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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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Jim
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Sep 18, 2022 07:56PM
After the gloom of the last several chapters, this is a breath of fresh air, in more ways than one. Hardy employs a long series of metaphors to convey a sense of opening up, release and renewal. Tess has endured a dark period of confinement. But now she enters a new community, one that is fresh and thriving; and most significantly, it is visibly and characteristically different from that of her home village. We can almost feel the fresh air filling Tess’s lungs, see he walk tall and confident, ready to face a new chapter in her life.
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I love the language in this chapter and the way that Hardy evokes timeless/mythical qualities.:The river had stolen from the higher tracts and brought in particles to the vale all this horizontal land; and now, exhausted, aged, and attenuated, lay serpentining along through the midst of it's former spoils.
Long thatched sheds stretched round the enclosure, their slopes encrusted with vivid green moss, and their eves supported by wooden posts rubbed to a glossy smoothness by the flanks of infinite cows and calves of bygone years, now passed to an oblivion almost inconceivable in it's profundity.
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Thank you all for your observations. Peter - That's a fantastic analysis of just the one simple quotation I included - yes, I can see that there are two separate subjects in this personification. This chapter's writing certainly benefits from close examination; it is masterly.
We move on now to today's chapter which has a different feel again!
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The men and dairymaids all come out and start to milk the cows. Richard Crick, the master-dairyman, is slightly better dressed than the rest, and Tess find it easy to identify him. He greets her kindly and mentions the old d’Urberville family from the area, but Tess casts this off. He asks about her milking skills and she says she would like to work straightaway. All she needs is a little milk to drink. This surprises Dairyman Crick, whose stomach can’t handle it. It is a large farm with about a hundred cows, and some are harder to milk than others. They work in silence, and then some of the workers complain that there is less milk than usual. They speculate that this might be because a new hand has arrived. They remember various folk superstitions, and decide to sing to comfort the cows.
After many verses a worker and the dairyman address an unseen male milker as “sir,” asking him to play his harp. Crick tells a story about a man who played his fiddle to keep a bull from goring him, and finally played a Christmas carol so that the bull would kneel and he could escape. The unseen milker remarks on the fascination of the story in a detached, curious manner.
Tess becomes intrigued by the man, although she still can’t see him behind his cow. He is not very good at milking, and the dairyman gives him advice. Finally the man stands, and Tess sees that he has a different look from the rest of the workers. Tess also recalls that she has seen him before, at the May-Day club walk long ago when he did not dance with her.
Remembering the past upsets Tess for a while, and she fears the man knows her story and will recognise her. He has matured and grown more handsome and thoughtful since they last met, and is well-dressed under his work clothes. She can tell he is inexperienced at milking. Meanwhile many of the other dairymaids comment on Tess’s beauty.
Tess is one of only a few girls who sleep and eat at the farm. She goes to bed and tries to sleep, but another girl keeps talking, and eventually reveals some information about the mysterious man; his name is Angel Clare, he is a parson’s son, and he is at Talbothays to learn one of the many aspects of farming. His father is Reverend Clare, whose name Tess recognises as the earnest preacher. All of his sons except Angel are to be parsons as well
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Thomas Hardy seems to be enjoying writing about these superstitions in an entertaining and humorous way, and we can sense the affection he has for the country people who hold them. Perhaps there is a grain of truth in some of them too. I think music has been shown to calm hens laying eggs, and cows being milked.
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Tess is more in accord with Nature than even the dairy farmer, who says his stomach can’t abide the raw milk. Tess is where she belongs now, outside, among animals, and singing. There is still hope that she can recapture an earlier, innocent time in this agricultural setting.
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I believe this to be a clear reference to Martin Luther, who said “Faith is a living, busy, active, mighty thing” in his Commentary on Romans. He went on to write ”Therefore, pray to God to work faith in you. Else you will remain forever without faith, whatever you think or do.”
I find this interesting. Why should Angel Clare quote a German religious leader to a group of people whom he must suspect would be unlikely to understand the reference? It seems more as if he is himself musing on Faith, or the lack of it. One of Martin Luther’s tenets was that salvation is a gift which God alone grants to sinners who passively affirm their faith in Christ, rather than something a sinner can actively obtain through the performance of good works. This was opposed to the Catholic view.
We also know that Reverend Clare is pastor of a low-Church Christian denomination, as the man painting Biblical texts on the gates had recommended him as helpful to “dangerous” young women such as Tess.
