Phase The Sixth: The Convert Flashcards
The Convert
The title of Phase the Sixth refers to Alec’s conversion to christianity, supposedly leaving behind his immoral past. The key occurrence in this Phase is Alec coming into Tess’ life again, as he hasn’t been present since she returned from his house at Trantridge.
A fear overcame her, paralyzing her movement…
Ch 45, pg 305
This phrase demonstrates the effect which Alec has on Tess. As when she was at Trantridge, Tess is ‘paralyz[ed]’ when in Alec’s presence, entering a dream-like passive state. This time, however, she is ‘overc[ome]’ by ‘fear’ as well. This also suggests that what happened to Tess in The Chase was rape, as she is fearful of Alec being around her. This encounter between Tess and Alec begins Alec’s following of Tess, and leads to Tess’ ultimate capitulation. This marks a time of great suffering for Tess.
As soon as she could reflect it appalled her, this change in their relative platforms. He who had wrought her undoing was now on the side of the Spirt, while she remained unregenerate.
Ch 45, pg 306
This ‘reflection’ shows how Tess is angry at the way life has changed for Alec since she left Trantridge; she is annoyed that he has been able to do well for himself, converting to religion and being ‘on the side of the Spirit’ even though he had ‘wrought her undoing’, while she has been suffering in poverty, and has ‘remained unregenerate’ (wrong or bad, not having shown repentance). This shows how Tess has been made into a sinner in the eyes of society in a way that she isn’t, while Alec, because he is a man, has been allowed to carry on and make a comfortable life for himself. This shows the juxtaposition between social and natural law, as well as displaying Hardy’s proto-feminist agenda, as he is pointing out how ‘sexual sin’ can be the undoing of a woman but have no effect on the life of a man.
An almost physical sense of an implacable past which still engirdled her.
Ch 45, pg 307
Hardy is emphasising the way Tess’ past with Alec will always follow her, no matter what she has done and how her life moves on. This foreshadows the way in which Alec, from now on in Phase the Sixth, will pursue Tess until he gives in and becomes her mistress. Hardy used the word ‘engirdled’ in Phase the First to describe the area of the Vale of Blackmore, which was being presented mostly as a pastoral idyll, however, now he uses it to describe the parochial nature of the countryside, and show how Tess will always be trapped by her past in such a narrow society. This is a potentially anti-pastoral element of country life.
Bygones would never be complete bygones till she was a bygone herself.
Ch 45, pg 307
This quotation has connotations of death; Hardy writes that Tess’ past will always follow her until she is dead. This reinforces the sense that Tess’ past ‘engirdles’ her and will follow her forever, as Alec will. Hardy takes a sad and reflective tone with this quotation; there is a sense that Tess knows that her past will follow her until she dies and is almost giving up because of it.
Its dry pale surface stretched mercilessly onwards.
Ch 45, pg 307
Now that Alec is back, the countryside takes on a dead and infertile nature. Hardy describes the ground as ‘dry’ and ‘pale’, which gives the idea that the land is harsh and doesn’t provide, and the way is stretches ‘mercilessly onwards’ is symbolic of the way in which Tess’ life stretches unforgivingly onwards, and it makes the reader aware that Tess is going to go through an even tougher period in her life.
“You, and those like you, take your fill of pleasure on earth by making the life of such as me bitter and black with sorrow, and then it is a fine thing, when you have had enough of that, to think of securing your pleasure in heaven by becoming converted! Out upon such - I don’t believe in you - I hate it!”
Ch 45, pg 309
This is another example of Tess’ assertiveness when faced with Alec, the ‘Convert’. Hardy clearly has a classist agenda here, echoing the episode with the pheasants and hunters in Chapter 41, suggesting that ‘those like [Alec’, the upper classes, take ‘pleasure’ from ruining the life of ‘such as [Tess], the poorer classes. She is scathing of Alec’s conversion to religion, and the fact that she says ‘I don’t believe in you’ suggests that she doesn’t believe his conversion is genuine and lasting; a theme with repeats later on in Phase the Sixth. Tess’ anger is once again shown to make her assertive in this situation, and the way Hardy uses exclamation marks to emphasise her raised tone of voice demonstrates this anger and frustration.
On the sheltered side was a turnip-slicing machine, whose bright blue hue of new paint seemed almost vocal in the otherwise subdued scene.
Ch 46, pg 313
Chapter 46 begins with a description of the ‘turnip-slicing machine’. It is described in contrast to the landscape, with the unnatural ‘bright blue hue’ intruding upon the ‘otherwise subdued scene’. The emphasis Hardy places on the ‘new paint’ of the machine in contrast to the natural world demonstrates the intrusion of mechanisation and modernity into the rural world. This is quite a negative, anti-pastoral description, as the machine is made to seem invasive, as if it doesn’t belong there.
“It is a shame for parents to bring up their girls in such a dangerous ignorance of the gins and nets that the wicked may set for them, whether their motive be a good one or the result of simple indifference.”
Ch 46, pg 315
This is Alec speaking to Tess when he pursues her to the farm where she is working. He uses hunting imagery to describe the way men ‘trap’ girls; ‘gins and nets’ are tools associated with hunting animals. This plays into the symbolism of Tess as a helpless, hunted animal. Alec’s focus on ‘parents’ bringing up ‘their girls in such a dangerous ignorance’ feeds into the idea that Tess’ selfish parents are to blame for her situation, and also suggests that the innocence of young girls can be ‘ignorance’ too, and this can be a very harmful thing for them, making them vulnerable to ‘the wicked’. This emphasises both Tess’ innocence and ignorance, as well as her parent’s stupidity and ignorance.
