Lecture 3 Tess of the
d’Urbervilles
Why didn’t you tell me there was
danger in men-folk?
Lecture Focus
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Chance and Coincidence
Structure in relation to its Phases
Setting and Season
Symbolism 1 Pervasiveness of colour Red
Symbolism 2 Symbolical significance of
the Fog
• Critically significant instances of Irony in
Chapter 5; and Chapter 7
Chance and Coincidence
• Chance and coincidence have become
one of the primary motions of the universe
• (At the same time, Hardy could not help
seeing human life and Nature in more
conventional ways)
• Re- Choice, responsibility, and freedom
Life at the Mercy of Chance
• Hardy manipulates the events in the lives
of his characters so that it will be plain
• that human life is at the mercy of chance
• and the most arbitrary of circumstances
• He engages his characters in the most
incredible conjunctions of unfortunate
incidents
Structure of the novel and Phases
• Hardy uses the word ‘phase’ to describe
the stages of Tess’s life
• Connotations of the word, ‘Phase’?
• Normally associated with the waxing and
waning of the moon
• Phases of the moon: from its first
appearance as a slender crescent to
fullness and then to its broken appearance
as it comes to the end of its cycle
Phases / Cycles of the Moon and
stages of Womanhood
• Traditionally, these phases of the moon
connote / have been associated with the
major stages of the life of a woman
• (1)Maiden, (2) Wife, (3) Old Woman
• The first two phases ‘The Maiden’ and
‘Maiden No More’ symbolically represent
the first stage of Tess’s life, as maiden.
The next three stages:
• ‘The Rally’ ‘The Consequence’ and ‘
The Woman Pays’—
• represent the second, that of a ‘wife’
The last two phases:
• ‘The Convert’ and ‘Fulfillment’—
• represent her decline
Philosophical Asides
• Along the way of the narrative in its
structured phases [from 1 to 7]
• We have, along side the narrative, Hardy’s
[Philosophical Asides] or philosophical
broodings, or brooding, bleak, ironic
reflective, philosophical commentaries
• Part of his reaction as observer of the
action
• Perception and reflection kept separate
Setting and Season
• Tess and her family live in the village of
Marlott village in the Vale of Blackmore
• Tess meets Angel Clare in Talbothays in
the Valley of the Great Dairies
• Flintcomb Ash is where she spends the
winter, abandoned by Clare
• Each setting supports the mood of the
action which takes place there
Literary Purpose of Landscape
• These landscapes have a literary purpose
• Each provides the frame and background
for the phases / stages in Tess’s life
• Which take her farther and farther away
from the more safe and secure shelter of
her home in Marlott
• Hardy thus uses setting / landscape, and
season in a symbolically suggestive way
*From Chapter 16: The Vale of
Little Dairies and Blackmoor Vale
• The Vale of Blackmoor is portrayed as
static, unchanging, ‘luxuriantly beautiful’.
• *‘There the water-flower was the lily, the
crowfoot here.’
• Referring to the clear, rapid waters of the
river Froom
• The symbol of the Valley of Blackmoor is
the lily, symbolizing Tess’s purity, and
innocence
Chapter 5: Chance, and Joan’s
blissful ignorance
• ‘We must take the ups wi’ the downs,
Tess,’ said she;
• ‘and never could your high blood have
been found out at a more called-for
moment.’
Different Parents’ points of view in
Hardy’s ‘TD’ & Lawrence’s ‘WL’
• ‘I don’t like my children going
and making themselves
beholden to strange kin.’ [Ch 5]
• ‘I don’t quite like my children
going away from home,’ said
the haggler. ‘As the head of the
family, the rest ought to come
to me.’
• ‘But do let her go, Jacky,…’
• ‘He’s struck wi’ her—you can
see that. He called her Coz!