Are these coincidences going to prove significant, do we think?
What are you thoughts on this chapter?
There seem to be a number of peculiar little mismatches in this chapter: Dairyman Crick devotes his entire life to the production of milk and yet it has never occurred to him to drink it! Angel Clare (note the irony of his name!) is surely no angel, perhaps the only son who couldn't make the grade as a parson (a higher calling than farmhand). And he's not doing well at milking either. And yet his boss addresses him as "sir" and seems prepared to accept his mediocre performance. Most remarkable perhaps is how different Angel's manner is from the adventurous youth who charmed all the girls at the dance. Now he is much too taken up wi' his own thoughts to notice girls! This doesn't quite add up.Unlike Angel, Tess is entirely at ease and steps right into the work. We're told that her appearance is not really what one would call "pretty" but the other milkmaids refer to her as pretty. She's obviously competent and is greeted warmly by the boss, so perhaps the women's comments about Tess may be colored by a bit of jealousy at the "new girl" getting on so well.
There might be a bit of truth in the comical banter of the milkers about the cows holding back on the milk. Cows are very much creatures of a set routine (and treating them to music at milking time is commonly done as part of that routine); any change, such as the presence of a stranger could interfere with their routine and cause them to be a bit tense.
Work songs such as the men sing here are found the world over, wherever people get together to do repetitive manual labor (and trust me, hand milking qualifies as such!) The lyrics to such songs are often scatological, so no surprise theirs is about a murderous criminal. Anything to alleviate the dull routine will do — as does the telling of humorous tall tales.
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Re. your thoughts here:
"We're told that her appearance is not really what one would call "pretty" but the other milkmaids refer to her as pretty. She's obviously competent and is greeted warmly by the boss, so perhaps the women's comments about Tess may be colored by a bit of jealousy at the "new girl" getting on so well."
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There is a slight natural envy of Tess's good looks, I think, and the milkmaids are probably surprised at her expertise, as she was given a cow who was a hard milker. They say:
"“How pretty she is!” with something of real generosity and admiration, though with a half hope that the auditors would qualify the assertion—which, strictly speaking, they might have done, prettiness being an inexact definition of what struck the eye in Tess."
There is no unkindness here, I don't think.
In the previous chapter we were given a detailed portrait of Tess at about 20:
"Her face had latterly changed with changing states of mind, continually fluctuating between beauty and ordinariness, according as the thoughts were gay or grave. One day she was pink and flawless; another pale and tragical. When she was pink she was feeling less than when pale; her more perfect beauty accorded with her less elevated mood; her more intense mood with her less perfect beauty. It was her best face physically that was now set against the south wind."
So Tess, is definitely eye-catching, and at her most "perfect" when she is equable. When excited she is "pink and flawless" , and when sad she is "pale and tragical" .
There is evidently something extraordinarily attractive in Tess's looks, and that is why in this chapter Thomas Hardy says "prettiness being an inexact definition of what struck the eye in Tess."
All these fulsome words of praise are because Thomas Hardy had a real person in mind with this description. I'll write a little about her at the beginning of the next thread :)
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Angel is the youngest son of Reverend Clare, and the only one without a University degree, despite being the brightest. One day his father found that Angel was reading philosophy books, which made the Reverend indignant. Then Angel declared that he did not intend to become a parson. He had great affection for the Church, but could not make himself believe, and so could not properly take the oaths.
Reverend Clare was shocked and grieved at this news, and finally decided that if Angel was not going to serve God he had no need of a Cambridge education. Angel accepted this, and then began a long period of trying out different studies and occupations. He went to London and had a short affair with an older woman, but escaped and ultimately decided his temperament favoured the rural life and intellectual freedom. He chose to become a farmer in America, the colonies, or England, and he began his apprenticeship of agriculture’s many branches, and so ended up living and working at Talbothays.
Angel lives in the largest room in the attic, and at first he liked to read and strum his harp in the evenings, but soon came to enjoy eating with the rest of the workers downstairs. His preconceived image of the farm-worker, characterised by newspapers as “Hodge,” was destroyed by the unique realities of each person, who were as varied in intelligence, experience, and personality as any group.
Angel then begins to enjoy his outdoors work more, and feels more liberated in Nature than among books. He starts to grow familiar with the seasons, the weather, and the landscape.
