Works of Thomas Hardy discussion
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Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
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Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Phase the Second: Chapter 12 - 15 and Phase the Third: Chapters 16 - 24
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Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
(Links will be added daily)
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This is a recent photograph of an Elizabethan cottage in Marnhull village, Dorset. It was supposedly the model for Tess Durbeyfield's thatched cottage at Marlott.
There must have been several other possibilities in the 1890s, but Marnhull is a very small village, and this is the only Elizabethan-period thatched cottage there. Plus, coins from the reign of James I were found when the central back entrance was restored a few years ago.
In later life Thomas Hardy actually visited the thatched building, then known as "Barton Cottage". The owner of the house in the 1920s was a Major Campbell-Johnson, who had a servant called Blake. On a day in 1924 Blake was tending the garden of Barton Cottage, when he saw an elderly figure scrutinizing the house. On Blake asking if he could be of service the stranger replied, "No, thank you, I was only seeing where I put my Tess ...".
Shortly afterwards, the deeds of the property were altered, and the name was changed to "Tess Cottage". It is worth noting that Tess was certainly in Thomas Hardy's mind in 1924, because his notes mention that he attended several rehearsals of a new dramatic production of Tess of the D'Urbervilles that year at Dorchester.
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Chapter 12: Summary
The chapter begins a few weeks after the scene at The Chase. Tess is walking the twenty miles back home to Marlott, carrying a heavy basket but appearing as if her burden is an emotional one instead. She climbs the hill that Alec had ridden so recklessly down four months before, and sees the beautiful, familiar Vale of Blakemore. She can hardly bear to look at it, as her view of life has been so corrupted since she last left. Alec approaches her from behind and wonders why she slipped away so stealthily. He offers to drive her the rest of the way, and she passively accepts. She is not afraid of him anymore.
They drive the rest of the way making small talk, and Tess sits “like a puppet� replying shortly. When she sees Marlott she starts to cry a little, and says she wishes she had never been born. Alec downplays her sorrow and asks why she came to Trantridge if she did not love him. Tess says she did not understand his intentions. Alec says “that’s what every woman says,� and Tess flies into a rage, threatening to strike him for his insensitivity.
Alec laughs and admits he has done wrong, but he wants to make amends by giving Tess money. Tess scorns the offer and refuses to take anything from him, lest she should be his “cٳܰ�. Alec confesses he is “a bad fellow�, but says he was born bad and can’t help it. He offers again that if Tess finds herself in a time of need she should call on him. Tess gets out of the cart and passively lets Alec kiss her goodbye, admitting hollowly that he has mastered her. She looks away at distant trees as he kisses her.
Alec laments that Tess will never love him, and Tess affirms it. Alec sighs and downplays her melancholy, complimenting her beauty again and asking her to return to him some day. Tess says she will never return, and Alec rides away. The sun and the season seem to mourn with Tess as she walks.
A man approaches Tess from behind and they converse. He is religious, and spends his Sundays painting Biblical quotes on fences. Tess watches him paint “THY, DAMNATION, SLUMBERETH, NOT� and feels that the words accuse her personally. She asks what if the sin was not of your own making, and man says he is not sure. He says he has even more crushing quotes that would be good for “dangerous young females� like Tess to see. He wants her to read his next one, but Tess sees that it is going to be about adultery, and quickly walks on. As she leaves the man shouts that she should speak to a Reverend Clare if she wants explanations for her theological questions. Tess doesn’t believe that God would say such things.
The sight of her house makes Tess’s heart ache. Her mother greets her excitedly until she hears what has happened. Tess also reveals that they were not actually related to those d’Urbervilles. Joan gets angry that Tess didn’t get Alec to marry her, and makes her feel guilty, talking about the family’s hardships. Tess had never even considered marriage, and Alec had never mentioned it. Joan continues to berate her for not being more careful until Tess breaks down and weeps. She reminds her mother that she had never warned her about the dangers of men, and that she had no experience in the matter. Joan Durbeyfield feels bad, but says they must “make the best of it.�
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Tess is a new woman now, one no longer innocent and naïve but broken by the harsh world. It hurts her to even look at Marlott, the site of her old self, the symbol of agricultural purity. I liked this Biblical reference:
“she had learnt that the serpent hisses where the sweet birds sing, and her views of life had been totally changed for her by the lesson.�
It is so poignant. Tess does not fear Alec any more because she feels he can’t do anything worse to her than he already has, so in a way she has achieved a new strength and resolve through her tribulations. But she is perhaps even more passive and “lٱ�.
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First of all Alec has chased after Tess in a cart, and “upbraids� her, telling her off about leaving secretly, with a heavy burden (and blames her for his horse getting in a lather to boot!)
