Phase The Fourth: The Consequence Flashcards
The lane they followed was so solitary that the hazel nuts had remained on the boughs till they slipped from their shells, and the blackberries hung in heavy clusters.
Ch 30, pg 184
Chapter 30 is a pivotal chapter, as it is where Tess finally agrees to marry Angel. The chapter opens with a description of the landscape and Tess and Angel taking a wagon full of milk to the train station. This image is very pastoral - it shows that the Valleys are a ‘land of plenty’ and nature is providing in excess. The description of the ‘heavy clusters’ of blackberries adds to this, suggesting there is so much food provided by the environment that it is allowed to go over-ripe and stay on the plants. The emphasis on the ‘solitary’ lane demonstrates the seclusion of the rural world, and shows an area which is yet to be damaged or touched properly by humans. This lack of human presence has allowed nature to develop to its fullest. Hardy creates a peaceful, plentiful idyll with this description.
An old manor-house of Caroline date rose against the sky, and was in due course passed and left behind.
Ch 30, pg 186
This passage occurs just after Angel has pressed the question of marriage again and Tess has said she will answer ‘before [they] get home’. The ‘old manor-house’ is an old D’Urberville house, and the inclusion of this alerts the reader to the fact that Tess’ family history is an inescapable fortress which follows her everywhere she goes, even when she has the possibility of starting a new life as Angel’s wife. The fact that the house is ‘passed and left behind’ implies that, like their passing of the house, the D’Urberville family is ‘left behind’ and insignificant now, being of no benefit (but maybe harm) to Tess. The house is from the reign of Charles the First (‘Caroline date’) showing how old passed-by the D’Urberville family are, and this presents a quite gothic image within the pastoral landscape of the journey to the train.
A feeble light was beginning to assert its presence
A dark green background denoted intermittent moments of contact between their secluded world and modern life.
Modern life stretched out its steam feeler…touched the native existences, and quickly withdrew its feeler again, as if what it had touched had been uncongenial.
A little railway-station; a poor terrestrial star, yet in one sense of more importance to Thalbothays Dairy and mankind than the celestial ones to which it stood in such humiliating contrast.
Hissing of a train
Ch 30, pg 186
This is the first description of the train in Chapter 30. Hardy presents the contrast between the rural world and urban modernity here: the ‘feeble light’ which is ‘beginning to assert its presence’ is a metaphor for how the train symbolises the encroachment of modernity onto the natural world and the development of mechanisation. The ‘moments of contact between their secluded world and modern life’ which Hardy mentions suggests that the rural world is old-fashioned and a part of the past, maybe even a Golden Age, where modernity has not yet reached. The train is presented in a threatening way, like a bug, stretching out its ‘steam feeler’ to the inhabitants of the rural world, and then retreating, as the rural people are ‘uncongenial’, or unsophisticated. There is a sinister atmosphere surrounding the train, and Hardy uses the natural imagery of a bug/insect to describe a manmade machine to enhance the contrast between the two. Hardy, although giving a sinister sense to modernity and man-made machinery, also highlights the importance of it to rural communities: he says that the ‘railway-station’ is of ‘more importance to Thalbothays Dairy’ than the ‘celestial [stars]’ in the sky. It is implied that the railway has allowed the expansion of trade, and thus is bringing more income to the countryside. This passage thus shows the contrasts between the rural and urban world in a negative, sinister light, but also does not forget to remind of the urban world’s importance too.
‘whose was this mighty personality? A milkmaid’s.’
(XXV, 154)
Tess = Tragic figure
Megalopsychia: Hardy elevating Tess
‘Despite his heterodoxy Clare was a man with a conscience. Tess was no insignificant creature to toy with and dismiss; but a woman living her precious life.’
(XXV, 154)
Angel contrasts Alec
Hardy’s voice
“for a pure and saintly woman you will not find one more to your true advantage, and certainly not more to your mother’s mind and my own, than your friend Mercy, whom you used to show a certain interest in.”
