Prose: TD- Chapter 26-30

Question 1

26- How does Reverend Clare respond to Angel discussing his future plans?

Answer 1

He responds positively to Angel’s plans to set up a farm, and has in fact been saving up money for Angel’s future land expenses. Although, on the subject on marriage, he insists that his wife must be a good Christian woman, and uses the example of Mercy Chant.

Question 2

26- What does Mrs Clare interupt Reverend Clare to ask Angel?

Answer 2

She interupts to ask about Tess’ family, in which Angel replies that whilst she isn’t a ‘Lady’, she has Christian faith

Question 3

26- What is the Clare’s response to Angel’s description of Tess?

Answer 3

They are pleased that despite his rebellions, he has chosen a Christian girl, and offer to meet her. Angel is worried they might hold middle-class prejudices against her, making Angel relaise there isn’t much difference in the range of spirits across social classes and he loves Tess for who she is.

Question 4

26- What past events reoccurs when Angel departs the next morning?

Answer 4

His father talks to him about problems in his parish, namely a young sinner named d’Urberville, which Hardy does to remind readers of Tess’ past experiences

Question 5

27- How does Angel’s nature change when he goes into nature on his way back to Talbothays?

Answer 5

He becomes more calm and relaxed

Question 6

27- How does Hardy display Angel and Tess in a romantic light?

Answer 6

By painting a picture of the two of them skimming milk together, in what Tess describes the afternoon as a joyful dream, lost in a haze.

Question 7

27- What does Angel ask Tess in this chapter, and how does he do it?

Answer 7

He asks her to marry him, but does so through logical terms of her being a farmer’s wife.

Question 8

27- How does Tess react to Angel’s proposal?

Answer 8

Whilst she loves him dearly, she says she can never be his wife. When Angel asks in amazement why, she justifies her response by saying she is too low-born and his parents would disapprove of their relationship. She then goes back to work, and begins to cry, and this sadness is fuelled even more when Angel references his dad talking to Alec. She then runs into the open field crying, using Nature to avoid her problems.

Question 9

28- How does Angel react to Tess’ refusal to his proposal?

Answer 9

Angel is not upset by Tess’s refusal, contrary to what readers may expect, and he is reassured that she already let him court her, although he doesn’t realise that their situation is much more flexible.

Question 10

28- How does their relationship change post-proposal?

Answer 10

Angel seems all the more driven to get Tess to give in to her desire, however, Tess is still punishing herself for what had happened in Tantridge, blaming herself and believing she will only cause pain to any future husband, however, admitting she loves him. Angel slowly begins to change annoyed at Tess for keeping withholding his advances, saying he knows how pure she is, causing her to almost break under her own desire, as she believes he must know her past because of their close proximity.

Question 11

28- What experience occurs as a encompassing moment of Tess’ pain due to Victorian societal pressures?

Answer 11

Tess runs off into nature to cure her pain, and decides she agrees to tell Angel everything about her past on Sunday. She becomes too agitated to work and decides she will let Angel marry her, but at the same time, she cannot bear the guilt of hurting him when he finds out about her past.

Question 12

29- How does the butterchurn story reappear show a similar timeline to Angel and Tess’?

Answer 12

The dairypeople learn that he didn’t marry the girl he wronged, he instead married a women for her pension, before learning she lost the pension by marrying him. This shows making a decision that goes wrong, just as Tess is on the precipice of a big decision.

Question 13

29-What changes occur in Angel and Tess’ already-tense relationship?

Answer 13

Tess refuses Angel again, due to the developments in the butterchurn story, and he was planning to kiss her, but is surprised by her refusal. A few weeks later, Angel declares thar Tess must speak the truth, or he will have to leave. Tess asks for more time, but begins to lean into Angel, calling him “Angel dearest”. She also points out her dairy friends, suggesting that they would all make better wives that she would, feeling then that she has done her duty.

Question 14

29- What catastrophic event occurs at the end of the chapter?

Answer 14

Someone needs to deliver the milk on a wagon, in which Angel volunteers to do, asking Tess to join him, in which she agrees. This is significant, and which Hardy does to remind readers the last time Tess took a wagon alone with a man, Alec raped her, connoting that a big decision is pending.

Question 15

30- How is pathetic fallacy used in this chapter?

Answer 15

It begins to rain on their wagon ride, which Hardy has done as a narrative tool to foreshaodw things won’ go too well for Tess.

Question 16

30- How does Hardy use the journey away from Talbothays as a narrative device?

Answer 16

Hardy uses it to further the plot of the novel, as Angel asks Tess to give him a definitive answer on his proposal before they get back to Talbothays.

Question 17

30- What does Tess do to try and get Angel to stop pursuing her for an answer?

Answer 17

She begins discussing her past, but he is dismissive of her worries, so she tells him she is a D’Urberville, not a Durbeyfield, as she knows he hates old families, however, it dones’t have the desired effect she hoped it would.

Question 18

30- What is Tess’ answer to Angel’s proposal and what are the ramifications of it?

Answer 18

She says she doesn’t want to call herself a D’Urberville, as the name is unlucky due to Alec falsely claiming the name. Angel says she should take his name instead, which Tess finally accepts and Angel kisses her. She immediately starts crying, both out of happiness and for having broken her promise to never marry. She says sometimes she wishes she were dead. Angel is slightly offended, but then Tess kisses him, and he believes she loves him. It was inevitable that Tess should have agreed eventually, due to their connection from when they first met at the Mayday dance. Tess asks to write to her mother, making Angel remember where they met. Tess hopes that his first refusal of her is not a bad omen.