Alec “had quite forgotten his struggle to kiss her� and speaks to her coldly. What a wealth of emotion is conveyed by that single word! His attitude is harsh and uncaring.
We know that this a few weeks later, but we do not know what happened in the interim. What can have happened to change Alec’s attentions, from being so gentle and persuasive, and using such loving language?
We see that they are not lovers, so presumably Tess has refused to become his “cٳܰ� as she describes it, and as Car Darch was. This has irked Alec, but not enough to ignore her now.
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“My eyes were dazed by you for a little� seems to confirm a tacit acceptance of Alec’s lovemaking, as was indicated by her “sԳ� in the previous chapter. We know all the reasons for that; her innocence, her position: feeling herself virtually in fief to Alec, her sense of the emotional hold Alec has over her, the poverty of her family and his bounty towards them, the idea that a wealthy man must know better than she does, and so on.
Tess feels reduced in her humanity by Alec’s continued dominance, but finally her independent spirit flares up again and she takes control briefly within her anger. The words:
“Did it never strike your mind that what every woman says some women may feel?� are heart-rending and unforgettable. But Alec show how self-centred he is by dismissing it and poking fun at her. ”One would think you were a princess from your manner, in addition to a true and original d’Urberville�. An apology is not truly felt, if it is accompanied by a laugh.
The offers Alec makes fill Tess with “sǰ�, as if his money and flippant apologies could undo what he did. Alec too, claims it is fate that he should be bad.
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Alec calls her dear, insists on a kiss, and seems to want to part on good terms. Since he is willing to give Tess anything she needs, plus fine clothes etc., plus his manner, it seems as if he doesn’t think he has really done anything wrong, and was merely sowing his wild oats. Alec may even feel by these gestures, that he is being generous.
Tess gazes out at Nature as he kisses her, but her old, familiar world gives her no comfort now. She refuses to tell Alec that she loves him, even saying that she knows it might be in her best interest to lie, and pretend she does. And what might this be hinting at? “I may have the best o� causes for letting you know it�
We are told that Alec begins to have better feelings, as this was all “getting rather oppressive to his heart, or to his conscience, or to his gentility� and gives Tess a little advice, to make the most of her looks before they fade, offers again to take her back, but eventually gives up and “leapt up lightly� on his horse.
By these words Thomas Hardy tells us that Alec intends to forget the episode. He will feel that he has done his best, and will probably move on.
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Tess again symbolises Nature, and we have the pathetic fallacy, as all her surroundings seem to grieve alongside her. Sad Tess will not forget.
The man painting tracts just rubs salt into the wound. And look at the language again �dangerous young females like yerself�. Blaming the victim again.
Tess asks him “suppose your sin was not of your own seeking?� This reveals her state of mind. In Tess’s mind she has done no wrong - although we also know that she feels guilty - as victims often do. But what of the original readers?
In fact this begins Tess’s unfair condemnation by English Victorian society, and their form of Christianity. Tess has asked the question that seems to hold her destiny: what if the sin was not hers, but inflicted upon her? However this makes no difference to the world, for now she is a “fallen women�, and Hardy’s tragic critique of the sexual double standard and the hypocrisy of society begins. Tess believes in a simpler, purer religion that is not this kind of harsh Christianity, but an innate and innocent faith.
And have we already come across the name of the preacher the slogan-painter mentions?
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It looks so desirable now � I think it must have been a bit shabbier when Thomas Hardy chose it. Somehow I can't see the Durbeyfields giving time over to tending a picturesque garden like this one.
This is certainly larger than the cottage Thomas Hardy grew up in himself! We can contrast it with the smart house of red brick “The Slopes� where the d’Urbervilles now live though. That represents the new, uncaring flashy world whereas “Tess Cottage� (as it is now called in real life) is a traditional rural cottage, and its inhabitants are homely.
Her mother is pleased to see Tess, anticipating a wedding, but Tess says no. Joan Durbeyfield knows her own daughter, and knows there is a reason for coming home like this.
“Tess went up to her mother, put her face upon Joan’s neck, and told.�
Her mother is vexed, and compounds Tess’s feeling of guilt, blaming her for not holding up her end of the plan, despite the many sacrifices Tess has already made for her family. Even her mother did not realise the extent of Tess’s innocence.
We have a longish paragraph giving Tess’s point of view, including her:
“succumb[ing] to adroit advantages he took of her helplessness; then, temporarily blinded by his ardent manners, had been stirred to confused surrender awhile�
More indications of Alec’s seduction and of Tess’s resulting self-hatred.