Mrs. Crick places him apart from the table where the others eat, and where the churn turns on the other side, pulled by a horse. For a few days Angel has been occupied with reading, so he hasn’t noticed Tess’s appearance yet. Then one day he is mentally singing a piece of music and notices a new, flute-like voice from the table:
"'I don't know about ghosts,' she was saying" - D. A. Wehrschmidt - The Graphic
Tess is talking about how she can look at the stars and feel her soul leaving her body. When the attention turns to her she blushes and diverts it.
Angel keeps watching Tess, and remarks to himself what an innocent “daughter of Nature” she seems. Then she suddenly feels familiar to him, and he thinks he has seen her before. Angel does not give it much thought, but it is enough to make him keep noticing Tess among the other dairymaids.
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We discover more about Angel, and the hints in the previous chapter, about his problems with the Christian Faith of his father are confirmed. Angel is revealed as a man trying to be independent from both his family and society, and this manifests itself in rejecting his father’s religion.
Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician and physicist who was a child prodigy. In mathematics, he developed a theory of probabilities. The quotation translates as:
“As one has more spirit, one finds that there are more original men. Ordinary people find no difference between men.”
Angel takes this to heart, as he had previously classified people into extremes; either being like John Milton, or like Oliver Cromwell
Angel’s disbelief in Christianity is entirely intellectual; he remains deep-thinking rather than a book-learner. He agrees not to go to university mainly because his family has had to struggle to send two sons there already, but enjoys being able to choose his own reading matter. Thomas Hardy tells us that the Reverend Clare is a “poor parson”.
Reverend Clare cannot even conceive of his son disbelieving, so deep is his own Faith. No doubt they would have scrimped and saved again if Angel had been on the same path to be a parson, but he is so deeply shocked by his son’s stated lack of belief, that he now sees no point in Angel going to university.
Angel does not want to add to his father’s worries. In this we have a similarity between Angel and Tess. Both feel a duty towards their family, and do not want to be a financial burden to them.
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This is subtle writing, as Thomas Hardy has described Tess as a pagan goddess, and child of Nature so often, that we need to be able to regard Tess as an individual person, rather than just a symbol or ideal.
Angel is beginning to find some of the life and freedom in Nature that Thomas Hardy has been celebrating through Tess’s character, although their natures are very different. For instance, Tess remembered their brief meeting straightaway, but Angel did not. His intellectual pursuits distracted him from first noticing her.
But Tess is shown here as standing out from the others, not only in her looks but also because she think about things. She unwittingly reveals some of her complex religious depth and her troubled soul, which seems out of place among the “babble” of the others’ conversation at breakfast. “What a fresh and virginal daughter of Nature that milkmaid is!”
Angel has noticed something different in Tess, but is this just as much of a stereotype as before? It bothers me that he knows he has met her before, but cannot remember the details like Tess can.
What do you think?
Angel has broken away from the formalized religion of his family and Tess has left the easy simplicity of her family. Both, through either desire or necessity, find themselves in a new place where they must adjust to new circumstances while, at the same time, retain their own characters. While they may appear on the surface as being very different people, they share the characteristic of being in search for some form of inner peace and contentment.Tess sings, Angel makes music on a harp. It’s appears that they share more common attributes than either is aware of yet.
I can’t help but reflect back to an earlier chapter where Tess met the painter of religious sayings and text. In one sense, he was little more than a graffiti artist. Angel, on the other hand, is a man of God without the formal rituals of the church.
Tess and Angel. An interesting pairing.
Bionic Jean wrote: "Thomas Hardy tells us that Tess likes the singing and chanting most. These have the most in common with ancient pagan religions. This is the first concrete example of people judging ..."In reading these last couple of chapters, I grew incensed at Tess' mother, who after all forced her into a situation that led to her becoming "fallen," as well as society. When I first read about her friends coming over, I was further incensed — it felt like vultures had come home to roost, to pick over her who couldn't handle the situation — very much as society at that time did believe that the innocent should have somehow been stronger despite the disadvantages she faces.
In this chapter, Hardy has dipped a toe into one of the great controversies of the late 19th century in England, a time when the Church, which had been quite solidly evangelical in its outlook was being challenged from several quarters by those who objected to the Church’s insistence on a literal, even grammatically pure acceptance of the scriptures — including, for example that the earth was eighteen centuries old. Angel is one of those who finds himself unable to face the prospect of being a parson and having to preach such beliefs.Hardy also causes Tess to reveal a side of her personality that, while perhaps vaguely hinted at, we had not clearly seen before: she muses on the experience of gazing into the night sky and having the sense of being spiritually released from one’s body and finding one’s consciousness at a great distance from one’s physical existence. In addition to the moral complexity that we saw in her before, there seems to be an additional depth to Tess that might turn out to be either an asset or a liability to her, depending on how her fortunes develop.
