Alec’s murder. According to Victorian society Tess is not a pure woman. She had a child out of wedlock, she doesn’t have a husband, and she is not married. When her baby dies and the priest refused to baptize her baby she doses it herself. Morally she is pure. Because of situations in her life being raped, having a child out of wedlock she feels excluded from the society she feels worse than others. Despite the fact of her deeds and difficult situation in life Tess develops into a responsible young adult and a deep sense of family duty makes her positive character. When we view Tess’s struggle with what happened to her, Tess seems to be an innocent victim who is not responsible for what had happened in her life. She could not foresee her future. Tess’s life was influenced by two men. She is seen as a very complex character. Tess is aware of the fact that she lives in strict society who tends to judge the woman more harshly than the man, regardless of the circumstances. Tess is not responsible for what happened to her that’s why she can not be judged as a good or bad.
Nature in Tess.
Hardy was deeply interested in nature. He talks about nature. Hardy’s concept is more realistic than romantic. Nature is an important element in Tess of the d’Uberville. Nature is not more friendly rather cruel. Hardy confines himself only to the dark aspect of nature. He seems to believe that all is not right with the world. He studied nature in its all aspects: ordinary, grand, sad and happy. In Tess Hardy calls nature a villain character. Nature has nothing good to offer to Tess but only destruction and suffering. Hardy points the bitter picture of life. He regards human beings as puppets in the hands of nature. All the misery and sorrow that we see in the world are there because the external power called fate and or nature. Tess avoids sufferings and went for some positive work but it was the nature that left her alone with no destination. In the seduction scene we see the major influence of nature. Nature welcomes its friend in the place that is covered with romantic atmosphere. Darkness and quietness is everywhere. No one is willfully seduced. Tess feels a victim of seduction; anyone would be seduced under such romantic circumstances. All the elements in the nature make her seduced. Hardy disagrees with the rude aspects of nature. He says where the angels were when Tess was being raped. Hardy rejects the ides of Wordsworth who says that the birth of the child is the joyful moment in nature but Hardy says what kind of joy is that a poor family is awarded through a lot of children which became the cause of Tess’s sufferings. In Tolbathays nature is very friendly. The affair of Tess and Angle would not be so beautiful but for its being among nature. The atmosphere of Tolbathays is pleasant. Angel proposes Tess in that romantic atmosphere. Sometimes nature seems to share in reality. It is her reflection of human’s moods, feelings, emotions and passion. All the elements like fate, chance or incidents have great impact on Tess’s tragedy. It looks that God is looking us just to feel pleasure. We do not have any guardian angels no backing force on our difficultly. In Tess nature darkens the life of all character.
Pessimism, Darwinism, determinism and symbolism in Tess.
Darwinism we are products of the environment we live in. Because of it we either function or perish. The society and the environment influence us and create us a kind of product. Because of Tess father he was drinking and was unable to support his family, Tess was made mature and responsible, which leads to interaction between her and the environment, her character determines her life. Tess character is the result of upbringing in poor family. Character determines life although it seems that things happen as coincidences and have no purpose. But there is no escape, life is a trap. Everything is determined. There seems to be no purpose of our suffering, we are guided by forces of nature which are blind and unsympathetic. There is no reason for us to be victims. Guilt and responsibility if we view life in this way we can’t say that somebody is responsible or guilty because we are victims we are products of society, upbringing, family Alec and Angel act in such a way because they are brought up in such a way, they have certain values, they are products of environment and can’t take responsibility for how they wee shaped.
Determinism everything is predetermined. We have no possibility to escape it or to influence our life even if it seems that we have a choice. We can’t escape of our fate. There is no sympathy for characters from nature or religion. Even religion which is supposed to give support does not help; it is rather a source of guilt. We are created by everything that surrounds us.
Symbolism
Red and white- these colors come up all over the place in Tess. Red is often associated with sin or sexuality while white is usually associated with purity a chastity. Hardy mixed these two colors. Tess is wearing a white dress with a red ribbon in her hair. So Tess is wearing a white but is also the only woman in the group wearing the red ornament. Tess is not like the other girls and is somehow going to trouble the traditional distinction between purity and sexuality.
Cow- there are some descriptions of cows at Talbothays dairy individual cows are referred by the name we get the vivid description of size, shape and color of their udders. Udders and breasts usually represent fullness of life and fertility. The cows which appear in Tess may present Hardy’s interest in nature or maybe even in the ancient worship of fertility
Stonegenge- a collection of giant stones has special connotation in the novel. Its main symbolism is that it represents death for the heroine who eventually accepts her destiny. Its symbolic shape and its location in a landscape not disturbed by man represent both solitude and death the stone of sacrifice.