At the end, Joan Durbeyfield quickly jumps to a similar conclusion that the narrator reaches: the simple fatalism of the rural people:
“’Tis nater, after all, and what do please God!�
We sense her mother will accept Tess back into the family, whereas perhaps a more affluent and socially conscious mother may not. Especially since all the village expected Tess to come back married.
But what had Tess told her mother? And what might be in store for her now?
Bionic Jean writes: "But what had Tess told her mother"Indeed, that is the question!
Has Tess told her mother the entire story? It seems to me that Hardy is being coy here; there's surely a lot more than is being revealed to us as readers.
It's clear that Tess is conflicted, admitting to having failed to act as prudently as she ought, and yet believing deep down that whatever guilt she bears was essentially forced upon her.
Mrs. Durbeyfield reluctantly accepts what can't be helped but for Tess, the future looks bleak indeed. In such a village, she will be seen as "damaged goods", a poor prospect for any kind of marriage, never mind a rich one.
Hardy is obviously making a moral argument here, pointing out the sheer unfairness of it all and the dreadful double standard applied to men and women. But I doubt if many readers in Hardy's day would be receptive to his protest..It's plain to see why he had difficulty getting the book published.
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The people of Marlott hear about Tess’s return, and many of her old friends come by to visit her, as fascinating rumours about Alec’s nature have reached even Blakemore. Joan is able to satisfy her pride by implying a “dashing flirtation� to the visitors. After a while Tess cheers up a little, but the next morning is again lonely and depressing. She sees her fate as inexorable and unsympathetic, and often wishes she were dead.
After a few weeks Tess goes back to church, as she likes the singing and chanting. She tries to stay unnoticed, and so goes early and sits in the back. But soon the churchgoers start to look back at her and whisper, and after that Tess does not go to church any more. She stays in her room most of the time, or walks alone at dusk, shunning other humans. She seems to become a natural part of the gray, bleak scenery, and the weather reflects her emotions.
The narrator points out the unfairness of Tess’s plight; she feels herself as guilty, but it is really another who is guilty. She feels like an intruder among the animals, but really she is as innocent as they are. It is not Tess that is in the wrong, but society. To the natural world she has committed no sin.
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We learn that Alec d’Uberville has a reputation as a “reckless and gallant heartbreaker�. Thus the envy of the other girls and her mother’s boasting are especially tragic, compared with the reality of Tess’s situation. She joins in a little despite herself, carried away by the mood. But as this first hopeful night wears away, she is left alone and friendless in a condemning, unsympathetic society, from which there seems no escape.
“To be as much out of observation as possible for reasons of her own, and to escape the gallantries of the young men�
This gives us pause for thought too. Do we know all her reasons? Is Thomas Hardy being “cDz� as Jim says?
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“A wet day was the expression of irremediable grief at her weakness in the mind of some vague ethical being whom she could not class definitely as the God of her childhood, and could not comprehend as any other.�
This chapter is Thomas Hardy's explicit critique of the unfairness of Victorian society and the modern world. Tess is still in accord with nature and morality; it is only the arbitrary rules of society that she has broken. As Jim said, it is not surprising that this book caused such consternation to the Victorians.
What are your thoughts on this phase so far?
Chapters 12 and 13 have made more melancholy reading. Tess's innocence is gone, and her joie de vivre replaced with a sense of shame. Hiding herself away and taking her solitary evening walks depict a very sad and lonely existence. The girl in the white dress with the red ribbon is long gone.The descriptions of Tess being part of the nature around her were beautiful, but possibly a bit above my head, so if anyone has any thoughts on these, I would like to here them.
A theme that I don't think has been mentioned so far is the changing of the seasons. As well as the descriptions of the natural environment and the setting, I always like that Hardy uses the seasons as a strong element and representation in conveying the passing of time.
The churchgoers who whisper about her don't display any Christian compassion towards her - clearly the biblical instruction to love thy neighbour or to be a good Samaritan aren't actually put into practice!
A question I have is whether with her limited education and the narrow horizons she has lived within, would Tess have had a concept of rape?
I can sense that she feels shame and powerlessness, but no anger. Perhaps given her social position and her sex, there is no point feeling anger - she has no choice but to accept her lot.
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Yes! Excellent point Pankies - I don't think we have mentioned this specifically, so thank you for pointing it out, so that we can be alert from now on.