He’ll marry her, most likely, and
make a lady of her, and then
she’ll be what her forefathers
was.’ [Chapter 6]
Will Brangwen (father of Ursula
and Gudrun) to Rupert Birkin in
Chapter 19. Moony:
• ‘[But] I’d rather see my
daughters dead to-morrow
than that they should be at the
beck and call of the first man
that likes to come and whistle
for them.’
• They have got themselves to
please, and if they can help it
they’ll please nobody but
themselves.
The colour ‘Red’ and its Symbolical
Suggestiveness
• For an artist as visually sensitive as Hardy,
Colour is of great critical significance.
• One colour in particular strikingly catches
our eyes throughout the entire novel
• The colour, ‘RED’.
• Colour of blood
• Connotations?
• Associated with beauty, passion, sex,
violence, rage, destruction, and death
In one set of circumstances, blood and the spilling
of blood can mean
sexual passion and the creation of life
In another, blood and spilling of blood can mean
murderous passion and death.
• After the death of Prince, [Chapter 4] Tess is
constantly encountering the colour ‘red.’
• When she approaches the d‘Urberville house,
we read:
The colour ‘Red’ and its Symbolical
Suggestiveness [Chapter 5]
• The crimson brick lodge came first in
sight, up to its eaves in dense evergreens
• It was of recent erection—indeed almost
new—and of the same rich, red colour that
formed such a contrast with the
evergreens of the lodge.
• Mysteriously, inevitably, this house will
play a part in Tess’s destiny
• For this red house contains her future
rapist,
• And another red house later on contains
her final executioner, where she is hanged
• Red is symbolically suggestive; the ‘red’
marks the houses of sex and death
Middle of Chapter 5
• He [Alec] had an almost swarthy complexion,
with full lips, badly moulded, though red and
smooth…
• Despite the touches of barbarism in his
contours
• Tess’s sense of a certain ludicrousness in
her errand was now so strong
• And her general discomfort at being here,
her red rosy lips curved towards a smile
much to the attraction of the swarthy
Alexander
Chapter 5
• Tess wished to abridge her visit as much
as possible; but the young man was
pressing, and she consented to
accompany him. He conducted her about
the lawns, and flower-beds, and
conservatories; and thence to the fruitgarden and green-houses, where he
asked her if she liked strawberries.
• ‘Yes,’ said Tess, ‘when they come.’
From Chapter 5
• ‘They are already here.’ D’Urberville began
gathering specimens of the fruit for her,
handing them back to her as he stooped; and,
presently, selecting a specially fine product of
the ‘British Queen’ variety, he stood up and
held it by the stem to her mouth.
• ‘No—no!’ she said quickly, putting her fingers
between her hands and her lips. ‘I would rather
take it in my own hand.’
• ‘Nonsense!’ he insisted; and in a slight distress
she parted her lips and took it in.
Chapter 10 Saturday Night ‘Disco’
• A good laugh from behind Tess’s back, in
the shade of the garden, united with the
titter within the room. She looked round,
and saw the red coal of a cigar:
Alec d’Urberville was standing there alone.
He beckoned to her, and she reluctantly
retreated towards him.
• ‘Well, my Beauty,
• what are you doing here?’
Omniscient Narrator’s Voice and
IRONY [Chapter 5]
• Parson Tringham had spoken truly when
he said that our shambling John
Durbeyfield was the only really lineal
representative of the old d’Urberville family
existing in the country, or near it;
• he might have added, what he knew very
well, that the Stoke-d’Urbervilles were no
more d’Urbervilles of the true tree than he
was himself.
Simon Stoke (merchant) and
Stoke-d’Urbervilles [Chapter 5]
• ‘Conning for an hour in the British Museum
the pages and works devoted to extinct,
half-extinct, obscured, and ruined families
appertaining to the quarter of England in
which he proposed to settle, he [Simon]
considered that d‘Urberville looked and
sounded as well as of them: and
d’Urberville was annexed to his own name
for himself and his heirs eternally.’