Am I perhaps reading more into this than it merits?
I agree with your observations, Jim, and even before now her "additional depth" has been both asset and liability.Angel's intellectual approach to agriculture reminds me of Levin in Anna Karenina who tries to force his reforms on the serfs. The milkers are humoring his whim, but they don't completely accept him. It took him three times as long to milk a cow, and Hardy doesn't mention it but I wouldn't be surprised if Crick checked to make sure Clare had gotten it all!
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Jim - "Am I perhaps reading more into this than it merits?" Not at all Jim! It's spot on, as Erich says. It is a perfect example of the difficult spiritual issues of this time, which Thomas Hardy wrestled with and I wrote about earlier LINK HERE.
We see more of this extra dimension Tess has, in the next chapter, which follows immediately :)
Erich - "Angel's intellectual approach to agriculture reminds me of Levin in Anna Karenina who tries to force his reforms on the serfs."
That is interesting. I've never read the novel, but many 19th century novels were preoccupied with this aspect of upcoming industrialisation. Good to have an example from another cultural perspective, thanks!
Pam - Yes, we can see the limitations of such simple beliefs, and how they are endemic in the society they lived in.
You're nearly caught up. Great, now you can enjoy it all daily :)
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Certain cows prefer certain milkers, so Dairyman Crick regularly rotates them in case a worker should leave and a cow refuse to give milk. Tess has her favourite cows, but takes them as the rotation delivers. Soon she keeps getting her favourite cows, however, and then notices that Angel is in charge of arranging the rotation. They talk shyly and Tess implies that she might not always be around to milk the cows, but she feels regret at sharing these words afterwards, in case they are misunderstood.
One evening Tess is in the garden, enjoying the silence, when she hears Angel playing the harp. She is transfixed “like a fascinated bird”, though in reality his playing is clumsy. She approaches the sounds slowly, but keeps hidden behind a hedge.
Tess meanders through the edge of the neglected garden, which is a mass of wet grass and a colourful variety of rank-smelling weeds. They stain her arms red, and snails leaves their trails on her. She loses herself in the music and is so affected that tears start to her eyes. Angel stops and then comes around the fence, while Tess unsuccessfully tries to back away.
"What makes you draw off in that way, Tess?" - E. Borough Johnson - The Graphic
Angel asks Tess what she is afraid of, and she says she has no fears when outside, but indoors she has fears of life in general. Angel is surprised at her sorrow, and asks her to confide in him. Tess describes her depression and sense of the gloomy future, and Angel is again shocked that she has such pessimistic feelings, which he thinks of as “the ache of modernism”.
Angel muses that it is strange that Tess should have these ideas at such a young age, although they are actually ancient troubles. Tess finds it strange that a man in such a good position as Angel should be depressed. He is an outsider at Talbothays, but only by his own choice, and he has money and education. They are both puzzled and intrigued by each other.
They slowly learn more of each other. Tess only reacts to Angel’s intelligence, not to him as a man, and she feels inferior. One day she laments that she knows so little in comparison to him, and Angel offers to teach her. First he proposes a history lesson, but Tess says she avoids history. To her it is like learning that she is only one in a long line of similar lives, whose fate is predestined by their ancestors, and nothing is unique about her actions or experiences.
Angel is again surprised, as he has had similarly troubled thoughts. He leaves and Tess stands peeling lords and ladies wildflowers, finally throwing them all to the ground. She is embarrassed by her conversation, and feels that Angel must think her stupid. She wonders if he would be impressed by her d’Urberville ancestry.
Tess asks the dairyman if Angel Clare respects old families, and Crick warns her that he hates the idea of them, and feels that their descendants inherited some of their traits. The family of another dairymaid, Retty Priddle, used to own lots of land in the area, and Angel scorned her for it. Tess is glad she asked, and assumes that it is her “supposed untraditional newness” that interests Angel.
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“inanimate objects seemed endowed with two or three senses, if not five”
going on to describe feelings we recognise:
“There was no distinction between the near and the far, and an auditor felt close to everything within the horizon. The soundlessness impressed her as a positive entity rather than as the mere negation of noise.”