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I think this is a very wise insight! I wrote a long reply (my thoughts), but on consideration, this would make an excellent topic for our after-read discussion instead. I've made a note of it along with the two others we have. Thanks Pankies :)
(Edited)
A gloomy chapter. Tess tries to integrate back into her community, socializing with the other young women, tries going to church again. But her status has changed, she no longer fits in and she has become the subject of "whispers". She feels increasingly isolated and gradually withdraws, trying to become invisible, hoping that her plight may be forgotten. But this is impossible in a small village.Hardy's treatment of this period engenders dramatic tension; we find ourselves waiting for something to happen, some event that may resolve Tess's dilemma.
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It is August, and the sun looks like an ancient god. Illuminated are the red arms of a reaping-machine in a field of corn. The machine starts to tick and then three horses move forward, and the machine revolves. The animals in the cornfield retreat before it, but their refuge gets smaller and smaller; they are inevitably doomed. In the wake of the machine women bind up the corn, and they seem an integral part of nature.
Gleaners - Jean-François Millet - 1857
One woman is described in particular, as she has the most beautiful figure, but a bonnet is pulled low over her face and she never seeks attention. She binds corn monotonously, and at last her beautiful face is revealed as that of Tess. Much time has passed and she has changed. She is now working on the land, in the Vale of Blakemore.
After breakfast they go back to work, but now Tess glances off at the hills until a group of children arrive. The oldest girl carries an infant in her arms. When Tess finally takes a break the girl, who is Liza-Lu, brings the baby to her and Tess nurses it. The other workers look away politely.
Tess holds her child indifferently for a while, but then suddenly kisses it fiercely. The other women discuss her seemingly conflicted feelings, and the rumours of “a sobbing one night last year in The Chase,� and they lament that this should happen to the prettiest girl.
After many months of regret, Tess had finally decided this week to go out into the fields and work. She tries to put the past behind her and takes comfort in the beauty of nature, which no longer reflects her pain. It has been so long that her community has mostly forgotten about her scandal, or hardly gives it a thought, but to Tess it is still constantly suffering. Yet Thomas Hardy tells us that her suffering only comes from the expectations of convention, and no longer from her inner emotions. Tess is once more among Nature where she belongs. Again Hardy emphasises again the arbitrary rules of society that condemn her. If she was going by her own moral compass, she would not be suffering as greatly as she is now. It is the judgment of others, which Tess even emphasises in her own mind, that causes her pain now.
Tess works until evening and then is cheered by her lively female companions. But when she returns she finds that her baby is sick. Even though the child is an “offence against society� Tess forgets all that in her desire to save his life.
The child gets rapidly worse and Tess despairs that he hasn’t been baptised. She has accepted that she might go to Hell, but she cannot let her child die unsaved. She asks her father to send for a parson, but John Durbeyfield is feeling especially proud of his heritage and scornful of Tess’s shame, so he refuses.
The child gets worse, and Tess feverishly imagines him being tortured in Hell. She decides to baptise him herself, hoping it will be “just the same� as a parson. She fills the washing-stand with water and her siblings gather around in awe. She takes up the child and her sister holds open the Prayer-Book.
In the candlelight Tess is transformed into an “immaculate,� “regal� figure in white. She names the child “Sorrow� after a Biblical phrase, and she sprinkles water on his head, and they pray, and the children say “Amen.� Then Tess recites the thanksgiving words, and so sincere is her faith that her face appears transfigured and purified. To her siblings she doesn’t look like Tess anymore, but “a divine personage with whom they had nothing in common�.
The next morning Sorrow dies, and the siblings cry but Tess remains serene, feeling that if God won’t accept her child then he is not a God she wants to believe in. Tess wants to give Sorrow a Christian burial, so she goes to a parson. She asks if her baptism was the same as if he had done it, and the parson is impressed with her dignity and takes pity on her, saying (untruthfully) that it was. But then he refuses to let the baby be buried in the churchyard, although Tess impresses him with her sympathetic pleas.
That night Tess buries her child by lantern-light in a forgotten corner, having bribed the sexton to get into the churchyard. She constructs a small cross and lays flowers on the grave. It is a makeshift memorial, but made complete by her maternal love.
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We have several themes repeated, but instead of a detailed analysis, I’ll just mention 3 things which occurred to me.
1. The first thing to strike me was the motif of red . This chapter is peppered with mentions of red or scarlet, from the beams of the sun, which seems quite in keeping with the fear-inducing sun of the the ancient sun-worshipping religions, to the garish red of the industrial reaping machine, and flashes of red of men’s scarves. I wonder how many mentions you noticed of this ominous, warning colour.
2. The poor creatures of the field killed by the machine are victims of fate, and sacrificed to the modern age. It also struck me that this portends the death of Sorrow (what a name!)
