Phase The Fifth: The Woman Pays

Question 1

“Forgive me as you are forgiven! I forgive you, Angel!”

“Forgiveness does not apply to the case. You were one person; now you are another. How can forgiveness meet such a grotesque prestidigitation as that?”

(XXXV, 228)

Answer 1

Double standards
Angel says that he can’t forgive Tess

Question 2

‘He looked upon her as a species of impostor; a guilty woman in the guise of an innocent one.’

(XXXV, 229)

Answer 2

• Juxtaposition
• Appearance vs reality

Question 3

“I will obey you like your wretched slave, even if it is to lie down and die”

(XXXV, 230)

Answer 3

AO2: Simile

AO4: Tess’ passivity

Question 4

‘His from beside her light gray figure looked black, sinister, and forbidding.’

(XXXV, 230)

Answer 4

AO2: Triplet of negative adjectives to describe Angel and the contrast of light and dark colour between Tess and Angel is interesting. Hardy is portraying Angel as the bad one.

Question 5

‘The cow and horse-tracks in the road were full of water, the rain having been enough to charge them, but not enough to wash them away.’

(XXXV, 231)

Answer 5

Metaphor: Time and Tess’ hard work to recover from what happened has been enough to cover up what happen but not enough to make it disappear.

Question 6

“You were more sinned against than sinning, that I admit.”

(XXXV, 232)

Answer 6

Angel’s says this to Tess

AO2: Reference to King Lear.

AO4: Creates empathy

Question 7

“Don’t, Tess; don’t argue. Different societies, different manners.”

(XXXV, 232)

Answer 7

Angel won’t forgive Tess because of societies views

Question 8

“How can we live together while that man lives? - he being your husband in nature, and not I. If he were dead it might be different…”

(XXXVI, 243)

Answer 8

Angel suggests that they can’t be together because Alec is still alive. This subtly foreshadows Tess’ murder of Alec.

Question 9

“Lifting her from the bed with as much respect as one would show to a dead body, he carried her across the room, murmuring”

(XXXVII, 247)

Answer 9

Angel sleepwalks and carries Tess to the stream.
Simile shows how little respect he has for Tess now

Question 10

How does Angel refer to Tess when sleep walking?

Answer 10

“so sweet, so good, so true”
Triplet - this is what Angel though Tess was.

Question 11

How does Angel refer to his wife when sleep walking?

Answer 11

“My wife - dead, dead”
The repetition of ‘dead’ emphasises how Angel is grieving a version of Tess that no longer exists in his mind.

Question 12

How is it seen that their relationship has changed?

Answer 12

“the gold of the summer picture was now grey”

Metaphor for their relationship

Question 13

Quote for Angel’s limited mind?

Answer 13

“this advanced man was yet the slave to custom and conventionality”

Metaphor - Angel is a mixture of modernity and conventionality. He is trapped by society.

Question 14

Joan’s response to Tess telling her they she told Angel about Alec and he left

Answer 14

“O you little fool - you little fool!”
“I say it again, you little fool!”

(XXXVIII, 256)

Question 15

Clare’s regret

Answer 15

‘He wondered if he had treated her unfairly’ (XXXIX, 260)
AO4: Anagnorisis

‘His eyes were full of tears, which seemed liked drops of molten lead.’
AO2: Simile emphasises his pain

Question 16

‘Flintcomb-Ash’

Answer 16

The name of the setting symbolises ash and is a metaphor for Tess’s hope running low, symbolises Hell. Setting

Question 17

Flintcomb Ash description

Answer 17

they soon ‘reached the farmhouse, which was almost sublime in its dreariness. There was not a tree within sight’
‘a starve-acre place’
(XLIII, 284)

Juxtaposition to the ‘green, sunny, romantic Talbothays’ that lives in their memories. (XLIII, 286)

Question 18

At the farm the women are dehumanised and the work is hard.. it’s also really cold

Answer 18

‘mechanical regularity’

‘even their thick leather gloves could not prevent the frozen masses they handled from biting their fingers.’ - Personification of the frost

AO4: Emphasises the extent of Tess’ downfall

AO3: Gender pay differences. It was not uncommon during the 19th century to find women and children in the fields; their labour was frequently used as cheap substitute for men’s.

Question 19

pathetic fallacy

Answer 19

The ‘yelling wind’ (personification)
The rain is described as ‘sticking into them like glass-splinters’ (simile)

Pathetic fallacy is used to show how the weather is extreme and deadly. Symbolises pain and being beaten, suggests that this is how she feels due to her and nature being entwined. Nature

Question 20

PHEASANTS:
XLII 278

Answer 20

PHEASANTS:
Symbolise tragic isolation as this shows her complete alienation from society but shows how nature is always with her, further depicts her to be a goddess of nature.

Question 21

‘killed the birds tenderly’

Answer 21

This quote symbolises how Tess wants to end her own life and feels as though she is helping the pained pheasants. This ultimately foreshadows her own death as she puts them out of their misery which reflects on how Tess wants to relieve herself ‘I wish it were now’. Nature

Question 22

‘Scraped together the dead leaves… making a sort of nest in the middle’
(XLII, 277)

Answer 22

making a sort of nest in the middle’
References to being at one with the birds as nests have associations with birds and wild animals. This shows how Tess is further trapping herself in the tragedy as she further isolates herself from society and is a result of her guilt ridden mind. Presents a cyclical element as it links to when Alec trapped her in a couch of ‘dead leaves’ whilst she ‘napped’. The birds are a motif throughout the novel and symbolise the struggles that Tess faces as they are mentioned by the narrator whenever there is a struggle. Nature

Question 23

Tess decides to ask for help from Angel’s parents but overhears brothers

Answer 23

throwing himself away upon a dairy maid

AO4: Tragic timing

Question 24

Tess hears Alec in barn preaching

Answer 24

he had, he said, been the greatest of sinners (XLIV, 303)

Question 25

Hardy voicing society through Marian

Answer 25

“You’ve no faults, deary; that I’m sure of. And he’s none. So it must be something outside ye both.”