The description of the garden took my breath away, and felt almost soporific. Tess seem hypnotised both by her surroundings and the music. The narrator tells us that again, “Tess was conscious of neither time nor space”, the experience happening without her doing anything. “... their harmonies passed like breezes through her, bringing tears into her eyes.” It is just as she had previously described to the workers at the dairy, as her state of mind when gazing at a star. What might this tell us about Tess?
I particularly loved this part:
“The light which still shone was derived mainly from a large hole in the western bank of cloud; it was like a piece of day left behind by accident, dusk having closed in elsewhere.”
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Thomas Hardy again uses the motif of a bird for Tess: “like a fascinated bird”, continuing the series of images. The vivid description of the garden again associates Tess with fertility and abundance. It is such a strong image of her as a Nature goddess, immersed in weeds, smeared with stains, and enchanted by human music. Tess is repeatedly associated with plant imagery in this chapter.
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Tess is embarrassed by the same musings that intrigue Angel. Angel can pursue negative thoughts at his leisure, while Tess has no choice in the matter. She starts to break his simplistic impression of her impression, although he keeps being surprised when she does. Tess’s troubles are specific, pure and more raw than Angel’s personal “ache of modernism” which is linked with his education, maleness, and higher social status. The disparities of their class and past experiences are emphasised in the nature of their sorrows. For now, though, this difference is intriguing to both, as each idealises the other; Tess as Nature, Angel as Intellect.
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Angel’s ideas reflect some of the narrator’s earlier musings, that people can be punished for their ancestors, or that bloodlines carry inherent traits within them. Retty Priddle, he tells us, is another example of a once-great family laid low, and the changing social order. Tess realises how she is being idealised by Angel.
So we have further confirmation of Tess as Jim and Erich identified as having “additional depth”. What a masterly way of revealing this, through the writing.
Were you also stunned by the sheer poetry in this chapter? And do you have slight misgivings about these events, as I do? Why might that be?
Hardy's depiction of Angel seems to me to be related to his ambivalence about Romanticism. Angel idealizes Tess almost automatically and needs to learn to accept her as a real person with faults and reasons to be pessimistic. Tess takes him into a dark and bitter place that is surprising in a "virginal daughter of nature." At the same time, Hardy uses vivid/sublime natural imagery and personification to describe the "senses" of nature.
Yes, Tess is nature while Angel is intellect. They are opposites in many ways yet Hardy makes it clear that Tess has some form of attraction for Angel. Is it curiosity? Her love of poor harp playing? Is Fate once again casting a miasma over a relationship?I noticed that Tess’s actions towards Angel had faint echoes of Alec towards her. Tess approaches Angel with stealth, she hides from him rather than announcing her presence openly.
Hardy has created a very strong presence of nature in this book. In this chapter the place where Tess is in hiding is a ‘neglected garden” covered with “rank-smelling weeds.” A garden, a woman, a man named Angel. Perhaps we could overlook the garden with a man and a woman in it as merely stylistic rather than a description with an embedded literary meaning, but the man’s name is Angel. Here I think Hardy has clearly created a cratylic name. That makes the garden a suggested possible reference to Eden. However, the garden is full of weeds.
This chapter contains multiple levels of style, symbolism, and imagery.
What a magnificent stylistic chapter.
The verdant, overgrown garden setting that Hardy chose for this encounter between Tess and Angel seems to have been deliberately chosen both for its sensory appeal and in a way to counterbalance the intellectual advantage that Angel has over Tess due to his family background and education. Tess, the country girl, a child of nature is in her own element here — further emphasized by her fussing with the 'lords and ladies'.Tess has learned to be cautious before committing herself to a particular social gambit; not trusting her judgment, she quietly inquires about Angel's attitudes before mentioning her connection to an 'old family'.
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I was absolutely in awe of the poetry of this chapter. I read Tess's walk through the garden three times; it's so sensual and magical. I imagine the mists of pollen sticking to her as if she is a fertility goddess spreading new life and vitality where she steps. Even the rank smelling weeds coexist happily among the beauty of the garden. They provide waves of color that mix with the waves of Angel's music. I have the impression of Tess being a magical fairy, and even though we are told Angel is no great musician, his music is casting a magical spell on her.