Nature- is another important element which contribute to the final scene the coming of life is coming of death, the winds die out the stones are still and the scene is now ready to sacrifice. Nature is present all the time in novel has its bad and positive effects on character.
Psychological symbolism – the incident of Angel sleepwalking this is the most obvious example of gothic melodramatic symbolism. Angel sees Tess as dead and wishes to bury her, a more ambiguous incident is that of Tess’s letter going under the carpet this could be seen as a subconscious whish to push her past under the carpet
Pessimism philosophy – Hardy was a painter of darker side of life as it was o wonder if people charged him of pessimist. Tess is worst fated to the suffering of life. She tries her best to come out of fated circle of misfortunes but remains fail. Being the eldest child she has to do to the d’Ubervilles house for earning. Her seduction plays a vital role in her destruction. She is rejected by the society on becoming pregnant. She goes to earn to Talbothyas. Her love affair her marriage and then sudden rejection by Angle all this make her a victim of conventional social attitude. All this show that Hardy’s view on life is melancholic and depressive. Life is seen as trap. People have no influence on it they must face all obstacles in life boldly.
The question of guilt and purity. Is Tess a tragedy?
To define if Tess is a tragedy we must look at the definition of tragedy. A plot or tragedy should arise from gradual closing in of a situation that comes from ordinary human passions, prejudices and ambitions a tragedy exhibits a state of things in the life of an individual which unavoidably causes some natural aim or desire. The novel does appear to be tragic. Tess has so much fate and bad luck that her life must to be called tragic. A definition of tragedy for this novel would be a series of tragic events in Tess life that had been fated onto her. She can’t escape them and everything she tries to do to avoid them leads to another disaster. The story is set in seven phases and at the end of each phase something tragic takes place for Tess.
Tess is a timeless heroine with qualities which Thomas Hardy felt to be most perfect, admirable and tragic in womankind. She is described in the novel with essential purity. She should not be judged by her misfortunes but instead be seen in her entirety of her unfortunate tragedy. She is pure despite her downfall, with an illegitimate child, by her unfortunate being raped by Alec. Tess grows in determination and strength and is able to confront whatever happens to her. She is pure in Hardy’s mind. We can’t judge her, she is not guilty for what happened to her. No one is responsible for her misfortune. If we see life in this way we can’t say that somebody is responsible or guilty because we are victims, we are products of society, upbringing, family all this things influence us and have impact on our later life.
Major characters
Tess Durbeyfield The protagonist, eldest daughter in a poor rural working family; a fresh, well-developed country girl who looks markedly more mature than she is.
Angel Clare the third son of a clergyman; Tess's husband and true love. He considers himself a freethinker, but his notions of morality turn out to be fairly conventional: he rejects Tess on their wedding night when she confesses that she isn't a virgin, even though he, too, has engaged in premarital sex. He works at the Talbothay's dairy to gain practical experience because he hopes to buy a farm of his own.
Alec Stoke-d'Urberville The libertine son of Simon Stokes and Mrs. d'Urberville. He either rapes or seduces Tess when she is no more than sixteen or seventeen years old, and later pursues her relentlessly. He persuades her to see the reality in her relationship with Angel and convinces her to become his mistress.
Jack Durbeyfield (Sir John d'Urberville) — Tess's father, a carter in Marlott (based on the Dorset village of Marnhull) who is a lazy alcoholic. When he learns that his family is descended from nobility, he works less and less and starts pretending that he is an aristocrat.
Joan Durbeyfield Tess's hardworking mother who has a practical outlook on life. This includes being prepared to use her daughter for her own gains.
Minor characters
Mrs. Brooks Landlady of The Herons, the seaside boarding house where Tess murders Alec.
James Clare A charitable and moral clergyman; Angel Clare's father.
Mrs. Clare Angel Clare's mother, a kindly woman. She wants Angel to marry a pure, virtuous, and true Christian woman.
Felix Clare Angel's brother, a priest's assistant.
Cuthbert Clar eAngel's other brother, a classical scholar.
Mercy Chant The young lady that Angel's parents had thought to be the perfect wife for him. She later marries Cuthbert.
Richard Crick — The owner of the Talbothay Farm for whom Angel and Tess work.
Car Darch (Dark Car) One of Alec's former mistresses, discarded in favour of Tess.