3. Another detail: did you notice the brief switch to the present tense here:
“Perhaps one reason why she seduces casual attention is that she never courts it, though the other women often gaze around them.�
It really puts us in the moment, and reminded me that Thomas Hardy had a real person in mind when he wrote the character of Tess � but more about that later :)
There are lovely descriptions here; it’s a chapter to really savour. Did you enjoy it? Maybe it made a lump in your throat. It did me!
Do share some of your thoughts here.
How could anyone not be moved by Chapter 14? Jean mentions that Tess is one with nature and I support that comment. We see a threshing machine doing its mechanical work beside Tess who is doing her manual work. The machine is capable of more work in less time. The machine drives the small field creatures away or kills them. To me, the machine is the human equivalent of Fate. Man created the machine and now the machine becomes the arbitrator of life. This point is made when Tess nurses her child in the field. The machine does not need to stop for any human life-affirming action. The machine is not regulated by the natural rhythms of life.
Could it be that Tess’s feeding of Sorrow is somehow connected to the sorrow of the natural world being replaced by machines?
As noted, colour red is a repetitive colour in the novel. The colour red helps link and deepen the plot of the novel. It is an echo word that joins seemingly different elements of the narrative together.
And poor Tess? Her need to acknowledge the death of her child and provide Sorrow a dignity in death is a very moving incident. On a symbolic level I feel that while Tess may bury her child named Sorrow, her own earthly sorrows are far from over.
The part when Tess baptised her child moved me most, as I remember my father and brother each baptising their dead/dying child soon after birth. It was allowed (though I didn´t find out at which time exactly) to baptise by oneself if a child was in danger.What I only saw later was that Tess called the child "he", so it must have been male. I wondered though that it hadn´t had a name yet.
The mechanical reaper introduces early pastoral industrialisation, superseding the even more intensive manual labour, of sickle and scythe, that would have gone before. There’s a juxtaposition here with the traditional building of sheaves which is still a laborious manual process, from which the labourers need to take rest, and the reaper’s incessant and insistent mechanical drive. These are coincidental with the loss of Tess’s innocence, as she has to feed her child.
Lewis Grassic Gibbon makes great use of the dawn of agricultural mechanisation, and the end of small farming in Sunset Song, as do Melissa Harrison in All Among The Barley, and Tim Pears in his outstanding West Country trilogy.
Hardy describes the old farming methods in great detail in this book, I think he really admires the old manual way of doing things.It’s interesting Tess is much harder on herself than the other villagers. Yes, they talk about her but she’s accepted not shunned and they all just carry on. If she’d been in another tier of society she’d probably be cast out.
The end of the chapter , the baptism, the burial, the awful things the priest says� makes me sad and angry at the same time.
This is certainly the saddest chapter in the novel thus far, appropriately emphasized by the name that Tess assigned to her infant: Sorrow. Hardy most poignantly sums up the child as a waif to whom Time had been a matter of days merely, who knew not that such things as years and centuries ever were; to whom the cottage interior was the universe, the week’s weather climate, new-born babyhood human existence, and the instinct to suck human knowledge.With that summation of innocence in mind, the notion that such a blameless creature might somehow be damned to eternity seems outrageous.
One more thought struck me profoundly � even an old agnostic like me: Actively preventing a dying infant from receiving the last rites must surely mean that Tess’s father has much to answer for, if the precepts of Christianity count for anything at all.
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Mechanisation v. tradition:
Peter - The machine does not need to stop for any human life-affirming action. The machine is not regulated by the natural rhythms of life. Yes! This section really heightens the difference between the traditional ways which Tess belongs to, and the upcoming age of machines.
David too makes a similar point about "mechanical reapers introduc[ing] early pastoral industrialisation". We are in an interim time, when much of the work in the fields is still done by hand, and a horse-drawn plough, but it will soon be seen as less efficient.
Janelle - I also pick up a sense of affection and regret from Thomas Hardy, at the loss of the old ways.
Here are the links to the books David mentions:
Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon
All Among the Barley by Melissa Harrison
The West Country Trilogy by Tim Pears
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Michaela - Your memory of "my father and brother each baptising their dead/dying child soon after birth" is so moving - and appallingly sad. I knew how short life was, and infant mortality was high: that babies more often died at that time. Even Thomas Hardy himself had been put aside by the midwife as being lifeless - until he cried! But that really brings it home to us. And I am so surprised about the infant baptism.
I know you are Austrian, and think you must have been raised a Christian, but am wondering which denomination "allowed" this ... perhaps they all did, a little later than this novel. Does anyone know? (I was brought up a Baptist, so my knowledge of Anglicanism is patchy.)