Angel’s father talking to Angel
Mercy Chant is symbolic
She is the stereotype of Victorian Women
Tess getting a little shelter from a neighbouring holly tree.
Ch 30, pg 186
Tess can be see to be retreating into nature in the face of the modern steam-train. The way Tess finds ‘shelter’ suggests the natural world gives her protection and comfort, and this once again shows how Tess is at one with and a part of nature, this time by putting her physically in nature, in the form of a ‘holly tree’.
She clasped his neck, and for the first time, Clare learnt what an impassioned woman’s kisses were like upon the lips of one whom she loved with all her heart and soul, as Tess loved him.
Ch 30, pg 190
Hyperbolic language: This sentence shows how Tess really is deeply in love with Angel. It also highlights the ‘passion’ and sensuality of Tess which has been alluded to since the start of the novel, with a focus on Tess’ lips, the ‘red ribbon’ she was wearing at the May-Day Dance, and her ‘full’ figure. It is also significant that Tess is the one who ‘clasped’ Angles neck when up until this point Angel has ‘clasped’ her.
“O, I hope that is of no ill-omen for us now!”
Ch 30, pg 191
This sentence, said by Angel, concludes Chapter 30 on an ominous note; he says this in response to Tess saying that he has seen her before at the May Day Dance in Marlott and didn’t dance with her. The ending of this chapter is negative and foreboding, juxtaposing to the positivity of the rest of the chapter. It suggests that there are bad things which will happen between Angel and Tess, and foreshadows the sadness of their relationship in the remaining phases after they marry.
Under the edge of the carpet she discerned the faint white margin of the envelope containing her letter to him, which he obviously had never seen.
In her haste thrust it beneath the carpet as well as beneath the door.
“No, no - we can’t have faults talked of - you must be deemed perfect to-day at least…”
Ch 33, pg 210-211
This is talking about the first letter which Tess writes to Angel to confess about Alec, her ‘faults’. She delivered the letter but things went wrong and it was hidden by the ‘carpet’ and Angel had ‘obviously’ not ‘seen it’ so he still doesn’t know her past. This can be seen as another missed opportunity, similar to that in Chapter 30, to tell Angel what happened. This is also another example of things going wrong for Tess, and the reader is left to consider - would it have been different if he’d seen the letter? Tess then tries to tell Angel in person, so as not to ‘deceive’ him but Angel stops her, saying she ‘must be deemed perfect’. This shows Angel has an idealised perception of Tess and refuses to believe that she has done anything very bad which would change their relationship. This is another example of missed or stopped opportunity for Tess.
‘She had to told. At the last moment her courage had failed her’
(XXX, 189)
Hardy uses short sentences to emphasise Tess’ internal conflict
“I seem to have seen this carriage before…I must have seen it in a dream.”
Ch 33, pg 213
This is said by Tess at her wedding to Angel, and it is an allusion to the D’Urberville legend whereby family members see a D’Urberville coach as a bad omen. This foreshadows the breakdown of Angel and Tess’ relationship and gives an ominous and foreboding feeling to the wedding.
‘The responsibility was shifted, and her heart was lighter than it had been for weeks’
‘She dismissed the past - trod upon it and put it out, as one treads on a coal that is smouldering and dangerous’
(XXXI, 192)
After her mum’s letter telling her not to tell Angel about her past with Alec, Tess felt calmer and less responsible. Tess + passive.
Metaphor, simile and foreshadowing. The past is going to hurt Tess.
“I seem to have seen this carriage before…I must have seen it in a dream.”
Ch 33, pg 213
This is said by Tess at her wedding to Angel, and it is an allusion to the D’Urberville legend whereby family members see a D’Urberville coach as a bad omen. This foreshadows the breakdown of Angel and Tess’ relationship and gives an ominous and foreboding feeling to the wedding.
AO4: Tragic timing
‘He silenced her with a kiss’ (xxxIII, 24)
Masculine power and control
Parallel with Alec