Eliza Louisa (Liza-Lu) Durbeyfield Tess's younger sister, who closely resembles her. Shortly before her arrest, Tess asks Angel to marry her. Tess says she has "all the best of me, and none o' the bad".
Farmer Groby Tess's employer at Flintcombe-Ash, a churlish man who knows about her relationship with Alec. Groby is knocked down by Angel in their sojourn before their wedding, Angel thinking Groby had offended Tess' honour. Groby says to his friend afterwards that he "didn't have the heart" to tell Angel the truth at the time. His recognition of Tess sparks her fears, and reintroduces the threat of her past into the tragedy.
Jonathan Kail A Talbothays dairyman who informs Angel and Tess in the D'Urberville mansion right after the marriage, that Retty Priddle tried to commit suicide, Marian got "dead drunk", and that Izz Huett is walking around depressed.
Abraham, Hope & Modesty The son and daughters of the Durbeyfields.
Mrs. Stoke-D'Urberville The wealthy mother of Alec, a blind widow.
Izz Huett, Retty Priddle, and Marian Dairy maids at the Talbothay Farm. Izz is sensible, Retty sensitive, and Marian stolid, but all are in love with Angel Clare and fare poorly after he marries Tess.
Parson Tringham An elderly parson from whom John learns about his noble ancestors.
Sorrow The illegitimate child of Tess and Alec who lives only a few weeks. Tess loves him, despite her painfully ambivalent feelings about the circumstances of his conception. She christens him herself on the night he dies.
Phase the First: The Maiden (1–11)
The novel is set in impoverished rural Wessex during the Long Depression. Tess is the eldest child of John and Joan Durbeyfield, uneducated rural peasants. One day, Parson Tringham informs John that he has noble blood. Tringham, an amateur genealogist, has discovered that "Durbeyfield" is a corruption of "D'Urberville", the surname of a noble Norman family, now extinct. Although the parson means no harm, the news immediately goes to John's head. That same day, Tess participates in the village May Dance, where she briefly meets Angel Clare, the youngest son of Reverend James Clare, who is on a walking tour with his two brothers. He stops to join the dance, and finds partners in several other girls. Angel takes note of Tess's beauty, too late to dance with her, as he is already late for a promised meeting with his brothers. Tess feels slighted. Tess's father, overjoyed with learning of his noble lineage, gets too drunk to drive to market that night, so Tess undertakes the journey herself. However, she falls asleep at the reins, and the family's only horse encounters a speeding wagon and is fatally wounded. Tess feels so guilty over the horse's death that she agrees, against her better judgement, to visit Mrs. d'Urberville, a wealthy widow who lives in the nearby town of Trantridge, and "claim kin." She is unaware that in reality, Mrs. d'Urberville's husband, Simon Stoke, had merely purchased the baronial title and adopted the new surname, and so is not related to the d'Urbervilles. Tess does not succeed in meeting Mrs. d'Urberville, but her libertine son Alec takes a fancy to Tess and secures her a position as poultry keeper on the d'Urberville estate. He immediately begins making advances to her. Tess dislikes Alec and repels him verbally but endures his persistent unwanted attention because she feels she has no choice, as she must earn enough to replace her family's only means of support, the dead horse. The threat that Alec presents to Tess's virtue is obscured for Tess by her inexperience and almost daily commonplace interactions with him. He calls her "coz" (cousin), indicating a male protector, not a ravisher. Late one night while walking home from town with some other Trantridge villagers, Tess inadvertently antagonises Car Darch, Alec's most recently discarded favourite, and finds herself about to come to blows. When Alec rides up and offers to "rescue" her from the situation, she accepts. He does not take her home, however, but rides at random through the fog until they reach an ancient grove called "The Chase." Here, Alec informs her that he is lost and leaves on foot to get his bearings. Tess stays behind and falls asleep atop the coat he lent her. After Alec returns he rapes her. The rape is also alluded to in another chapter, with reference to the "screams heard in the Chase" during the season Tess was at Tantridge.
Phase the Second: Maiden No More (12–15)
After a few weeks of confused dalliance with Alec, Tess begins to despise him. Against his wishes, she goes home to her father's cottage, where she keeps almost entirely to her room. The next summer, she gives birth to a sickly boy, who lives only a few weeks. On his last night alive, Tess baptises him herself, after her father locked the doors to keep the parson away. The child is given the name 'Sorrow'. Tess buries Sorrow in unconsecrated ground, makes a homemade cross and lays flowers on his grave in an empty marmalade jar.