Jim too - (I love that quotation!) - I was struck by the pastor, and Thomas Hardy's snide little joke that he would be miffed as a specialist, at being out of a job if he said it was the same for Tess to baptise her child as it would have been if he had! He gave a white lie because he felt for Tess's agony, but he did not feel able to say that the baby could have a Christian burial, or go to heaven, as it was against his doctrine.
Jim said: "Actively preventing a dying infant from receiving the last rites must surely mean that Tess’s father has much to answer"
Yes, that thought is profoundly religious, and it is odd that nobody expresses this - not even the pastor - given their beliefs.
It's been indicated that John Durbeyfield does not think very deeply. Once he gets hold of the idea that he is descended from a great family, he doesn't seem to think about anything else! Perhaps we can excuse him by assuming that he had no interest in the child, and no idea how ill it was. But word had got around, and even the parson knew the baby was at death's door. (His inner "excuse" was that he had thought Tess, the mother, had not wanted this service.)
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All Thomas Hardy's work is saturated with his beliefs, and this one perhaps more than any! His family was Anglican, but not especially devout. He was baptised at the age of five weeks and attended church, where his father and uncle contributed to music. He did not attend the local Church of England school, instead being sent to a school three miles away. However, Thomas Hardy's fictional world is not merely materialistic, and his relationship towards faith and transcendence is made up of resentment and regret rather than atheistic conviction.
He agonised over the Church's disapproval of his novels, but disliked the dogmatic religious beliefs that had begun to sweep England. We have to remember that he lived at the time when there was a reaction by many Christian leaders against Charles Darwin and his The Origin of Species (1859).
Thomas Hardy slowly moved from the Christian teachings of his boyhood to become a thoughtful, questioning agnostic. This expressed agnosticism, allied as we see to a sensitive, imaginative humanity, means that we could think of him as a humanist. Thomas Hardy's late novels are very critical towards Christianity, and we have begun to see this rejection of the church in practise, in the character of Tess. Tess of the D'Urbervilles being his penultimate novel, we see a lot of this questioning popping up in various places.
Thomas Hardy hoped that Tess of the D'Urbervilles would be a persuasive novel. The subtitle alone “A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented� shows that he was sincere. But given that the Church and critics of the time hated the book, it clearly proved a vain hope! Also, the fact that after this he retreated into his poetry, is significant.
A good and very readable book about how Thomas Hardy's life influenced his work is Thomas Hardy: The Time Torn Man by Claire Tomalin. The title is revealing; the author postulates that he was born out of his time.
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The narrator muses on Tess’s plight. She has finally found maturity, but her path to it has rendered her incapacitated for a life in society. She would therefore be right to be angry at God, for placing her in such a harsh situation. Tess spends the winter doing housework and making clothes for the children out of Alec’s old unwanted gifts.
Tess muses on the important dates in her life, and realises that she cannot know the last important date, the day of her death. With such thoughts she grows into a “complex woman�, with a tragic and wise demeanour. She has remained so aloof for so long that most of her community has forgotten about her scandal, but Tess still feels uncomfortable in Marlott. She thinks she could be happy somewhere else where she could escape the past, and that far away she could ”veil bygones�.
Tess waits a long time for an opportunity, until in May she gets a letter that a milkmaid is needed at a dairy called Talbothays, many miles away. Tess resolves to no longer dream of d’Urbervilles and castles, but to accept her role as a worker. She cannot help but be intrigued by Talbothays� proximity to the ancient d’Urberville estates, though. The thought of being in her ancestral land seems like a good omen, and gives her hope for the future.
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Thomas Hardy refers to two famous scholars, the 16th century, Roger Ascham and the 17th century Jeremy Taylor, (both linked here, for if you want to check their theories out.)
Again Thomas Hardy as narrator complains about the injustice of Tess’s fate. He acts as her only advocate against an unfair god or destiny, and an unnecessarily judgmental world. Tess joins in the narrator’s musings and puts her life in perspective. She knows the day of her death is inevitable, as perhaps were the misfortunes that have already befallen her. Society’s judgment of her is ingrained within Tess as much as it exists in the external community, so she will not be free until she can forgive herself as well as physically escape.
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“The recuperative power which pervaded organic nature was surely not denied to maidenhood alone.�
Does this mean that Tess is beginning to shed her sense of guilt, and moving on? We are told that the Trantridge folk would soon forget her past; in fact have started to do so already. Tess is a creature of nature, and nature heals itself.
The sense of nature’s seasons, as Pankies alerted us to, is very stong in this chapter. We are aware of the passage of time this way.
Despite the bad things that have happened to her, Tess can’t help feeling optimistic when the future means Spring and a place far from her troubles. She has grown from an innocent girl to a complicated woman, and found great fortitude in her trials, but Tess still has enough youth to feel hopeful.
