Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Lecture 4
Phase the First – The Maiden
(Chaps 7 – 11)
Lawrence on Relationships
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The great relationship of humanity will
always be—
the relation between man and woman.
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The relation between man and man, woman
and woman, parent and child, will always be
subsidiary.
– DH Lawrence
Nature of Relationships
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Exploitative; Sexually exploitative
Master-Slave relationships; Means-end
Harmonious relationships; Oppressive…
Relationships based on Love; and Lust
Mutual Respect & Admiration; Unconditional
Primacy: glory and power over others
Human affairs all about winning and losing
Key factors affecting Relationships
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Defined by position, career, wealth, and power
Gender; Class (social status); ethnicity (e.g. Norman
ancestry)
Role of Religion & Culture in defining relationships;
Accent and Speech; Standard English; Dialect
Dwelling: cottage; Clothing e.g. ‘ladder-like holes…’
Mode of Transport: Gig; Cart; Carriage
Looking down; Talking down, Talking to; Gesture
(bowing, e.g. ‘She bowed to him slightly.’ )
Degree of Respect
To what extent can Tess’s plight be attributed to the
following factors? Methods of showing this?
Contingent factors leading to Tess’s downfall:
- Gender relations: male-female; female-female
- Tess’s Character and Personality
- Accident, Mishap, Coincidence / Fate
Literary methods
- Diction, Syntax, Use of Dialogue, Use of Dialect;
Allusion; Use of Ballads, Imagery, Symbolism
- Use of Setting; Setting as Symbolism
- Narrative voice (also tone), and point of view
Gender and Class (rustic country girl)
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Angel and Alec; John and Joan Durbeyfield, and the
Trantridge women ‘construct’ Tess in particular ways
that entrap her in stereotypical roles as defined by
an intersection of class, and gender perceptions, and
expectations.
Hardy shows these different gender and class
constructions through the use of shifting narrative
perspectives (mediated by the use of a third person
omniscient narrator)
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‘Good-bye, my maid’, said Sir John, raising his
head… [Chapter 7]
Tone?
Note the gently contemptuous humour of narrator’s
parting reference to her father as ‘Sir John’
(Intended) Effect?
Reminds us that Tess is a scapegoat for father’s sins
His sleep-inspired recognition that he is saying
‘Goodbye’ to his ‘maid’ symbolically suggests the
sacrifice to which she will be called on that account
Male-female relations
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Alec and Angel arrive at contrasting interpretations of Tess’s
personality, in response to the image of her in the white muslin
dress she wears at the May-Day dance
Angel’s viewpoint: Tess is ‘a white shape’ among a troop of
‘country hoydens’, albeit a ‘pretty maiden’ who is ‘modest’,
‘expressive, ‘soft’  ie. Woman as Madonna (Ch 2, p.18)
Angel’s silent acceptance of his brothers’ judgement (‘dancing
in public with a troop of country hoydens’) makes his first
encounter with Tess a non-encounter, because he is unable at
that point to see Tess as anything more than a common country
girl to be dismissed from his mind.
Male-female relations
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Alec’s point of view: Sees Tess as just a ‘farm girl’
whose position as ‘poor relation’ can be used to
obtain / force her sexual surrender without the
necessity for love or marriage
Alec sees Tess as an object of male sexual desire,
using stereotypical symbols like strawberries and
roses (Ch 5)
Alec typecasts Tess based on his understanding of
the sexual ethics of her class – assumes her sexual
availability based on her peasant status.
“You are mighty sensitive for a cottage girl!” (Ch 8,
p.56)
Male-female relations
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The relationship between Tess and Alec involves an
unequal balance of power that is rooted in social
class, economic standing, and gender differences
Alec – characterized as a stock villain (‘the
moustachioed seducer of Victorian melodrama’)
‘an almost swarthy complexion, with full lips, badly
moulded, though red and smooth… a well-groomed
black moustache with curled points… touches of
barbarism in his contours… singular force… bold
rolling eye’ (Ch 5, p.40)
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Hardy illuminates the seductive power of
Alec’s appearance and personality
As Alec ‘nipped his cigar with the tips of his
large white centre-teeth, and allowed his lips
to smile slowly of themselves
The narrator draws attention to the sexual
motivation underlying the words from those
lips
Male-female relations
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Alec often presented on horseback or driving a carriage / cart –
Actions symbolically suggestive of his position of power which
he uses to exploit, dominate and control Tess.
Eg. the dog-cart ride shows Alec’s mastery of the mare - “If any
living man can manage this horse I can”; ‘…it was evident that
the horse, whether of her own will or of his (the latter being the
more likely) knew so well the reckless performance expected of
her that she hardly required a hint from behind.’ (Ch 8, p.54)
[Compare with Gerald’s taming of his red Arab mare in Ch 9
Coal-Dust, of Lawrence’s Women in Love]
Eg. The horseride through The Chase immediately before the
rape / seduction scene, Alec’s literal manipulation of their route
mirrors his manipulation and emotional blackmail of Tess
Male-female relations
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Hardy shows how patriarchal power is asserted in
various ways – linguistically, economically, sexually.
Linguistically – seen in the way Alec assigns her
different names which define her identity and her
relationship with him
‘Well my Beauty’ (Ch 5), ‘my pretty girl,’ ‘my pretty
Coz’, ‘Durbeyfield only, you know – quite another
name’, ‘You artful hussy!’ (Chapter 8) ‘Miss
Independence’ (Ch 10)
Note use of the possessive pronoun, ‘My’
Male-female relations
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Economically – Alec uses his position as Tess’s
employer to get close to her; tries to ‘buy’ her
affection with gifts for her family.
