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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 Fourth: Chapter 25 - 34
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Bionic Jean, Moderator
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Oct 02, 2022 04:32AM
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I've never really known what Miss Muffet's "curds and whey" in the nursery rhyme are, so googled it to find:
"Curds and whey are a product of cheese-making. When rennet, an enzyme derived from a newborn ruminant is added to milk, the milk curdles. These solid, curdled lumps are the curds. The whey is the liquid byproduct of the curdling process."
So that is one of the dairymaids' tasks too.
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Yes, I agree that along with the condemnation of the Clares' religion, Thomas Hardy is also trying to be scrupulously fair - a quality he also gives to Angel Clare. Remember when Angel, trying to persuade his father (and himself) whether it might not be a good idea if his future wife has farming skills, and Thomas Hardy writes:
“Yes; a farmer’s wife; yes, certainly. It would be desirable.” Mr Clare, the elder, had plainly never thought of these points before."
So Thomas Hardy is not making Reverend Clare out to be a man who is so rigid in his views that he cannot consider other practical ideas. He is a fair man.
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Alec D'Urberville is not out and out evil, he just did one (very) bad thing, and seems to lack a very developed moral dimension. His behaviour when seducing Tess, is remarkably similar to Angel's, right up to the point in the woods which resulted in Tess's baby. Tess did not help, because her behaviour was ambiguous at times. Angel is not a perfect angel. Although he is ethical, and struggles with religions and ethics, his vision is blinkered and self-serving, as he tries to make the world as he wants it, twisting the truth to his family and idealising Tess.
Angel does not listen to her, but on the other hand Tess is not clear about saying no, because she is fighting herself. She was not clear about saying no to Alec either, because she said she was "dazzled" by him for a while (and wanted to help her family). We see more of Tess's inner turmoil today, Jantine and Chris so let's move on.
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Angel is not upset by Tess’s refusal, and he is reassured that she already lets him court her, although he does not realise that flirting in the fields is much freer and more common than in stifled middle-class homes.
Angel asks again about her refusal, and Tess repeats that she is not good enough for him. She affirms that she loves him, and enjoys being with him, but says it is for Angel’s own good that they cannot marry. Angel thinks she is just being self-deprecating, so he compliments her all the more, which just makes her sadder once she is alone again.
Tess struggles within herself now, shaken by Angel’s persuasive words. She had decided before Talbothays that she would never marry, as she might cause pain to any future husband. Tess wonders why no one has told Angel her history, as it was only 40 miles away. Her roommates look at her sadly but without bitterness. They see that Tess does nothing to encourage Angel Clare.
Tess has never experienced such simultaneous extremes of pleasure and pain before. Mr. Crick and his wife seemed to have sensed something about the relationship, so they often leave Angel and Tess alone. One day they are breaking up cheese curds and Angel takes her hand and kisses her arm. She flushes, pleased at his declaration of love but upset at his renewed proposal.
Angel begins to grow frustrated and compares her to a fickle city girl, but then says he did not mean it: he knows how pure and innocent she is. Tess almost breaks down because of her conflicting emotions, and she promises to tell Angel about her past. Angel does not believe she has anything to tell him and jokingly compares her experiences to a fresh bloom’s. Tess agrees to tell him everything on Sunday.
Tess then runs off and throws herself into a willow thicket. She feels both joyful and miserable, and realises that her natural passions are overcoming her reason, and it is almost inevitable that she will succumb.
She feels too agitated to go to work, as she will be teased for being in love. In the evening the trees and moon seem monstrous. The days pass, and on Saturday night in bed, Tess jealously vows to herself that she will let Angel marry her, rather than anyone else, but at the same time feels that she can’t bear the guilt of hurting him when he finds out her story.
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Angel behaves as a lover to Tess but he condescends to her, in presuming that he knows all her line of reasoning. He is subject to his social conditioning; his condescension in assuming that he knows better than Tess is largely due to his social class, contrasted with Tess’s. Tess is giving mixed messages, because she is herself confused. Tess determinedly keeps sacrificing herself, trying to make her natural inner passions subject to her social guilt.
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“I told you why—partly. I am not good enough—not worthy enough.”
But Tess has accepted an embrace and a kiss from Angel, without pushing him away. Now, because Tess also says that she wants him to love her, and indeed looks back at him lovingly, as she: “lifted her eyes and they beamed devotedly into his, as her lip rose in a tender half-smile” when she says “No”, it is completely incomprehensible to Angel. Angel does not even notice the word “partly”, because he does not want to hear it.
