Phase 3- The Rally

Question 1

…new air was clear, bracing, ethereal

Answer 1

connection with nature, new setting

Question 2

The irresistible, universal, automatic tendency to find sweet pleasure somewhere, which pervades all life…had at length mastered Tess

Answer 2

New chapter in Tess’s life, human condition, brief reprieve from her misfortune, yet fate and powers beyond her control still have a hold over her

Question 3

…like a fly on a billiard table…and of no more consequence to the surroundings than that fly

Answer 3

Tess’s insignificance in the grand play of things
THEMES: Fate

Question 4

fixed, abstracted eyes, and a mobility of mouth somewhat too small and delicately lined for a mans, firm close of lower lip

Answer 4

First detailed description of Angel, emotional intellect

Question 5

…farm-folk of his imagination…known as Hodge…began to differentiate themselves as in a chemical process

Answer 5

First example of Angel’s tendency to idealise concepts, and generalise stereotypes, foreshadows his idealisation of Tess, perhaps also shows his ability to see beyond class differences
THEMES: society (class)

Question 6

…Tess, like a fascinated bird…damp and rank with juicy grass…thistle milk and slug slime…blood red stains

Answer 6

Bare/pure/sensual description- rich, overpowering smells, colourful scenery, Tess portrayed as a child of fertility and abundance

Question 7

All the while they were converging, under and irresistible law, as surely as two streams in one vale.

Answer 7

Social ideal, sense of connection despite difference in class, inevitability of their relationship

Question 8

They seemed to themselves the first persons up of all the world

Answer 8

Adam and Eve, prelapsarian setting

Question 9

She was no longer the milkmaid, but a visionary essence of woman- a whole sex condensed into one typical form…Artemis, Demeter

Answer 9

Angel’s idealisation of her- apotheosizes her, associates her with virginity and fertility

Question 10

…The evening sun was now ugly to her, like a great inflamed wound in the sky.

Answer 10

Tess’s past haunts her again, links between Tess and setting

Question 11

Their gauzy skirts had brushed up from the grass innumerable flies which, unable to escape, remained caged within the transparent tissue as in an aviary.

Answer 11

Image of forces of nature and Christianity fighting.

Question 12

Three Leahs to get one Rachel

Answer 12

Religion still has a hold over Angel

Question 13

…real vitality, real warmth, real incarnation

Answer 13

Tess is finally a person to Tess, rather than an ideal