But for all this magic, I found misgivings too. Though Tess was being stealthy, it is Angel who rambles around and comes up behind her. That made Tess nervous and made me nervous too. I'm also nervous because Angel doesn't know who Tess really is, what she has been through. He is assuming she is virginal, and he is using her youth to discount her experience. This cannot be good for Tess. I loved how Hardy says it "Not guessing the cause, there was nothing to remind him that experience is as to intensity and not as to duration"
I'm also curious about the dichotomy of Tess's character. She is wise beyond her years one minute and completely childlike the next. Is this an echo of the madonna/whore theme? She's so wise when she talks about her soul leaving her body as she gazes at stars. But then she will be completely childlike and play "lords and ladies" with flowers, which the notes in my book lead me to believe is a simple childhood game. Is she a child or a woman?
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Peter - thank you too for your insights on this chapter, and reintroducing me to a word I had forgotten: a cratylic name (i.e. one in which the name corresponds to the nature of the thing named). Great point about the symbolism! (And I laughed at the idea of bad harp-playing as attractive :D)
Erich and Jim - you both share great perceptions as well; I think all the comments on this chapter are spot on! I'm really enjoying this wider view, thank you, and do hope more will comment too, when everyone has caught up.
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The seasons go past, and new birds and plants appear. The dairy workers are happy and content, at the level above neediness but not at the level where social conventions become stifling. Tess is the happiest she has ever been. Both she and Angel enjoy their state of pleasant attraction without complicated commitments. They remain in a state of limbo, but it seems inevitable that they will come together soon. Angel imagines that his preoccupation with her is merely philosophical.
Tess and Angel meet often, as they both rise earlier than the other workers. When they are alone in the gray dawn they seem like the first people on earth, like Adam and Eve. Tess seems to Angel to take on a mythical significance and an unearthly beauty, although the narrator points out that it is an effect of the “spectral, half-compounded, aqueous light”, and that his face appears so to her too. Angel imagines her as Mary Magdalene, or the “visionary essence of woman”. He teasingly calls her Artemis or Demeter, but she wants to be called Tess, as she does not understand these references. When the sun rises, she seems to lose her divinity, and remains a ”dazzlingly fair dairymaid only”.
On these early mornings herons approach them, and Tess and Angel watch the fog cover the fields. Drops of dew cling to Tess’s face and she gains a fantastical beauty that fades later in the day, in the heat of the sun and the everyday talk and activity of the farm.
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“Lords and Ladies”
I’d forgotten “lords and ladies” might be unknown. It’s a well known plant in England: a type of arum lily which grows in marshy land near rivers, as long as the land is undisturbed. It would grow in this uncultivated wild area, which we have been told is dank and mossy. Here it is:
You can see in this drawing where Tess would prise open the leafy green sheath, before the huge bud opens. The bright red berries grow later, in Autumn of course.
A common name for “lords and ladies” is cuckoo-pint - and it has been suggested that this very old English name may have been a cheeky joke (remove all but the first two and last two letters, and then blush) but there are many local names for it. I’ve always known it as lords and ladies, but the meaning of this name was never explained to me as a child: I just assumed it was because the flowers looked so regal and upstanding. Tess’s game is significant because “lords-and-ladies”, and many other names, liken the plant to male and female genitalia symbolising copulation. She plays her game innocently, but this is the symbol at its root (no pun intended!)
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And yet there is a note of warning here, I feel. What of Angel Clare? He is trying to treat her as part of his agricultural studies, but he cannot repress his true feelings. And worse, he is idealising Tess even more overtly.
Thomas Hardy uses the image of Tess and Angel as Adam and Eve, confirming Peter’s inkling that “the garden [is] a suggested possible reference to Eden”. But Peter also points out: “However, the garden is full of weeds”…
Tess now becomes to Angel not just a symbol of Nature, but a mythical or religious figure. She is still an unreal figure to Angel, and because of this it is easier for him to fall in love; she takes on the archetype of pure Woman for him. For her part, Tess wants to be treated as an individual, not a symbol of a generalised whole. Is she voicing this enough though? She still comes across as a passive figure, and we have few indications of her own feelings towards Angel.
Her midday self is less goddess-like, but has more of the true, human Tess. Birds again appear, here as good omens. Let’s hope they don’t fly away!
Please do feel free to share your thoughts about this and previous chapters :)
Here in Canada we have a very similar type of wildflower that looks suspiciously like lords and ladies. In Canada, we call them “Jack-in-the - pulpits. Here is some information on them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arisaem...
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Bionic Jean wrote: “Lords and Ladies”
I’d f..."