Name, Fortune, and Nature Ch 5
• ‘Of this work of the imagination poor Tess
and her parents were naturally in
ignorance—much to their discomfiture;
• indeed, the very possibility of such
annexations was unknown to them;
• who supposed that, though to be wellfavoured might be the gift of fortune, a
family name came by nature.’
A little later in Chapter 5 we read:
Alec:
• ‘But, Tess, no nonsense about
“d’Urberville”;—“Durbeyfield” only, you
know—quite another name.’
Tess:
• ‘I wish for no better, sir,’ said she with
something of dignity.
End of Chapter 7: Further Irony
• Joan Durbeyfield always managed to find
consolation somewhere:
• ‘Well, as one of the genuine stock, she ought
to make her way with ’en, even 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.’
• ‘What’s her trump card? Her d’Urberville
blood, you mean?’
• ‘No stupid; her face—as ’twas mine’
Additional Symbolism The Fog
Chapter 11
• She was silent, and the horse ambled
along for a considerable distance, till a
faint luminous fog, which had hung in the
hollows all the evening, became general
and enveloped them. It seemed to hold
the moonlight in suspension, rendering it
more pervasive than in clear air.
• ‘You cannot walk home darling, even if the air
were clear. We are miles away from
Trantridge, if I must tell you, and in this
growing fog you might wander for hours
among these trees.’
• ‘As to your getting to Trantridge without
assistance, it is quite impossible; for, to tell
the truth, dear, owing to this fog, which so
disguises everything, I don’t quite know
where we are myself.’
• He [Alec] touched her with his fingers,
which sank into her as into down.
‘You have only that puffy muslin dress
on—how’s that?’
• …by this time the moon had quite gone
down, and partly on account of the fog
The Chase was wrapped in thick
darkness, although morning was not far
off.
Narrator’s Philosophical Aside and
Tone [End of Phase the First]
• Darkness and silence ruled everywhere
around. Above them rose the primeval yews
and oaks of The Chase, …
• But, might some say, where was Tess’s
guardian angel? Where was the providence
of her simple faith? Perhaps, like that other
god of whom the ironical Tishbite spoke, he
was talking, or he was pursuing, or he was in
a journey, or he was sleeping and not to be
awaked.
[Echoes a text from Kings in the Bible]
Explanation of Biblical Allusion
• The narrator is referring to the Hebrew
prophet Elijah, who chides Ahab’s people
for worshipping a false god (Baal)
and mocks them when their god fails to
produce fire upon their request:
• “Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is
talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a
journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and
must be awaked.” (1 Kings 18:27)
Follow up Tutorial on TD
• Assignment matters
• Use of Symbolism
• Reading Dialogue and Subtext
Assignment Questions based on
the death of Prince episode Ch 4
• Discuss the effects of the writing in this
passage, showing how far and in what
ways the novel’s characteristic methods
and concerns are evident here.
OR
• Discuss the effects of the writing in this
passage, considering the critical
significance of the episode described here
in your reading of the novel as a whole.
Analysis of Question
• Discuss the [intended] effects of the
writing (diction, syntax, imagery,
symbolism, narrative method, use of
dialogue etc) in this passage
• Showing how far [to what extent]
• And [also] in what ways [techniques used]
• The novel’s characteristic methods
• And [characteristic] concerns
• Are evident here [in this passage]
• Essay: Introductory paragraph
• Must state thesis
• For a literature essay
• The central framework of ideas
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•
•
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Topic sentence (central idea)
Selected quotation / illustration
Analysis of quotation(s)
Conclusion of paragraph
• NB: Conclude with a statement showing
the relevance (how it is linked) to the
controlling idea(s) of your essay
Abraham looking up at the stars
• He leant back against the hives, and with
upturned face made observations on the
stars, whose cold pulses were beating
amid the black hollows above, in serene
dissociation from these two wisps of
human life. He asked how far away those
twinklers were, and whether God was on
the other side of them.