Thomas Hardy is telling us that Tess’s inner turmoil continues only because of social convention, and Angel’s preconceived notions which provoke her guilt. If everything was in accord with Nature, Tess could love the man she loves and be unaffected by society’s judgment. A romantic scene which should be straightforward and sweet, is instead complicated by all the issues bubbling beneath the surface of both lovers’ emotions.
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Will Tess tell Angel about her past? Would he accept this? Would his family? What might happen then?
By the way, I have added a drawing from "the Graphic" to the chapter 24 summary, which is where it seems to fit. I had wondered why there have not been many recently, but think some may have been lost.
Bionic Jean wrote: "Tess seeks out Nature again in her sadness. She sees the hand of fate pushing her forwards, and knows that she cannot escape. Her outburst at the end is the essence of Tess’s pain at this point. Th..."I think that the question — Will she tell him? is the major question and while the time period may make her hold back, wouldn't it be better to place it before him and then see whether is love is true or what? There is risk in telling him but surely, it is better she tell him than others (indeed she is surprised others haven't told him - which means to me that she sees it as if a red letter of shame were on her breast).
Hardy uses all his literary skill to maximize dramatic tension in Chapter 28. Whatever Tess decides to tell Angel on Sunday, there are going to be serious consequences. Angel has idealized Tess to such an extreme degree that when he is finally confronted with the truth, he is bound to suffer a severe shock. His illusions shattered, his hopes in disarray, how will he cope? And what will his reaction do to Tess, who is already in a deeply disturbed state of mind?Big trouble ahead.
In these chapters, Angel wants his parents to approve of his choice of Tess, but he also hopes that he can "improve" her before they meet her so that they won't look down on her. This shows that Angel is secretly slightly ashamed of Tess.
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At breakfast Dairyman Crick tells everyone some news he has heard of Jack Dollop, the man from his butterchurn story. Dollop did not actually marry the girl he had wronged, but instead married a rich widow for her pension. But after they were married the widow revealed that she had lost her pension by marrying him. Everyone talks about whether it would have been better for the widow to tell Dollop the truth before they were married, even if it meant losing him. Again the dairy workers find the story amusing, while to Tess it is tragic. To her it feels like people laughing at a martyr. She goes outside, suspecting that Angel will follow her.
Angel approaches and again proposes marriage, and again Tess refuses. He had planned to kiss her, but his surprise at her refusal stops him.
"What makes you draw off in that way, Tess?" - E. Borough Johnson "The Graphic"
It is only the recent story of Jack Dollop that makes Tess refuse this time. A few weeks pass of Angel’s persuasive wooing, and Tess knows her resolve will soon break.
One dark, early morning Angel begs Tess to speak clearly at last, or he will have to leave. Again Tess asks for more time again, but agrees to call him “Angel dearest”. Angel kisses her for the first time upon the cheek, and Tess runs quickly downstairs.
Later Tess and Angel follow Marian, Retty, and Izz out and Angel remarks how different they are from he and Tess. Tess denies it and again says any of them would make a more proper wife for him than she would. Then she feels she has done her duty.
That afternoon the time passes faster than usual, and Dairyman Crick declares that someone needs to take the milk straight to the station. Angel volunteers and asks Tess to come with him. She is not dressed for the cold, but agrees.
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Thomas Hardy says of Tess:
“She loved him so passionately, and he was so godlike in her eyes; and being, though untrained, instinctively refined, her nature cried for his tutelary guidance.”
This reveals the idea, shared by Thomas Hardy, of society’s ideal at the time of a good husband. For well over a century, it had been desirable for the husband to be a little older, more experienced and better read so that he could instruct his young wife in what was proper. It seemed to them the “natural” order of things. Think of the gentlemen heroes in Jane Austen’s novels!
Erich has correctly pointed out “Angel is secretly slightly ashamed of Tess” and wants to slightly improve her before she meets his parents. We have also been told that Tess has now altered her manners, and imitates Angel Clare’s more cultured way of speaking.
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Thomas Hardy perfectly balances the humour and the pathos. Once again Dollop appears at an instructive time for Tess, paralleling her own story. She is reminded that she is an outsider from the other dairymaids, who are actually as pure and honest as Angel thinks Tess is. So Tess can understand the pain of telling the painful truth to someone you love, even within the context of a humorous anecdote:
“What was comedy to them was tragedy to her”
But if Angel knew the whole truth would he agree?