The red tyrant that the women had come to serve…
A despotic demand upon the endurance of their muscles and nerves…
He was in the agricultural world, but not of it. He served fire and smoke; these denizens of the fields served vegetation, weather, frost, and sun.
Plutonic master…
Ch 47, pg 325
These descriptions of the ‘wheat-rick’ at Flintcombe-Ash near the beginning of Chapter 47 are extremely anti-pastoral, incorporating a lot of hellish imagery. Hardy describes the machine as a ‘tyrant’, ‘despotic’ and of ‘fire and smoke’. This description makes the machine appear intrusive and destructive in the natural world. The way Hardy describes the women having ‘come to serve’ the machine instead of the ‘vegetation, weather, frost, and sun’ they are used to creates a sense of entrapment and slavery surrounding the women and the machine. This negative description shows Hardy’s contempt for the mechanisation of farming, and shows the harshness of pastoral life, even with the machinery to supposedly aid the work.
Without the slightest of warning she passionately swung the glove by the gauntlet directly in his face. It was heavy and thick as a warrior’s, and it struck him flat on the mouth.
Ch 47, pg 331
This is Tess’ reaction to Alec asking her to go with him and become his mistress. This is an example of Tess being active and assertive rather than passive in Alec’s company. She is shown to be angry, as she swings the glove ‘passionately’, which demonstrates how her pride and morality is being offended by what Alec is asking of her. The way Hardy describes Tess’ glove as ‘heavy and thick as a warrior’s’ has connotations of bravery and power, contrasting to the way in which Tess is seen as a passive victim at many points throughout the novel.
Limitless expanse of country
His experiences of this strange land had been sad.
Severe illness
Crowds of agricultural labourers…dazzled by representations of easy independence, had suffered, died, and wasted away.
The mother would pause to dig a hole in the loose earth with her bare hands, would bury the babe therein…shed one tear, and again trudge on.
Ch 49, pg 339
These are descriptions of Brazil, where Angel spent time after marrying Tess and separating from her. It is a very negative, sad, and anti-pastoral description: Hardy makes the ‘strange’ land seem unwelcoming and unknown, using the description of the ‘limitless expanse’ of Brazil to contrast to the more parochial nature of the Wessex countryside. The way in which the ‘labourers’ were ‘dazzled’ by what was advertised about life in Brazil has connotations of a mirage; a perfect life in Brazil is an illusion. Angel experienced this first-hand, having endured ‘severe illness’ and his time there being ‘sad’. The triad of ‘suffered, died, and wasted away’ creates the idea of a harsh environment which the English farmers could not cope with, and the emphasis on the journey to Brazil for a new life and the suffering of those who went there demonstrates the displacement and destruction of the English peasantry. The description of the mother burying her baby after it dies from short illness creates pathos and is a narrative echo of Sorrow’s death, however, it is also much worse than Sorrow’s death, as it shows how the woman has no where real to bury her baby (at least Sorrow did have a grave). This passage describing Brazil is key as it shows the negative side of rural life, even if it is in another country, and also demonstrates how ‘freedom’ comes at a cost for the rural folk. It also emphasises a key journey in the novel: Angel’s move to Brazil; Brazil is where he realises his mistakes with Tess.
He viewed the matter in quite a different light from Angel; thought that what Tess had been was of no importance beside what she would be, and plainly told Clare that he was wrong in coming away from her.
Ch 49, pg 341
Angel tells a man he meets in Brazil about Tess, and the man tells Angel very forwardly that leaving her was ‘wrong’ of him to do, and it doesn’t matter what she had done. The suggestion that ‘what Tess had been was of no importance’ implies that Tess’ past relationship with Alec is irrelevant, and she is nonetheless a ‘pure woman’ who Angel has treated badly. This is a major point in the novel as it is where Angel begins to realise how he has treated Tess is wrong.
She plunged into the chilly equinoctial darkness…
Her fifteen miles’ walk under the steely stars.
In lonely districts night is a protection rather than a danger…
She proceeded mile after mile, ascending and descending…
Ch 50, pg 344
This is the start of another journey for Tess - she is travelling home to Marlott because she has been given news that her mother is ill. Chapter 50 thus allows for the introduction of Liza-Lu again, ready for the ending of the novel, where she is with Angel. Night is described as giving Tess ‘protection’ and safety, showing how Tess is at one with nature and safe within it. The length of her journey, ‘fifteen miles’ and the way she ‘proceeded mile after mile’ shows how hard rural life can be, as she has to travel a long way by foot to see her family, rather than taking a cart. It also emphasises the isolation of the rural world, particularly with the adjective ‘lonely’. This fits in with the key pastoral themes of journeys and the relationship between man and nature.
The fire flared up, and she beheld the face of D’Urberville.
The unexpectedness of his presence, the grotesqueness of his appearance…had a ghastly comicality that chilled her as to its bearing.
D’Urberville emitted a low long laugh.
“If i were inclined to joke I should say, How much this seems like Paradise!”
“Yo are Eve, and I am the old Other One, come to tempt you in the disguise of an inferior animal…”
Ch 50, pg 349
The reappearance of Alec in Chapter 50 holds a lot of hellish connotations, making Alec appear as if he is the devil. There is a focus on ‘fire’ and the ‘grotesqueness of his appearance’, as well as his ‘long low laugh’ which all make him appear to be very sinister and creepy. There is a sense of this as well, as he stood working with Tess in the field without her knowing. The Edenic references from Alec, comparing the setting to Paradise (Eden), Tess to Eve, and himself to the Devil coming to ‘tempt’ her continues this theme.