AO2: ‘outside’ metaphorically meaning society
Hardy is referring to society. They are not flawed, it is society keeping them apart.

Question 26

Walking very slowly, without converse, one behind the other, as if in a funeral procession…

“The river is down there. I can put an end to myself in it. I am not afraid.”

Ch 35, pg 233

Answer 26

Hardy uses a motif of death in Chapter 35 to emphasise how ‘anxious and sad’ Tess and Angel are, and also as a symbol of the death of their relationship, and (particularly Tess’) happiness. The comparison of Tess and Angel to a ‘funeral procession’ is ironic, as it is their wedding day, not a funeral, or a day of death. It should be a day of celebration and happiness. Tess’ suicidal ideation is once again highlighted, and the emphasis on her being ‘not afraid’ to kill herself suggests she would be welcoming of death, and this ties in with the end of the novel, where she willingly accepts her fate of being hanged.

Question 27

She looked absolutely pure. Nature, in her fantastic trickery, had set such a seal of maidenhood upon Tess…

Ch 36, pg 237

Answer 27

Hardy is making it clear here that Angel, when looking at Tess, thinks that external presentation can represent someone’s internal being, highlighting his ignorance and the way he has idealised Tess. The way ‘Nature’ has made her look ‘pure’ and have a ‘seal of maidenhood’ is a suggestion by Hardy that in the natural world, Tess maybe is a ‘pure woman’, but it is just by the standards of Angel and society that she is not. Personification of nature

Question 28

“rustic unsophistication”

“you are too, too - childish - unformed - crude…”

Ch 36, pg 238

Answer 28

Angel is shown to have preconceptions of Tess which are not true - he gave up ‘all ambition to win a wife with social standing’ for Tess, who is ‘rustic’ and has ‘unsophistication’. At the time, he saw this as a positive thing, but now he is realising he was simply idealising country life, as all he knew of the pastoral world was from Greek pastoral writers, as he mentioned to Tess previously. The way he describes Tess as ‘childish - unformed - crude’ triplet implies that now he sees rural people as being ignorant, backwards, and unable to be a part of ‘educated society’. This highlights ignorance in rural life (Tess suggests getting a divorce, and Angel is explaining how it isn’t that easy).

Question 29

Midnight came and passed silently…

The darkened farm-house once the mansion of the D’Urbervilles.

Ch 37, pg 246

Answer 29

Chapter 37 begins with Gothic elements; the reference to ‘midnight’ and the ‘darkened…mansion’ of Tess’ ancestors. Hardy is re-emphasising how Tess cannot escape her D’Urberville heritage, and is also creating a sinister atmosphere for a chapter which takes place partly in an old church.

Question 30

“My poor, poor Tess - my dearest, darling Tess! So sweet, so good, so true!”

He did not let her fall, but too advantage of the support of the handrail to imprint a kiss upon her lips - lips in the daytime scorned.

Ch 37, pg 247

Answer 30

Hardy is using Angel’s sleepwalking to demonstrate his true, hidden emotions for Tess. While in the daytime he ‘scorned’ her, when he is unaware, he is calling her his ‘darling’ and saying she is ‘sweet…good…[and] true’, and even kissing her. This implies that Angel only doesn’t love Tess because of the social conventions he adheres to, but when asleep, his natural feelings take over.

Question 31

Something of the habitude of the wild animal

There seemed only one escape for her hunted soul

Outside humanity, she had at present no fear

Ch 41, pg 276-279

Answer 31

Hardy compares Tess frequently to a wild or hunted animal at the end of Chapter 41, showing how she has been ‘hunted’ and badly treated by humanity and society. Hardy says she has the ‘habitude of the wild animal’, a ‘hunted soul’, and has ‘no present fear’ other than humanity. This brings Tess closer to nature, suggesting she is part of it, but also highlights her sadness, loneliness, and isolation from community.

Question 32

She occasionally caught glimpses of these men in girlhood…

At once so unmannerly and so unchivalrous towards their weaker fellows in Nature’s teeming family.

Ch 41, pg 278-279

Answer 32

The description of the men hunting and killing the pheasants is significant in Chapter 41 as it is symbolic of the way men have mistreated Tess, a ‘hunted’ and ‘wild’ woman who is a part of nature. Hardy suggests these men treat nature badly in an ‘unmannerly’ and ‘unchivalrous’ way, which is seen as a very negative thing. He implies they are taking advantage of their ‘weaker fellows in Nature’, which is symbolic of the way Alec took advantage of Tess. This implies that Tess’ situation was not her own fault, but the fault of the men in her life, particularly those upperclass men.

Question 33

Work on arable land: work of such roughness…

She was doomed to come.

Stubborn soil…

The kind of labour in demand here was of the roughest kind…

Starve-acre place.

Ch 42, pg 281-283

Answer 33

This is the very anti-pastoral introduction to Flintcombe-Ash, where Tess works throughout the following winter after her separation from Angel. Hardy highlights the ‘roughness’ and ‘stubborn’ nature of life and work at the farm, implying that the work is very different from the calm, enjoyable kind at Thalbothays Dairy, showing the negative side of rural life. Tess being ‘doomed’ to come shows how Flintcombe-Ash is a place of harsh labour and demonstrates how life will be very hard for Tess. The suggestion that it is a ‘starve-acre place’ contrasts to the Dairy, saying that the land does not provide for humanity here.