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“She looked a little like what he said she was” (i.e. a flirt) as “she tried to smile away the seriousness of her words”
and when she calls him “Angel dearest” at his request, there was:
“a roguish curl coming upon her mouth”
It is so ambiguous to the onlooker. We are rightly keen in the 21st century to say "No means no", but we also know all about mixed signals!
Neither Tess nor Angel are blameless. As Pamela said “wouldn’t it be better to place it before him and then see whether is love is true or what?” I suspect that Tess did not dare to keep her promise to tell Angel on Saturday (which she has now broken) in case she loses him.
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Equally, it is not fair of Angel to say Tess must answer him, or he will have to leave, implying she is tempting him beyond endurance. We are told he has a “scrupulous heart”, but the following descriptions remind me of Alec d’Urberville’s seduction:
We hear of Angel Clare’s “plan of procedure” and are told “he played a more coaxing game”. We read of “Clare’s pleading” and that he “persistently wooed her in undertones”.
This final statement “It is a fortnight since I spoke, and this won’t do any longer. You must tell me what you mean, or I shall have to leave this house” is bound to make Tess feel even more guilty: that if Angel loses his chosen career as a dairy farmer, it will be her fault. Even though he tried to behave like a gentleman, he takes advantage psychologically, just as Alec did.
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Yet again as Jim said, Thomas Hardy “uses all his literary skill to maximize dramatic tension”.
What is going to happen next?
I feel very conflicted by this chapter. I don't know what to think of Tess (although I think what Angel sees as flirty is just her joy that a man cares for deeply for her) or Angel (where does this "or I shall have to leave this house ..." coming from?)I know that its a different era but Tess is making the pain for both of them last longer for not telling him why she keeps saying no. She can't expect him to continue to woo her — its not right and he will be more angry afterwards.
The sorry game continues, with Angel’s pursuit of Tess, who keeps putting him off.I find myself losing patience with Tess: She cannot bear the thought of the pain she would inflict upon Angel by marrying him, only to have him discover her secret afterwards. At the same time, she cannot bring herself to give him up altogether. This is an impossible position for her to sustain and it’s quite unfair to Angel, who has been honest and straightforward in his courtship; and is prepared to face the misgivings of his family about such a match.
But of course, this is Hardy: Tess finds herself up against fate, in this case the fate of having fallen in love with Angel. Were that not the case, she could easily bring the matter to a quick conclusion; instead, she is stuck on the horns of a dilemma.
Tess continues to show the lack of agency that has characterized her so often. She acts almost as if she has no control over her answer to Angel, and even though Fate has wronged her so many times she still reflects that "this day would decide it."
Tess is hiding rom Angel the fact (and shame) that she has lost her virginity, and borne a child. She has ruminated on her surprise, and one must expect anxiety, that even with Talbothays’ proximity to her home, and the d’Urberville estate, that this news/gossip is not known on the farm. This is without doubt the principal and overriding reason for her reluctance and inner turmoil. However, I think that the class difference between her and Angel should not be discounted merely as an excuse for her reluctance to commit. Whilst Angel’s passion for her overrides any such doubts on these grounds as far as he is concerned, and the superior confidence he will have as an educated member of a middle class family, the still-feudal hierarchy of rural England in the late 19th century, and Tess’s peasant background is likely that she has anxieties over her ability to fulfil the rôle as a gentleman farmer’s wife.
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The cart moves on to Egdon Heath, and the two remain quiet for a long time. It starts to rain, and Tess’s hair comes loose. As the evening gets colder she creeps closer to Angel, and they huddle close under a sailcloth. He presses her for an answer to his question some time before they get home. At that moment they drive by an old mansion, and Angel remarks that it once belonged to the d’Urberville family.
They reach the railway station, which is the point where modern society daily touches their “secluded world”. They unload the milk churns, and Tess looks totally out of place among the machinery.
They start to ride back and chat about who will drink the milk, far away in London. The city people have to water it down before they can stomach it. Angel changes the subject to his proposal, and again tries to clarify Tess’s objections.
Tess begins to tell her history, but Angel dismisses her worries or possibly troubled past. Tess reveals that she is actually a d’Urberville, not a Durbeyfield, and pretends that this was the truth she had been withholding, because she had heard that Angel hated old families.
Angel laughs, and says the history of ancient families is interesting to him, and Tess realises she has failed to convince him. Angel says he would have liked her to be truly a child of the soil instead of self-seeking aristocrats, but that Tess herself has now disabused him of his prejudice.
Angel asks Tess to call herself d’Urberville now, and thinks this might impress his mother. Tess would rather not, and then Angel mentions the young man who abused his father, and the coincidence that he was a false d’Urberville. Tess gets upset and says the name is unlucky.