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Please use our free day to catch up with the text, continue our discussions or backtrack to catch up on our comments :)
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About the cover picture: "Tess Cottage"
This is a recent photograph of an Elizabethan cottage in Marnhull village, Dorset. It was supposedly the model for Tess Durbeyfield's thatched cottage a..."
I've fallen a little behind this week in reading through all the comments, so forgive me for commenting late, but I wanted to thank, Jean for posting the picture of the Tess's Cottage. I loved the picture and the story about the servant (Blake) who met Hardy in front of the house one day in 1924.
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I hope you enjoy these chapters ... you might need a tissue!
I’ve gone back and reread chapter 12. Now I still think Alec is a cad who took advantage of Tess and I still think Tess was a victim of Alec’s advances but I’ve got a problem.In the back corner of my mind is a doubt and this is it. To what extent are the words of Alec supported by an earnest and heartfelt emotion to protect and care for Tess. How much guilt does he have for his actions. How much is he willing to do and act upon her fate with sincerity?
There is a bit of my mind that wonders if he really has some true feelings towards Tess. Would he ever act honourably toward Tess and actually support her financially in the future if not marry her?
David wrote: "The mechanical reaper introduces early pastoral industrialisation, superseding the even more intensive manual labour, of sickle and scythe, that would have gone before. There’s a juxtaposition he..."
Thanks for the list of other authors who gets into agricultural mechanisation, David.
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What more, in fact, could he now do for her? He seems to be out of the picture, but he tried very hard to impress on Tess to look to him for help (although not marriage!) if she needs it. It is Tess's pride that does not allow her to apply to him for help, as he had offered. She does not even seem to have told him about the baby. It's a shame Tess's pride did not kick in before, and she had held fast about not going to the d'Urbervilles in the first place when she sensed something was wrong ... but we are told she is much changed now.
The characters are so nuanced, and I share your concerns.
Bionic Jean wrote: "Despite the bad things that have happened to her, Tess can’t help feeling optimistic when the future means Spring and a place far from her troubles."I'm always wary when things start looking up in a Hardy novel!
In Hardy's own family history, there are several instances of men bringing pregnant women to the altar. He shows in these chapters that the moral code of the laboring people is more practical and realistic than that of "gentles." To the laborers, Tess must seem overly fastidious about her virtue/shame, and that is partly what alienates her from them. She also insists on her integrity by rejecting Alec's gifts/temptations. To Hardy's readers, though, she doesn't express enough contrition, continues to struggle, and doesn't accept responsibility for her fate.
This makes me wonder how Tess developed that moral sense? Her coarse parents have taught her that her virtue/beauty is a bargaining tool for marriage, and her religion is natural/emotional rather than formal/strictural. Why is she unable to be mercenary, and why in her guilt does she look for comfort in religion without repenting of "her" sin?
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Good point. It's something that always rankles a little with me too, in Victorian novels: the "noble poor" and the perfect child. Often they speak received pronunciation too, with no dialect and hardly any local accent. It's hardly realistic, and almost a literary device!
To be fair though, Tess has been better educated than her parents, and is more intelligent. She thinks deeply, but we are told still has some superstitious feelings.
Even though Hardy is a fatalist, he suggests that Tess does have the capacity not only to heal but also to influence her future. Doing so will demand a degree of maturity and strength of character and in this chapter, Hardy gives us reason to believe that Tess does possess both of those qualities. Tess appears to be emerging from the dark place where she has been ever since her return to her home town. One other hopeful sign is that she has an opportunity to live in a different community, one where her past is largely unknown.
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Phase the Third: The Rally: Chapters 16 - 24
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It is more than three years since she went to The Chase, and Tess leaves her home once again. She looks back at her house and can’t help regret leaving it. Her family will soon move on with their lives without her. Tess has decided that the young children might be hurt by her example if she had remained.
After a while Tess accepts a ride from a farmer, even though he might have stopped because he finds her attractive. She walks the rest of the way on foot, but because she is not sure of the way it takes her about two hours. She has never been to this area before, but she already feels “akin to the landscape�. Tess can see the distant place where the tombs of the d’Urbervilles lie, but she has no respect for them anymore, as they in some way caused her misfortunes and left her only a seal and spoon.
At last Tess reaches the Valley of the Great Dairies, which is much larger and more fertile than her homeland. Cows are everywhere she can see. There is a clear river like the “River of Life,� and the air is light, sunny, and full of birdsong. Tess feels hopeful.
