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.
Thyme-scented, bird-singing morning in May
Ch XVI, pg 101
May - spring, new life, new hope for Tess. The seasons are changing with Tess; she is at one with nature. Olfactory and auditory imagery are used here to enhance the surroundings and make give them a positive feeling; this is a very idyllic pastoral description of the landscape. The natural world appears to be happy as Tess is reconstructing her happiness, giving a positive opening to Phase the Third.
Tess passes by the area where her ‘useless ancestors - lay entombed’
Ch 16, pg 102
Even when Tess is at a high point in her life and things are looking up for her, the heritage of her ancestors and her past are still haunting her. She is unable to escape them, even when she leaves her family in Marlott; in fact, she is travelling closer to the ‘family vault at Kingsbere’ at this point. The adjective ‘useless’ to describe Tess’ long-dead relations alludes to the fact that her ancestry has not helped her thus far and will not help her in the future. The mention of the ancestors being ‘entombed’ is anticipating Tess’ own death and symbolic of her lost past.
Milk and butter grew to rankness
The verdant plain so well watered by the river Var of Froom
Ch 16, pg 102
The use of the adjective ‘rankness’ to describe the ‘milk and butter’ in the ‘Valley of the Great Dairies’ suggests that the natural world is providing in excess for it’s human inhabitants. This contributes to the pastoral idyll being created in this chapter, and it is also a biblical allusion: ‘the land of milk and honey’ in the Book of Exodus. The ‘land of milk and honey’ in the bible is Israel, which is a paradise of new hopes, thus Hardy is implying that the Valley is a paradise full of potential for Tess. The word ‘verdant’ means bright green, and the fact that it is ‘well watered’ by the river implies that this is land which provides. This creates a very positive pastoral idyll.
The new air was clear, bracing, ethereal
Ch 16, pg 103
This triad of adjectives creates a sense that the Valley is a beautiful, reconstructive place, which, as implied by the word ‘ethereal’, is almost heavenly; so perfect that it is like it’s of another world. The ‘new air’ is ‘cheering’ to Tess, and there is a sense that it is giving her a new lease of life.
Like a fly on a billiard-table of indefinite length, and of no more consequence to the surroundings than that fly.
whereby Tess’ life is a game to be played by the Gods. (XVI, 105)
Hardy is suggesting that Tess is insignificant in such a vast world and she has no real impact on the world either. This insignificance of man in the natural world implies that nature is indifferent to and ignores humanity. Comparing Tess to a ‘fly’ is an allusion to Shakespeare’s King Lear: ‘As flies to wanton boys are we to the Gods’. This suggests Tess is insignificant in both the eyes of nature and God, implying that she is easily messed with and squashed. The inclusion of the ‘billiard-table’ has connotations of fatalism, whereby Tess’ life is a game to be played by the Gods.
‘The var waters were clear as the pure River of Life shown to the Evangelist’
‘…before she had eaten of the tree of knowledge’
XVI, 103
Biblical allusions to add to the extended metaphor of the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve get kicked out off the garden. Potential foreshadowing?
Tess=eve, the fallen woman.
She appeared to feel that she really had laid a new foundation for her future.
Ch 17, pg 108
This is from the start of Chapter 17, when Tess first arrives and is offered work by Dairyman Crick. This shows Thalbothays Dairy as a place of opportunity and new hope for Tess. She is recovering and starting her new life; this really fits with the title of the Phase (The Rally) as this is the point at which Tess really feels as it she has a ‘foundation for her future’ and her life is changing for the better.
It was not the loss for the moment that made slack milking so serious, but that with the decline of demand there came decline, and ultimately cessation, of supply.
Ch 17, pg 108
Hardy does not romanticise working life at the dairy - it is presented as enjoyable work but also the difficulties of it are displayed. Hardy is focusing on the smaller details of dairy life, suggesting a care for and the importance of rural work. He is saying that the job of milking must be done properly or the cows will stop producing milk (‘cessation, of supply’). This is a realistic presentation of rural life.
AO3: Hardy witnessed much of this hardship as a child growing up in Dorset–which would later become his model for Wessex.
“I’ve been told that it goes up into their horns at such times.”
“Folks, we must lift up a stave or two - that’s the only cure for it.”
Farmer Crick’s story on page 110 about the ‘cattle’ which ‘kneel on Christmas Eves’ and the man who plays a ‘Hymn’ to a ‘bull’ to stop it charging at him.
Ch 17, pg 109-110
This is demonstrating the superstitions and ignorance of the rural workers. They believe that cow’s milk goes ‘up into their horns’ when a new person is around, and Farmer Crick believes that the ‘only way’ to make the cows milk normally again is to ‘lift up a stave or two’ (sing). Hardy is demonstrating ignorance in pastoral life, but this ignorance appears to be harmless, unlike Tess’ mothers ignorance in Phases 1 and 2. This provides an anti-pastoral element, as it is suggestive of a lack of education in rural communities.
He wore the ordinary white pinner and leather leggings of a dairy farmer when milking…but this was all his local livery. Beneath it was something educated, reserved, subtle, sad, differing.
Ch 17, pg 111
This is a description of Angel working at the Dairy. He is dressed like a dairy farmer in the ‘ordinary white pinner and leather leggings’ but Hardy states that this appears just to be a sort of ‘livery’ (uniform/costume) for him; he is clearly someone ‘differing’ from the rest of the dairy farmers, his ‘educated’ and ‘reserved’ nature making him stand out. Here, Hardy is showing a higher-class educated man ‘playing’ at rural life and attempting to recreate a Golden Age/pastoral idyll through his work at the Dairy.
“What a fluty voice one of those milkmaids has!”
“What a genuine daughter of Nature that milkmaid is!”
Ch 18, pg 119-120
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
Ch 19, pg 126
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.
The seasons developed and matured.
Ch 20, pg 128
The opening line of Chapter 20 is symbolic of Tess and Angel’s relationship. As nature and the seasons ‘develop and mature’, so does their relationship. This is placing Tess and Angel at one with the natural world while introducing the theme of love between them.
Tess had never in her recent life been so happy as she was now, possibly never would be so happy again.
Ch 20, pg 129
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.