In that case, Angel says, she should take his name instead, and so escape calling herself “d’Urberville”. Tess finally accepts and Angel kisses her. She immediately starts crying, both out of gladness and for having broken her promise to never marry. She says sometimes she wishes she were dead. Angel is slightly offended, but then Tess kisses him passionately of her own volition, and he truly believes she loves him.
Thomas Hardy tells us that Nature always wins against the weak and arbitrary rules of society, so it was inevitable that Tess should have agreed eventually. Tess asks to write to her mother in Marlott, and finally Angel remembers where they met, at the dance on the green. Tess hopes that his first refusal of her is not a bad omen.
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“Egdon Heath”
“Egdon Heath” is a fictitious area of Thomas Hardy’s Wessex inhabited sparsely by the people who cut the furze (gorse) that grows there. The entire action of Thomas Hardy’s novel The Return of the Native (1878) takes place on Egdon Heath, and it also features in The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) and the short story The Withered Arm (1888). The area is rife with witchcraft and superstition.
It has been suggested that since the valley of the River Frome marks the southern boundary of “Egdon Heath”, the small area of heath beside Thomas Hardy’s birthplace at Upper Bockhampton might be the origin of Egdon Heath, with areas near Puddletown, Bovington, and Winfrith added to it. The small heath by Thomas Hardy’s childhood home is much smaller than its fictional counterpart. The ancient round barrows named “Rainbarrows”, and “Rushy Pond”, which lie immediately behind Thomas Hardy’s cottage, form the centre of the fictional heath.
That pinpoints the real life location, but I personally believe Thomas Hardy may have reworked the name “Egdon Heath” from a spot a little lower, called Eggardon Hill. There are some beautiful images of Eggardon Hill here
https://www.google.co.uk/search?sourc...
It is a little south of the precise location, but I can well imagine this beautiful area (just north of my caravan!) also being in Thomas Hardy’s mind, for the eventful cart ride by Angel and Tess to deliver the milk. The name is so similar :)
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I’m sure lots will want to comment on this, so over to you :)
I had a tinge of unease reading this chapter. Angel says that after he and Tess marry that he means to ‘make’ Tess a ‘well-read woman’ and that when that task is accomplished ‘[m]y mother …will think so much better of you on account of it.’ Perhaps this is just a moot point, an unintended slip of the tongue. Then, however, I recall the repetitive use of a cart and how each instance of Tess in a cart has led to some form of tragedy. First, we have the death of Prince, then we had Alec scooping Tess up for a wild ride in a cart. Now we have Tess’s final acceptance of Angel’s proposal. It could be that a cart’s presence is insignificant. Then again, how often does Hardy make a misstep with symbolism?Hardy has also folded into this chapter the fact that the ride in the cart goes past an old d’Uberville home. Here, we have both the past and the future conflated.
The chapter ends with Tess worrying that the fact she and Angel did not dance together will be an I’ll-omen for the future. Hardy certainly knows how to keep his readers on pins and needles!
Peter wrote: "I had a tinge of unease reading this chapter. Angel says that after he and Tess marry that he means to ‘make’ Tess a ‘well-read woman’ and that when that task is accomplished ‘[m]y mother …will thi..."I agree that this chapter just increased the tension in my mind. I am sad that Tess was not open with Angel, particularly as his father has already had contact with Alec. That makes it even more important that Angel be told, so that he is prepared if the facts are thrown in his face by Alex (and you know they will be ...). Oh Tess!
While I was reading this chapter, I didn't think of the portent of the cart, Peter, but they do seem to be locations where dramatic events do occur. Strange how I'm learning so much about symbolism and how it is used in writing!
Thanks again to Jean for plotting out our reading so that we can review and discuss what we read chapter by chapter. I think this is what I have missed in other book groups, especially those with more classic authors .
The arrival of the pair at the railway station allows Hardy further opportunity to contrast traditional rural life with the encroaching mechanical age as he has already done with the use of the reaper at harvest time. This time he is more explicit in his juxtaposition: “The light of the engine flashed for a second upon Tess Durbeyfield’s figure, motionless under the great holly tree. No object could have looked more foreign to the gleaming cranks and wheels than this unspohisticated girl, with the round bare arms, the rainy face and hair, the suspended attitude of a friendly leopard at pause, the print gown of no date or fashion, and the cotton bonnet drooping on her brow”.
Hardy frequently gives social history insights and commentary as well as exploring the human condition in adversity, conflict, and at times of indecision.