When Tess was opening the buds, she said that there were "more lords than ladies." I read that the spadix (phallic part) is attractive to rodents, so perhaps the "lords" are the flowers with the spadix intact and the "ladies" are those with the spadix eaten away?
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I like these chapters because there is true innocence at play. And this is where Tess feels most comfortable and happy. With Angel she has found someone that she can talk to without considering him as seeking something she doesn't want to give, as did Alec. These chapters has been easier to read as well. I don't have that feeling that something terrible is happening — a dread — because I knew Alec was all wrong and seeking something from the innocent Tess.
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“Lords and Ladies”
I’d f..."
Thank you for posting the "lords and ladies" picture, Jean. I had no idea those flowers were so symbolic of male and female parts. Now I'm even more impressed with how cleverly Hardy is alluding to Tess's sexuality without coming out and saying it. And balancing it with her innocence at the same time.
I agree it has been lovely to linger in this Eden like meadow for a little longer.
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One morning the butter churn is not working properly, and no butter will come. All the workers gather around. Dairyman Crick complains that are no good “conjurers” left who could fix it if it breaks. Mrs. Crick suggests that someone is in love, and that is making the machine not work.
Dairyman Crick tells a story of a man, Jack Dollop, who had courted and “deceived” a young woman, and then one day her mother showed up to attack him. Dollop hid in the butter churn while the old woman raged furiously, and the young woman cried. Finally the old woman found him and turned the butter churn with Dollop inside until he agreed to marry her daughter. Tess is struck by this story, growing pale although it was intended to be comedic. She goes to the door, and Crick asks concernedly about her. She says she will feel better outside. At that moment the churn starts to work again.
Tess is depressed all afternoon at the thought that none of her companions saw the sadness in the story. The sun seems ugly to her now, and a sparrow’s voice “machine-made.” That night she goes to bed before the other dairymaids, but wakes up when they enter.
The others who share the room: Retty Priddle, Marian, and Izz Huett stand by the window and watch someone in the garden. Soon they start to tease each other about being in love, and at last they all admit that they are, and reveal that Angel is the object of their devotion. Then Marian says that their love is in vain, because Angel likes Tess best. Izz declares that he won’t marry Tess or any of them, but someone of his own social class. All three start to cry and eventually fall asleep.
Tess lies awake, upset. She knows that Angel prefers her, and that he had even asked Mrs. Crick about hypothetically marrying a farm-woman, but Tess feels unworthy of marrying anyone because of her past. She feels guilty for drawing his attention from the other, “purer” girls of Talbothays.
Mod
The story is humorous to the rest of the workers, who have never had Tess’s sad experiences. The weeping girl is only a side character in the tale, but Tess strongly relates to her. This is perhaps one of her “indoor fears” which she hinted at obliquely to Angel. She can only feel better by going back outside, into her natural milieu. It is also notable that when Tess loses her vitality the machine starts working again.
The dairymaids’ infatuation with Angel Clare is first portrayed as innocent and foolish, but the women’s tears at the end start to show how deep it really runs. Their final admission that Angel is from a different strata of society altogether, and that none of them have a chance with him, seems to make their rural world hopelessly small. The other dairymaids are actually more like Angel’s pure ideal than Tess is, but it is Tess he is attracted to. Tess also sees Angel’s line of thinking, associating all the dairymaids with purity and Nature. Now she feels excluded from that symbolic community by her past troubles, and feels that this is how it should be. Her feelings of guilt still linger.
Mod
“The evening sun was now ugly to her, like a great inflamed wound in the sky. Only a solitary cracked-voice reed-sparrow greeted her from the bushes by the river, in a sad, machine-made tone, resembling that of a past friend whose friendship she had outworn.”
Thomas Hardy uses the pathetic fallacy, so that Nature mirror’s Tess’s sadness. We feel the poignancy of this, because Thomas Hardy usually creates such beautiful images, and this is not. We feel Tess’s pain. Even Nature brings her no comfort now, and just seems like another aspect of the harsh modern world.
Mod
Where could this all lead?
I think Tess was reacting to Angel on the simple compatibility level and not what that means for both their future. Hearing the other girls talk, points to her lost innocence and she thinks she is not worthy. And for the reader, its as if the sky has clouded over; we know that something is about to happen.
Bionic Jean wrote: "Thanks for your thoughts, Pamela and Bridget :) Time to move on ..."Sorry to come in a bit late here.