Phase the Third: The Rally (16–24)
More than two years after the Trantridge debacle, Tess, now 20, is ready to make a new start. She seeks employment outside the village, where her past is not known, and secures a job as a milkmaid at Talbothays Dairy, working for Mr. and Mrs. Crick. There, she befriends three of her fellow milkmaids, Izz, Retty, and Marian, and re-encounters Angel Clare, who is now an apprentice farmer and has come to Talbothays to learn dairy management. Although the other milkmaids are sick with love for him, Angel soon singles out Tess, and the two gradually fall in love.
Phase the Fourth: The Consequence (25–34)
"He jumped up from his seat...and went quickly toward the desire of his eyes." 1891 illustration by Joseph Syddall Angel spends a few days away from the dairy visiting his family at Emminster. His brothers Felix and Cuthbert, who are both ordained ministers, note Angel's coarsened manners, while Angel considers his brothers staid and narrow-minded. Following evening prayers, Angel discusses his marriage prospects with his father. The Clares have long hoped that Angel would marry Mercy Chant, a pious schoolmistress, but Angel argues that a wife who understands farm life would be a more practical choice. He tells his parents about Tess, and they agree to meet her. His father, the Reverend James Clare, tells Angel about his efforts to convert the local populace, and mentions his failure to tame a young miscreant named Alec d'Urberville.
Angel returns to Talbothays Dairy and asks Tess to marry him. This puts Tess in a painful dilemma: Angel obviously thinks she is a virgin and, although she does not want to deceive him, she shrinks from confessing lest she lose his love and admiration. Such is her passion for him that she finally agrees to the marriage, explaining that she hesitated because she had heard he hated old families and thought he would not approve of her d'Urberville ancestry. However, he is pleased by this news, because he thinks it will make their match more suitable in the eyes of his family. As the marriage approaches, Tess grows increasingly troubled. She writes to her mother for advice; Joan tells her to keep silent about her past. Her anxiety increases when a man from Trantridge, named Groby, recognises her while she is out shopping with Angel and crudely alludes to her sexual history. Angel overhears and flies into an uncharacteristic rage. Tess resolves to deceive Angel no more, and writes a letter describing her dealings with d'Urberville and slips it under his door. After Angel greets her with the usual affection the next morning, she discovers the letter under his carpet and realises that he has not seen it. She destroys it. The wedding goes smoothly although a bad omen of a cock crowing in the afternoon is noticed by Tess. Tess and Angel spend their wedding night at an old d'Urberville family mansion, where Angel presents his bride with some beautiful diamonds that belonged to his godmother and confesses that he once had a brief affair with an older woman in London. When she hears this story, Tess feels sure that Angel will forgive her own indiscretion, and finally tells him about her relationship with Alec.
Phase the Fifth: The Woman Pays (35–44)
Angel, however, is appalled by Tess' confession, and he spends the wedding night sleeping on a sofa. Tess, although devastated, accepts the sudden estrangement as something she deserves. After a few awkward, awful days, she suggests that they separate, telling her husband that she will return to her parents. Angel gives her some money and promises to try to reconcile himself to her past, but warns her not to try to join him until he sends for her. After a quick visit to his parents, Angel takes ship for Brazil to start a new life. Before he leaves, he encounters Izz Huett on the road and impulsively asks her to come to Brazil with him, as his mistress. She accepts, but when he asks her how much she loves him, she admits "Nobody could love 'ee more than Tess did! She would have laid down her life for 'ee. I could do no more!" Hearing this, he abandons the whim, and Izz goes home weeping bitterly.
Tess returns home for a time but, finding this unbearable, decides to join Marian and Izz at a starve-acre farm called Flintcomb-Ash. On the road, she is recognised and insulted by a farmer named Groby (the same man who slighted her in front of Angel); this man proves to be her new employer. At the farm, the three former milkmaids perform very hard physical labour.
One day, Tess attempts to visit Angel's family at the parsonage in Emminster. As she nears her destination, she encounters Angel's priggish older brothers and the woman his parents once hoped he would marry, Mercy Chant. They do not recognise her, but she overhears them discussing Angel's unwise marriage. Shamed, she turns back. On the way, she overhears a wandering preacher and is shocked to discover that he is Alec d'Urberville, who has been converted to Christianity under the Reverend James Clare's influence.