Oh , I have been crying out in my head for the past few chapters for Tess to just to tell the truth. Her crime of omission is sure to come back to haunt her!!Peter wrote: I recall the repetitive use of a cart and how each instance of Tess in a cart has led to some form of tragedy. First, we have the death of Prince, then we had Alec scooping Tess up for a wild ride in a cart. Now we have Tess’s final acceptance of Angel’s proposal. It could be that a cart’s presence is insignificant. Then again, how often does Hardy make a misstep with symbolism?
I had not picked up on that. Thanks for pointing it out.
I had not picked up on the cart either, so thank you for that from me too Peter!
And Chris, I had the feeling I wanted to shake Tess a couple of times. Just tell him, take fate into your own hands instead of leaving it in the hands of the men you meet ffs! (And the last exclamation quite literally when it comes to Tess)
And Chris, I had the feeling I wanted to shake Tess a couple of times. Just tell him, take fate into your own hands instead of leaving it in the hands of the men you meet ffs! (And the last exclamation quite literally when it comes to Tess)
Tess fears that Angel's refusal to dance with her when they first met could be an ill omen; perhaps so, but the real ill omen was the mention of Alec and of Tess's remote connection to the ancient D'Urberville clan. The very name hovers about Tess at every turn, a dark cloud that will not leave Tess in peace to get on with her life.Hardy's fatalism permeates every scene in some way: Tess's last-minute decision to accompany Angel while inadequately dressed and the unexpected onset of rain conspire to bring her into close physical contact with Angel, further weakening her will to refuse him. Her objective or romantic love for Alec is compounded by the sexual attraction that both feel for each other.
One cannot help believing that Tess will eventually pay a steep price for her weakness in being unable to tell Angel the truth.
As I read these chapters, I remember that Hardy used the phrase "the ache of modernism" to describe the changes that were taking place in Victorian life (and Angel's falling away from religious dogma specifically). Victorians traded traditional values and patriarchy for scientific rationalism and feverish industrialization that improved life in many ways but that left people imbalanced and spiritually disoriented. That comes through with Tess in the train station, where she contrasts so markedly with the noise and machinery.
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Tess writes a letter to her mother, and soon gets a response. Joan writes in an old-fashioned, uneducated manner, congratulating Tess’s marriage but warning her to not mention her past “Trouble.” She knows it is in Tess’s nature to be open and honest, but says she would be a fool to talk about her past to her intended husband.
Tess realises that to her mother, her past horrors were but a fleeting trouble, but that she might be right about keeping silent, because it might hurt Angel. She feels calms after the letter, and that autumn is one of the happiest times of her life. She loves Angel with perfect trust bordering on worship, assured that he is the ideal of goodness and intellect. She tries to dismiss the past altogether from her mind.
Tess is constantly surprised by Angel’s chivalry and thoughtfulness. In reality she exaggerates his qualities, because he is by nature more of the mind than the physical, having more in common with Shelley than with Byron. However, we are told he is a good man in spirit, and loves with his mind as much as his heart. It especially pleases Tess, whose past experience of men although scantly, has not been like that.
Tess seeks out Angel whenever they are outdoors, which seems presumptuous and immodest to him until he realises that it is the normal country way. They walk together by brooks and through fogs, and watch men digging in the rich, fertile soil.
Angel keeps his arm around Tess as they walk, and Tess asks if he would be ashamed if his Emminster friends found out about it. Angel jokes that a Clare could never be ashamed of a d’Urberville, and says that he does not care what they think, since they will probably move to another part of England or another country altogether. Tess is overcome with emotion at this idea of their future. They stand on a bridge over the river with much wildlife passing below.
The couple also walk in the evenings, and the other dairy workers note the excited change in Tess’s voice as they talk, and her gait which is like a bird about to land. Her love for Angel begins to envelop every aspect of Tess’s personality, but she never forgets the darkness lurking beyond her current happiness.
One evening they are at home alone when Tess again bursts out that she is unworthy. Angel responds that being “true, and honest, and just, and pure, and lovely, and of good report” as she is, is better than fitting any convention of society. Tess wishes he had stayed long ago at the May-Day dance and married her then when she was 16. Angel feels she is being moody and asks why she so strongly regrets such a thing. Tess again deflects, by saying they would have had 4 more years together, then.
The narrator points out that Tess is still a girl and not yet mature despite her dark past. She leaves for a while to calm down, and when she finally returns Angel says she has been acting capriciously. Tess agrees, but assures him that it is not in her nature.