Interpretative Analysis +
Stylistic Analysis
Diction
• The renewed subject, which seemed to have
impregnated the whole family, filled Tess with
impatience.
• The mute procession <past her shoulders> of
trees and hedges became attached to fantastic
scenes <outside reality,> and the occasional
heave of the wind became the sigh of some
immense sad soul, conterminous with the
universe in space, and with history in time.
• Then, examining the mesh of events in
her own life, she seemed to see: 1) the
vanity in her father’s pride, 2) the
gentlemanly suitor awaiting herself in her
mother’s fancy; to see him as a grimacing
personage, laughing at her poverty, and
her shrouded knightly ancestry. Everything
grew more and more extravagant, and she
no longer knew how time passed.
Reading Dialogue in the novel
• Reading and ‘hearing’ voices in Dialogue?
(‘spoken’ language)
• Like eavesdropping on a conversation
taking place among strangers
• Is the conversation engaging?
• When we humans speak, we are not
merely communicating information,
• but attempting to make an impression, and
achieve a goal.
Dialogue and Subtext
• And sometimes we are hoping to prevent
the listener from noticing what we are not
saying,
• Which is often not merely distracting but,
• We fear, as ‘audible’ (‘hearable’) as what
we really are saying.
• As a result, dialogue usually contains as
much or even more subtext than it does
text. More is going on under the surface…
Dialogue; Hardy’s tender sensitivity
to the human voice
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‘Did you say the stars were worlds, Tess?’
‘Yes.’
‘All like ours?’
‘I don’t know; but I THINK so. They
sometimes SEEM to be like the apples on
our stubbard-tree. Most of them splendid
and sound—a few blighted.’
• ‘Which do we live on—a splendid one or a
blighted one?’
More Dialogue
• ‘You was on the wrong side,’ he said. ‘I
am bound to go on with the mail-bags, so
that the best thing for you to do is to bide
here with your load. I’ll send somebody to
help you as soon as I can. It is getting
daylight, and you have nothing to fear.’
• ‘’Tis because we be on a blighted star, and
not a sound one, isn’t it, Tess?’ murmured
Abraham through his tears.
• Mesh: a fine network of small holes and threads
• I find Hardy’s imagery to be very suitably and
effectively chosen. For example in the sentence,
“Then examining the mesh of events in her own
life…” The word “mesh” is very apt in this
instance because it makes the reader see more
graphically and vividly and indeed appreciate the
extent to which Tess is entangled, caught up by
the criss-crossing of various, ‘all-coming-to-thefore’ events that are affecting her life, and the
way these are presented to her consciousness
in those moments of reflection.
‘Fog’ as symbol
• ‘Fog’ standardly is suggestive of some sort
of confusion
• Authors tend to use ‘fog’ to symbolically
suggest
• That a person / people cannot see clearly
• That matters under consideration are
somehow murky
• Suggestive of sexual impropriety
• Haze suggestive of the passions of pagan
nature
• The darkness that contributed to the loss
of the family horse
• Symbolically suggestive of the darkness
that shrouds Alec’s conquest of Tess
• On the night of the rape episode at the
dance, everything is in a “mist” like
“illuminated smoke”
• There is a “floating, fusty debris of peat
and hay” stirred up as “the panting shapes
spun onwards.”
• Everything together seems to form “a sort
of vegeto-human pollen.”
• The implication being that it becomes part
of a basic natural process
• in which Tess is caught up simply by being
alive, fecund, and female.
• D’Urberville is that figure, that force, at the
heart of the haze, the mist, the smoke,
• waiting to claim her when the dance
catches her up.
• What happens to Tess is a continuation of
this blurred narcotic, foggy atmosphere
• Hardy has the rape take place in a dense
fog, while Tess is in a deep sleep.
• Her consciousness and perception are
alike engulfed, blinded, and obliterated in
this veil of confusion.