‘It was in the economy of this regime that Tess
Durbeyfield had undertaken to fill a place… A
familiarity with Alec D’Urberville’s presence – which
the young man carefully cultivated… But she was
more pliable under his hands than a mere
companionship would have made her, owing to her
unavoidable dependence upon his mother, and,
through that lady’s comparative helplessness, upon
him.’ (Ch 9, p.62)
Male-female relations
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Sexually – Hardy builds up the narrative tension through the
progressive escalation of Alec’s sexual advances.
Notice Tess’s resistance becomes gradually more muted – from
her spirited, strategic resistance during the first journey to
Trantridge, to her silences during the horse ride through
‘The Chase’.
‘He was inexorable, and she sat still, and D’Urberville gave her
the kiss of mastery.’ (Ch 8, p.56)
Notice the effect? of sentence structure (use of parallel clauses)
[Intended] Effect: Highlights and emphasizes the contrast
between Alec’s sexual mastery, and Tess’s sexual passivity.
Sentence Shape and Structure;
Parallelism and Antithesis
He was inexorable, and
she sat still,
and
D’Urberville gave her
the kiss of mastery.
Male-female relations
Use of animal imagery
 Symbolic significance of the caged bullfinches
(Chapter 9)
 Ironically, like the bullfinches, Tess is trapped by her
situation, even during the times when it appears that
her captors are looking out for her welfare
 Compare and contrast this with the images of the
caged hawk in WL – bullfinches can be tamed and
managed, while hawks are untameable birds of prey
Lawrence’s Women in Love
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‘And all the while, his wife had opposed him
like one of the great demons of hell. Strange,
like a bird of prey, with the fascinating beauty
and abstraction of a hawk, she had beat
against the bars of his philanthropy, and like
a hawk in cage, she had sunk into silence.’
[Chapter 17 The Industrial Magnate]
Male-female relations
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Symbolic significance of the ‘community of fowls’
with which Tess is entrusted?
(Ch 9, p.58)
[Intended] Symbolic Effects?
Domestication of these hens and cocks imagistically
mirrors her domestication
that Tess gradually undergoes under Alec’s careful
cultivation and manipulation of her acquaintance
Female-female relations
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Social reproduction of gender roles in the motherdaughter relationship
“… she ought to make her way with ‘en, if she plays
her trump card aright. And if he don’t marry her afore
he will after. For that he’s all afire wi’ love for her any
eye can see.” [Notice accent and dialect]
“What’s her trump card? Her D’Urberville blood…?”
“No, stupid; her face – as ‘twas mine.” (Ch 7, p.53)
Enacted when Mrs D dresses up Tess in a way that
‘might cause her to be estimated as a woman when
she was not much more than a child’ (Ch 7, p.49)
Female-female relations
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Sexual rivalry that contributes to Tess’s fall
Imagery of war. Effect? Suggests a power struggle
between Tess and the other women
No genuine female solidarity – ‘united… against the
common enemy’ (ie Tess), and the men’s attempt to
‘make peace’ only serves ‘directly to increase the
war.’ (Ch 10, p.67)
Tess’s decision to accept Alec’s help is partly
motivated by ‘fear and indignation at these
adversaries’ that she knows ‘could be transformed…
into a triumph over them’ (Ch. 10, p.68)
Coincidence / fate
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Prince’s death symbolically functions as an ominous
foreshadowing of
a) the Chase seduction scene
b) Tess’s murder of Alec
c) The destruction of nature
Parallels in plot patterns, imagery / symbolism
Parallels suggest that events are caused by ‘fate’,
but the actual plot mechanics are largely driven by
coincidence
The Chase scene and Ambivalence
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The ‘central ambivalence’ in the novel (Kristin Brady)
The novel raises enormous implications concerning
the question of
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Tess’s “purity” and
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Tess’s culpability
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The Chase Seduction Scene
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A continuation and intensification of the relationship
dynamic established at their first meeting:
a mixture of resistance and passivity
Note: Tess’s silences (eg. p. 69: ‘She did not reply’,
‘She was silent’) creating what effect?
An effect of ambiguity
In contrast: Alec’s active manipulation of the situation
– prolonging the horseride, telling her about his gifts
to her family, the ‘well-known cordial’
The Chase Seduction Scene
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[Tess] ‘still panting in her triumph, yet in other
respects dubious’ (Ch 11, p.69)
‘between archness and real dismay’ (Ch 11, p.71)
Effect of ambivalence in Tess’s response
‘She passively sat down amid the leaves he had
heaped’; ‘He touched her with his fingers, which
which sank into her as into down’ (Ch 11, p.72)
[Intended] Effect?
Tess’s apparent docility and receptivity is suggested
in the imagery and descriptive verbal language.
The Chase scene
Use of setting as symbolism
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The Chase: Symbolically represents a pagan past in
which conventional codes of morality do not apply
The darkness and silence of The Chase
mirrors the narrative silence about what really
happens
Also the fog literally, and symbolically obscures
events; thus creating what Effect?
creates a sense of ambiguity
The Chase seduction scene;
Intrusive narrator’s commentary
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Defends Tess – Victim of unforeseen circumstances
(eg. p.70: ‘She was inexpressibly weary….’)
Narrator’s insistent rhetorical questions; Effect?
Strongly suggestive of Tess’s innocence
Alternative scenarios projected – accentuate the
sense of waste, and what could have been
Narrator’s intrusive closing comments impose an
interpretation of Tess’s victimhood on the reader
Tess is undone by unjust patriarchal prejudices
regarding female sexuality;