Angel wants to set a wedding date, but Tess delays, hoping to linger a while as they are. However, Angel is concerned with his future as a farmer, and says he wants Tess to help him starting out. The potential nearness of the wedding strikes Tess and she realises again that it is real.
At that moment the Cricks and two milkmaids enter, and Tess pulls away from Angel, saying that she was wasn’t really sitting on his knee. Dairyman Crick says he wouldn’t have noticed if she hadn’t said anything. Angel declares their betrothal, and Crick congratulates him. Tess disappears, seeing the look of the dairymaids.
Later in their room the three dairymaids are sitting up waiting for Tess: “like a row of avenging ghosts”, and she admits she is getting married to Angel. There is no malice in Marian, Retty and Izz, who all gather around Tess and lay hands on her in awe. They want to dislike her, but cannot. Tess again says that they are all better than she is, and bursts into tears.
"'You be going to marry him?' asked Marian" - Hubert von Herkomer, RA - "The Graphic" 31 October 1891
The women comfort Tess, putting her to bed, and then Marian asks her to think of them when she is with Angel, and to remember how they loved him and could not hate her. Tess cries and resolves again to tell Angel the truth, as her silence seems an offence against these honest women.
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Anyway, please don't miss them, as some are very atmospheric :) (Use the links for speed.) Also, don't miss the photos of Eggardon Hill I linked to yesterday. I ran out of time, so couldn't prepare commentary after rewriting the summary and finding my research for Egdon Heath etc. Sorry not to acknowledge all the comments (Erich - the "ache of modernism" is superb!) but I did enjoy them. Thanks too for your appreciation, Pamela. It means a lot!
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Finally Tess gets some advice, but it is at odds with her natural sincerity. Also, her mother’s attempt at formality and odd dialect seems foreign to Tess’s life, now that she is used to Angel’s educated manner. However, this letter helps her to make a decision, mainly because she does not want to hurt Angel, and immediately feels full of happiness.
It struck me that Tess’s mother made a strong argument for her case, and has her daughter’s welfare at heart. Unlike Tess, who constantly wavers, Mrs. Durbeyfield has given her the same advice all along. She refers to “some of the Highest in the Land” which was quite true and open knowledge. In English aristocratic families in the 18th and early 19th centuries, once an heir had been produced, there were any number of sexual liaisons for both parties permitted in society, resulting sometimes in an assortment of odd children and parents living together.
The other thing I pulled from this letter was “J did not tell everything to your Father,” which made me wonder whether she is referring to Tess here, or perhaps to herself. Is is possible that Tess was conceived out of wedlock - and even possibly has a different father? She is the oldest after all, and has always been stressed to us as different from the others. This is mere speculation on my part, but as always, I’d love to hear your reactions!
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This is another major turning point in Tess’s life, this one potentially for the better, but she still can’t escape her guilt and inner turmoil. Although Tess does not really have anything to be guilty about, her past history is not the issue. She can cure Angel of his minor prejudice against old families, but not of the larger one he, as part of society, might hold against women like her (even though we believe her to be the victim).
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Just as in the previous chapter, today’s chapter is saturated with images of nature. The feel is very different though. The previous chapter was full of bad omens (I’m so glad you all picked up on the symbolic echo of the cart!) Peter wondered if there was any other significance, and when I read that passage, my mind immediately sprang to the tumbrils of Charles Dickens’s 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities - but I have no idea if Thomas Hardy really had that in mind. It could be little fanciful!
We had the ominous coincidence of Angel mentioning the d’Urberville name, which always seems to pop up at bad times, reminding Tess that she cannot escape the past. Plus the imagery in the previous chapter was bleak; it was again a gray hour like all Tess and Angel’s many pre-dawn meetings.
So today we have many images of fertility and natural beauty to accompany Angel and Tess’s happiness. There are many descriptions of nature, emphasised alongside their relationship. Did you notice that Tess is again compared with a bird and a wary animal? Her personality starts to be more dominated by her passion, but she still has enough wisdom to remember the warning of her past.
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Tess idealises Angel as much as he does her, and cannot see any of his flaws in her image of a godlike man. Thomas Hardy again contrasts Angel Clare’s delicacy with Alec’s bestial nature. However, surely this mutual idealisation by them both can lead to nothing good? After all Angel’s protestation on principle of disapproving of old aristocratic families, he is now willing to play the d’Urberville name as a trump card!
“It is a grand card to play—that of your belonging to such a family, and I am reserving it for a grand effect when we are married …”
It may be a small point, but it rubs me the wrong way, and makes me question Angel’s honour and constancy. What do you think?