Phase the Sixth: The Convert (45–52)
Alec and Tess are each shaken by their encounter, and Alec begs Tess never to tempt him again as they stand beside an ill-omened stone monument called the Cross-in-Hand. However, Alec soon comes to Flintcomb-Ash to ask Tess to marry him. She tells him she is already married. He returns at Candlemas and again in early spring, when Tess is hard at work feeding a threshing machine. He tells her he is no longer a preacher and wants her to be with him. She slaps him when he insults Angel, drawing blood. Tess then learns from her sister, Liza-Lu, that her father, John, is ill and that her mother is dying. Tess rushes home to look after them. Her mother soon recovers, but her father unexpectedly dies.
The family is evicted from their home, as Durbeyfield held only a life lease on their cottage. Alec tells Tess that her husband is never coming back and offers to house the Durbeyfields on his estate. Tess refuses his assistance. She had earlier written Angel a psalm-like letter, full of love, self-abasement, and pleas for mercy; now, however, she finally admits to herself that Angel has wronged her and scribbles a hasty note saying that she will do all she can to forget him, since he has treated her so unjustly.
The Durbeyfields plan to rent some rooms in the town of Kingsbere, ancestral home of the d'Urbervilles, but they arrive there to find that the rooms have already been rented to another family. All but destitute, they are forced to take shelter in the churchyard, under the D'Urberville window. Tess enters the church and in the d'Urberville Aisle, Alec reappears and importunes Tess again. In despair, she looks at the entrance to the d'Urberville vault and wonders aloud, "Why am I on the wrong side of this door?"
In the meantime, Angel has been very ill in Brazil and, his farming venture having failed, he heads home to England. On the way, he confides his troubles to a stranger, who tells him that he was wrong to leave his wife; what she was in the past should matter less than what she might become. Angel begins to repent his treatment of Tess.
Phase the Seventh: Fulfilment (53–59)
Upon his return to his family home, Angel has two letters waiting for him: Tess's angry note and a few cryptic lines from "two well-wishers" (Izz and Marian), warning him to protect his wife from "an enemy in the shape of a friend." He sets out to find Tess and eventually locates Joan, now well-dressed and living in a pleasant cottage. After responding evasively to his enquiries, she finally tells him her daughter has gone to live in Sandbourne, a fashionable seaside resort. There, he finds Tess living in an expensive boarding house under the name "Mrs. d'Urberville." When he asks for her, she appears in startlingly elegant attire and stands aloof. He tenderly asks her forgiveness, but Tess, in anguish, tells him he has come too late; thinking he would never return, she yielded at last to Alec d'Urberville's persuasion and has become his mistress. She gently asks Angel to leave and never come back. He departs, and Tess returns to her bedroom, where she falls to her knees and begins a lamentation. She blames Alec for causing her to lose Angel's love a second time, accusing Alec of having lied when he said that Angel would never return to her.
The landlady, Mrs. Brooks, tries to listen in at the keyhole, but withdraws hastily when the argument becomes heated. She later sees Tess leave the house, then notices a spreading red spot — a bloodstain — on the ceiling. She summons help, and Alec is found stabbed to death in his bed.
Angel, totally disheartened, has left Sandbourne; Tess hurries after him and tells him that she has killed Alec, saying that she hopes she has won his forgiveness by murdering the man who ruined both their lives. Angel doesn't believe her at first, but grants his forgiveness — as she is in such a fevered state — and tells her that he loves her. Rather than head for the coast, they walk inland, vaguely planning to hide somewhere until the search for Tess is ended and they can escape abroad from a port. They find an empty mansion and stay there for five days in blissful happiness, until their presence is discovered one day by the cleaning woman. They continue walking and, in the middle of the night, stumble upon Stonehenge, giving the allusion of Tess as a sacrificial victim to a society that shunned her. Tess lies down to rest on an ancient altar. Before she falls asleep, she asks Angel to look after her younger sister, Liza-Lu, saying that she hopes Angel will marry her after she is dead. At dawn, Angel sees that they are surrounded by police. He finally realises that Tess really has committed murder and asks the men in a whisper to let her awaken naturally before they arrest her. When she opens her eyes and sees the police, she tells Angel she is "almost glad" because "now I shall not live for you to despise me". She is allowed a dignified death through the fact that Angel listens to her (he hasn't throughout the rest of the novel) and through her parting words of "I am ready". Tess is escorted to Wintoncester (Winchester) prison. The novel closes with Angel and Liza-Lu watching from a nearby hill as the black flag signalling Tess's execution is raised over the prison. Angel and Liza-Lu then join hands and go on their way.
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