I was struck by Hardy's elegant way of noting the passage of time by alluding (in exquisite poetic language) to the cycle of seasons in the natural world while at the same time, life at the farm proceeds with no visible change in the daily routine. He sees the people at Crick's farm as living is an economic 'sweet spot' between poverty and the stresses of the fashionable world.
Angel's dreamy, idealized perception of Tess is does not bode well for the development of a relationship; does this young man really understand how the real world works? He seems to be a fellow adrift, unsure of his place in the world, disconnected from his roots and yet an outsider in the environment where he now lives. Not a man I would favor for any daughter of mine!
Mod
Somehow I think you have your eye on the ball a bit better than John Durbeyfield, Jim! Come to think of it, we haven't heard much of Tess's family recently. I expect the dairymaids only get a half day off every Sunday, and Christian festival days though, and the journey by cart would take time, and may not go there on the right day. Perhaps too, she thinks it is better to stay away.
Back in Chapter 15, Tess decided to leave home, and Hardy writes that "To escape the past and all that appertained thereto was to annihilate it, and to do that she would have to get away." On that "thyme-scented, bird-hatching morning in May" she left, partly to avoid corrupting her younger siblings: "were she to remain they would probably gain less good by her precepts than harm by her example." So even after burying her "knightly ancestry" aspirations she carries an enormous weight of shame.In the Talbothays chapters, I have been impressed by the sympathy and warmth of the relationships among the people there. Crick works alongside the others, there is singing and storytelling, and everyone is focused on the success of the dairy. Also, when Tess first looks over the valley, Hardy describes the scene as Tess "like a fly on a billiard-table of indefinite length, and of no more consequence to the surroundings than that fly" and yet, when she gets to Talbothays, the scale changes: each cow has a name (and a favorite milker). So, for me the "sweet spot" that Jim mentions includes too a notion of people (and cows) who are appreciated and understood - very different from agriculture on an industrial scale.
Crick's story about the fellow who hid in the butter churn creates a startling misalignment of moods. For those listening to the tale — and for us as well — it really is quite hilarious and we can certainly enjoy reading it. But Tess can only relate to the tragic side of the story; it plunges her into despair, as if she were experiencing her own betrayal all over again. She finds the room, the people, their laughter stifling and she retreats to the outdoors, to the natural world; but even there she cannot find peace. And later, overhearing the other girls mooning over Mr. Clare reminds her again that she can only regard herself as 'damaged goods'. She has determined that she can never marry. We are left wondering where this will lead ....
Mod
I really like your thoughts here, Jim. Angel's character is elusive and difficult to pin down - as you said, adrift. On the one hand his thoughts are progressive as he rejects his father's religion for his own philosophy. And yet, Hardy often uses biblical references when writing about Angel's thoughts or feelings, indicating the religion of his childhood is still very much a part of who he is. Like this passage in the chapter 20.
The mixed, singular, luminous gloom . . . often made him [Angel] think of the Resurrection hour. He little thought that the Magdalen [ie: Tess] might be at his side
I find it curious that Angel's thoughts drift to the Resurrection while he walks through the early morning twilight. Why not think about Nature waking up around him? Especially if he's going to be a farmer of some sort, I would think Nature would call to him more than Religion.
And then the narrator's subtle but ominous reference to Tess as a Magdalen, which Angel doesn't see. That can't bode well for Tess.
Mod
The next morning Dairyman Crick is upset because a customer has complained that the butter has a twang. They all taste it, and agree. Mr. Crick can tell that there must be a garlic plant in the meadow. All the workers form a line and walk slowly across the fields, looking for garlic shoots. Tess and Angel walk side by side, but speak perfunctorily. Eventually the dairyman decides he cannot carry on:
“‘This here stooping do fairly make my back open and shut,’ exclaimed the dairy man” - Hubert Von Herkomer - 29th August 1891 “The Graphic”
and suggests that Tess take a break too. Angel Clare also breaks our of the line, and searches on his own, near Tess. Tess tries to turn his attention to Izz and Retty, as she has decided they are more worthy of marrying Angel than she. She says how pretty they are, and compliments their agricultural skills, pointing out that they blush when he looks at them.
After that, Tess makes herself avoid Angel, and tries to give her three friends every opportunity to be near him. She realises that all the dairymaids are in love with him, and feels it is admirable that he shows such self-restraint.
Mod
I particularly noticed for instance, how kind Dairyman Crick is. He needs all his workers to get down to the job, but speaks with solicitude to Tess, as he think she might be overtiring herself.
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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