We see yet again that Angel shows his ignorance of another rural custom. This pair are like chalk and cheese. He shows an admirable sentiment of independence from convention when Tess says she is not worthy of him, but will he be able to maintain this in the face of a real trial? This is Tess’s fear, and why she hides the truth: her shame as she sees it. We do not, and neither does her mother, saying: “specially as it is so long ago, and not your Fault at all.”
But society would blame her, and Tess thinks Angel may too, Tess is offered the escape from the past she has been dreaming of, and her joy is heartbreaking. Angel still cannot understand her turmoil, and yet Tess again, near the end of the chapter avoids being honest. The thought of her younger, more innocent self upsets her. Her guilt threatens the happiness she has sacrificed so much for, and the tragedy is that it is guilt for a sin Tess did not commit.
Thomas Hardy reminds us of Tess’s current age (20) to put this in perspective. She does not yet have the maturity to deal with all that has happened to her. Angel pushing for a date for the wedding (like her musings on the date of her death) makes it frighteningly real.
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Tess is still overwhelmed with guilt. She thinks again that Retty, Marian, and Izz are more like the pure, innocent female ideals that Angel really loves. This is so poignant, as Talbothays is where Tess has been happy, and yet things will never be the same.
A couple of sentences from the previous chapter keep coming back to me:
“She had not told. At the last moment her courage had failed her; she feared his blame for not telling him sooner; and her instinct of self-preservation was stronger than her candour.”
Perhaps things will work out. Perhaps the couple can find happiness. But why do I have a feeling of doom?
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Oh, I have that feeling of doom too! A marriage that starts out with a big secret never ends well - both in literature and in real life, I think.
Tess and Angel have unrealistic views of each other, and that doesn't bode well either for their marriage.
Plus as Jean pointed out Angel's inconsistency is troublesome. The way he doesn't like aristocratic families, but he's happy to use Tess's heritage to his advantage to win over his own family. Also, the way he rejects his father's religion, but seeks his approval. Then, the way he embraces Nature, but wants a "pure" wife - seems to me that's a contradiction as well.
Hardy gives us lots and lots of reasons to expect doom. But then he also throws out a hopeful lifeline for Tess in that Angel will move them far away, maybe even to the colonies. And I keep thinking will Tess get that escape before her secrets catch up with her?
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I also enjoyed the pictures added to Chapter 26 & 27. I liked how the artist managed to capture the kindness in Angel's father's face. And the picture of Angel blocking the stairway is wonderful too. It looks playful and potentially dangerous at the same time.
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Oh yes, good thought - they could start a brand new life in the Colonies! Thomas Hardy must have put that in for a reason, and the moral strictures would probably not be so strong there :)
Aw, thanks Bridget. I too think those 2 illustrations are particularly effective.
Bionic Jean wrote: "Mrs. Joan DurbeyfieldFinally Tess gets some advice, but it is at odds with her natural sincerity. Also, her mother’s attempt at formality and odd dialect seems foreign to Tess’s life, now that sh..."
When I read the letter from Tess's mother, I got the feeling that she was talking about her own experience but didn't quite equate that with the possibility that Tess might be her father's daughter. Very interesting.
I think that many of us believe in that era that there were some "fallen" women but most — because of the chance of pregnancy, and let's face it, that word about it would get out — would remain chaste at all costs. But that may be looking at the era with rose-colored glasses. Still, Tess has said yes to "a gentleman," as he is described by her fellow milkmaids, and as so many of us have said, we believe that it is extremely important to tell him all.
My over arching feeling is we have not seen the end of Alec and what would stop him from telling all in his own way? No, while this chapter reads very idyllically in parts, I really have a feeling that a reckoning is coming for Tess.
And like Jean mentioned, this couple still have not shared their lives but are basing a future on dreams and hopes more than who they are in reality. That also makes me feel that a reckoning will be coming.
There's a sense of unreality to this chapter, Tess being so buoyant, so mesmerized by the wonderful qualities she perceives in Angel, so delighted with the beautiful autumn days, while at the same time almost breathless with a sense of foreboding, prone to burst into tears at any moment. Deep down, she must know that all of this is too good to last. I'm reminded of an old phrase "whistling past the graveyard" hoping perhaps to placate the ghosts.Meanwhile, Hardy treats us to some of his most entrancing descriptions of the surroundings as Angel and Tess walk beside the brooks and meadows and along the river at sunset.