The universal desire to be happy has finally reached Tess. She is still only twenty, and so her spirits can rise above her dark past. She starts to sing a Christian chant, but then begins to feel guilty. The narrator muses that her rhapsodic song is probably more pagan than Christian, as Tess is a women more in touch with Nature than God, but she only knows how to express her sentiments in the Church’s language.
Tess descends into the vale, still full of the joyful energy of her surroundings. She looks around at the green fields and a heron lands nearby and watches her. Then Tess hears the call for milking-time, and she follows a herd of cows into a dairy farm. As the cows wait to be milked everything about the place shines brilliantly and overflows with fertility.
"Tess in Dairyman Dick's yard" - Joseph Syddall (likely) - "The Graphic" 8th August 1891
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We are in North Dorset. Tess is going south from her home in the village of “Mdzٳ� (Marnhull), up near "Shaston" or Shaftesbury. She goes through ٳٴdzܰ岵�. This is not the Stourbridge in Worcestershire, but Stourcastle, Sturminster Newton). The red arrow here marks Sturminster Newton.
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“Wٳܰ� features in several of Thomas Hardy’s novels, including Far From the Madding Crowd and Jude the Obscure. This is an engraving of Puddletown from one of them:
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Tess has gone down the “Egdon slopes�. “Egdon Heath� also features in several of Thomas Hardy’s works, and is prominent in The Return of the Native. It has no exact equivalent name in real life, but in Thomas Hardy: A Biography Revisited (1982), Hardy expert Michael Millgate suggests the small area of heath beside Hardy’s birthplace at Upper Bockhampton as the origin of Egdon Heath. Thomas Hardy expanded it, and added areas near Puddletown, Bovington, and Winfrith. The small heath by Thomas Hardy’s childhood home is much smaller than its fictional counterpart.
This is the valley of the River Frome, where he has placed his “Valley of the Great Dairies�. It marks the southern boundary of the fictitious heath.
More, if you like, on these locations later :)
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“Her hopes mingled with the sunshine in an ideal photosphere which surrounded her as she bounded along against the soft south wind. She heard a pleasant voice in every breeze, and in every bird’s note seemed to lurk a joy.�
She is looking forward to being independent and staring afresh, but in another way she is sacrificing herself for her family again. She thinks they will be freer without her presence bringing shame into the house.
Tess’s natural purity reacts positively to the outdoor environment. She finds joy in the agricultural world. Tess feels reconnected with Nature in her new environment, and casts off thoughts of the d’Urberville tombs, which she is now closer to in distance. Scornfully she says that they are just as worthless as the seal and spoon were, to her family. Their dark images contrast with the bright natural beauty all around.
Birds make another appearance! They are right at the beginning, and always associated with Tess, just as with Mrs. d’Urberville’s bullfinches and chickens. In this case it is the heron.
“The River of Life� again introduces religious imagery. Here Hardy begins to explain the theme of paganism and Christianity. Tess is technically a Christian, and she believes the religion she has been taught, but the purer nature of her faith and her affinity with the outdoors are more in the spirit of the ancient pagan religions of the land. The language describing the animals and landscape emphasises the tone of joyful natural abundance. Tess find it natural to follow the cows home.
What are your impressions of this chapter?
Jean, I'm enjoying your illustrations, maps, and descriptions of the countryside. They show how Tess (and Hardy) would have a strong bond with nature. Tess' connection with the chickens, the cows, and the song birds are not surprising in this rural environment.
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Thanks Connie! I'm enjoying working out where all the places are too :)
Bionic Jean wrote: "The optimism in this chapter and the pastoral descriptions put a big smile on my face. It’s lovely to think of Dorset in May, on a gloomy day in September! Tess’s spirits are lifted too, as she is ..."‘She heard a pleasant voice in every breeze, and in every bird’s note seemed to lurk a joy.�
What a wonderful phrase to select. The word “and� separates the “pleasant voice� from the sound of the “bird’s note.� To me, that strongly suggests the “pleasant voice� is Nature; Tess is actually able to hear the voice of nature. What a brilliant use of anthropomorphism.
Works of Thomas Hardy
Books mentioned in this topic
The Complete Letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess 1887-04 (other topics)Under the Greenwood Tree (other topics)
Sense and Sensibility (other topics)
Tess of the D’Urbervilles (other topics)
Desperate Remedies (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Thomas Hardy (other topics)Thomas Hardy (other topics)
Thomas Hardy (other topics)
Thomas Hardy (other topics)
Thomas Hardy (other topics)
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Phase the Second: Maiden No More: Chapters 12 - 15
Tess's Childhood Home in Marnhull - "Marlott" - (photograph by Philip V. Allingham)