Phase the Third "The Rally" Flashcards
The Rally
This is the Phase title - it means ‘the recovery’; to ‘rally’ is to get better. This is a very positive title, suggesting there is a new hope for Tess and her life is improving.
She felt akin to the landscape
Even though Tess hasn’t visited the area which she is in before, she feels ‘akin to the landscape’; this suggests that no matter where Tess is, she is at one with the natural world, making her a ‘genuine daughter of nature’. She is a part of the surroundings, and the surroundings are a part of her. The word ‘akin’ means ‘of similar character’ or ‘related by blood’, which gives a sense of family between Tess and the landscape, and emphasises just how much she is a part of nature.
“What a fluty voice one of those milkmaids has!”
“What a genuine daughter of Nature that milkmaid is!”
Angel ab tess
Angel notices Tess a lot at the dairy and is attracted to her ‘fluty’ soft voice and the way she appears to be a ‘genuine daughter of Nature’. Angel is assuming things about Tess without actually knowing her - this is where he starts creating a pastoral idyll surrounding Tess which he ultimately realises isn’t true.
“Daughter of the soil” Angel ab Tess
Once again, Angel compares Tess directly to an aspect of nature. This is the second comparison of Tess to ‘soil’, the first being of her ‘soil-coloured hair’ earlier on. This is directly connecting Tess to nature, saying she is a part of nature and she is almost inseparable from it. However, it also shows how Angel is creating an idyll surrounding Tess.
Tess had never in her recent life been so happy as she was now, possibly never would be so happy again.
This sentence shows how Tess’ life has greatly improved since living with her family and being sent off to Alec and the aftermath of that episode. However, Hardy also foreshadows less positive episodes of Tess’ life to come by saying she would ‘possibly never…be so happy again’ as she was at the Dairy. This alludes to her life at Flintcombe-Ash and at Sandbourne as Alec’s mistress.
They writhed feverishly under the oppressiveness of an emotion thrust on them by cruel Nature’s law.
Hardy is writing about the girls at the dairy who are ‘hopelessly’ in love with Angel Clare. There is a sense of Nature being indifferent, even cruel, towards humanity here: ‘Nature’s law’ is ‘oppressing’ the girls with emotion. Throughout the novel, oppression tends to be associated with societal laws and constructs, not natural laws, and so this presents a juxtaposition.
“she who could never conscientiously allow any man to marry her now”
- After Angels love for tess grows evident, tess is seen to absorb the attitudes of Victorian societ and this illustrates how damaging it is as she adopts these views of herself.
- She wants to den herself any happiness because of what Alec did to her she feels shame for everything and blames herself - she doesnt feel that she is worthy of Alecs love/marriage and she sees herself as a fallen woman.
“self sacrificing as her mood may be”
key element of tess.