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Tess’s guilt and joy in the engagement keeps her from naming a date. Angel keeps asking her at tempting times, surrounded by natural beauty or among the cows. One night they are alone beside the river and Angel mentions that Dairyman Crick won’t need much help for the winter, and had suggested that Tess leave when Angel did, around Christmas.
Tess feels hurt at not being needed at the farm, but then is caught in a dilemma. She has to really set a date or else find a different farm without Angel. He reminds her that they cannot continue as they are forever, and though Tess wishes that they could, she promises to pick a day.
They tell the Cricks, who congratulate them and lament losing Tess. Mrs. Crick swears that she always knew Tess was meant for greater things. They do set a date and Tess accepts it with the fatalism of her people. She writes again to her mother, imploring her to for advice, and reminding her that Angel is a gentleman, and of a different and more discerning society.
Angel had emphasised the practicality of their marriage, but really he is still enjoying the recklessness of this time of his life, and his love for Tess remains naïve and fanciful, unsuspecting that she could have any troubled history.
Angel has begun to influence Tess’s way of speaking and thinking, and he fears to leave her in case she slips back to country ways. He wants to present her to his parents, and then have her with him whether their farm is to be in the Midlands in this country or in the colonies. But first he wants to prepare Tess for a few months, before she meets his mother. Angel plans to spend a while learning about flour-mills at Wellbridge, and we are told that what influenced him most of all is the fact that their lodgings would be in an old d’Urberville mansion. He decides to go there right after the wedding, but keeps his plans vague to Tess.
Tess contemplates the date (December 31st) in wonder. Izz points out that the banns have not been read, and Tess is worried that the wedding my have to be delayed, but Angel explains he wants to get a quiet wedding license, much to her relief. She is not easy in her mind though, and feels that her good fortune now may mean bad luck later, thinking that is how God works.
Angel buys her new wedding clothes, and Tess is overcome with delight. She tries on the dress and then remembers an old nursery rhyme about an impure bride, and wonders if the dress will betray her and turn red.
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“Wellbridge” is Thomas Hardy’s name for the pretty village of Wool in south Dorset, halfway between Dorchester and Wareham.
The place-name “Wool” first appears as “Wyllon” in Anglo-Saxon Writs from 1002 to 1012. Then in the Domesday Book of 1086 it appears as “Wille” and “Welle”. The name means ‘springs’ in the sense of wells. It is a historic bridging point on the River Frome.
There is a large 17th century manor house (which I’ll post about at the top of the next thread) and this is what Thomas Hardy calls a “mansion” exaggerating for effect, I suspect, to increase the grandeur of the great d’Urberville family in his story. Otherwise it is mainly cottages, a lot of which are still thatched cottages, (I stayed in a b&b here once :)) a small single-lane hump-backed stone bridge, a medieval church called “Holy Rood”, and a railway station. Nearby are the ruins of Bindon Abbey, which was demolished in the Dissolution of the Monasteries of 1539.
This busy road is Wool High Street!
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But I’ll just pick out two parts I liked. First the personification of water:
“It seems like tens of thousands of them,” said Tess; “holding public-meetings in their market-places, arguing, preaching, quarrelling, sobbing, groaning, praying, and cursing.”
to which Angel was, of course, oblivious. I love the idea of water itself having a life force, which the nature-child Tess keys into. Babbling brooks do sound exactly like that, don’t they? It seems apposite that Tess should pick this up just at the time when she fears that people may discover her secret, and be gossiping about her.
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“Despite Angel Clare’s plausible representation to himself and to Tess of the practical need for their immediate marriage, there was in truth an element of precipitancy in the step, as became apparent at a later date. He loved her dearly, though perhaps rather ideally and fancifully than with the impassioned thoroughness of her feeling for him.”
Tess just loves Angel simply, with her whole heart, even though he does seem “godlike” to him, and Bridget and others have mentioned several of his all to human faults. Angel fools himself. He wants to “train” Tess to meet his mother, so that she doesn’t embarrass him. Like it or not, Angel still cares more for other’s opinions than he thinks he does. They are both deceiving themselves, experiencing this time as dreamlike, and avoiding the realities of life.
Works of Thomas Hardy
Books mentioned in this topic
Under the Greenwood Tree (other topics)Measure for Measure (other topics)
Romeo and Juliet (other topics)
Posting It: The Victorian Revolution in Letter Writing (other topics)
A Tale of Two Cities (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Thomas Hardy (other topics)Thomas Hardy (other topics)
Thomas Hardy (other topics)
William Shakespeare (other topics)
Lord Byron (other topics)
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