Prose: Tess of the D'Urbervilles summary Flashcards
1- What is the initial description of John Durbeyfield?
“The pair of legs that carried him were rickety, and there was a bias in his gait which inclinded him somewhat to the left of a straight line.”
2-What is a tradition in Marlott?
The May Day dance, which was disguised in the Christian victorian England, as it was a Pagan tradition
2-Who enters the dance that causes a bit of a stir?
3 brothers, the older two seemingly quite snobbish and upper class, whilst the youngest, seems derdevilish and wanting to subvert his class
2-What happens when the brothers leave the pary?
The youngests eye catch Tess and reminicises how he didn’t dance with her, regret at his missed oppotunity, Tess feels very similar
3- How is Tess’ household first described?
Song coming from within it
cradle rocking- worn down as all children used it
Mother tired but not pefect- trying
doesnt do chores
Tess has to help
3- What does Joan Durbeyfield ask Tess to take to the outhouse?
the ‘complete fortune-teller’
4- How is Rolliver’s described and depicted?
it is described using idylic, Romanticised language and is depicted like a church, to the poor, a drink is like going to church.
4-What do they talk about in the early morning?
Abraham asked about stars and asks Tess wether they live on a splendind or blighted star and Tess says “A blighted one”
4- What happens on the journey?
Their horse, Prince, is killed
5- How did these newly-discovered relatives get the D’Urberville name?
by visiting the British museum and adopting it from a list of wealthy family names after retiring from a successful business
5- What happens towards the end of their visit?
He tries to kiss her, before stopping, and it is blamed on fate.
6- What occurs when Tess arrives back to her family home in Marlott?
Joan D’Urberville has said that a letter has arrived from the D’Urbervilles, saying that they want her to go and work on their poultry farm
7- How do John and Joan Durbeyfield both reaction to Tess leaving, and how do they differ?
John wants her to be safe and get their family to move up the social ladder, whereas Joan starts regretting it, thinking if she did it again, she would find out more about Alec before sending her daughter off, but she focused more on claiming kin and getting more money.
8- how do they descend the hill?
Alec horse begins to descend rapidly, which shakes Tess up as it hasn’t been too long since the traumatising events of Prince being killed under her watch. Which Hardy also does by deciding to describe the landscape in not a Pastoral setting. She also says there was “flinty sparks from the horse’s hoofs”, which is her hyperbolising the situation, due to her again being traumatised from her situation with Prince.
10- What religious language is used and what does it signify?
their weekly evening when they go drinking is described as their “weekly pilgrimage”, which signifies that instead of going to church, they rely on drinking
11- How does the chapter end and what events occur that are crucial to the plot but could be passed over?
The chapter ends with Alec raping Tess. This event isn’t described at all, and Hardy only infers it, which could show how he was making sure the book could be intially published when he wrote it in the Victorian era. Hardy also argues some people would say it’s justice for the victims of whom Tess’ ansectors probably would’ve raped, however, Hardy himself disagrees with this, by saying it doesn’t “Mend the matter”. It is very elusive and blames fate, it also mentions a guardian angel, which critiques religion as they didn’t intervene.
12- What does the basket of her things represent at the beginning of the chapter?
it represents the traumatic events she has suffered.
12- What changes in Alec and Tess’ relationship in this chapter?
They have a power struggle,
Alec: “You didn’t come for love of me, that I’ll swear”
Tess: “Tis quite true. If I had gone for love o’ you, if I had ever really loved ‘ee, if I loved you still, I should not so loathe and hate myself for my weakness as I do now!”
14- What quote shows that Alec had a profound impact on Tess?
She was “somewhat changed- the same, but not the same; at the present stage of her existence living as a stranger and an alien here, though it was no strange land that she was in”
14-what begun happening in the evening when Tess returned home?
The baby she has begins having difficulty, and Tess can sense that the baby is dying, which she blames on not being baptised, so she begins and impromptu baptism in her bedroom, and wakes up her siblings to help, she then names the baby Sorrow, to symbolise its tricky start to life. She sacrifices herself saying “Heap as much anger as you want to upon me, and welcome, but little the child!”. The child then dies in the morning, and she takes it to the churchyard to be buried and askes the vicar if he can bury the child, but he says he cannot and comforts her saying her baptism is the same thing as what he would’ve done. However, despite technically not being allowed to let her bury her child, “the man and the ecclesiastic flight within him, and the victory fell to the man” resulting in a comprise, allowing her to bury her baby in the churchyard, but the vicar himself not having any part in it. She also buys him with alcohol, which again symbolises forces more powerful than religion.
16- How does the description of this departure differ from when she as going to Tantridge?
there is a lot more pastoral language which we can use the fact that Hardy is a naturalist, to infer that Talbothays is going to be better for Tess than Tantridge
17- What statement sums up changing attitudes about religion in the Victorian era?
“It’s a curious story ; it carries us back to medieval times, when faith was a living thing!”
19- what sign do we get that Talbothays hasn’t been touched by the Industrial Revolution?
it is described as having the “ache of modernism” Also, the idea we get at the end of the 18th century, is how we view and perceive the world, which creates uncertainty.
19- How does Tess perceive herself in this chapter?
she says “My life looks as if it had been wasted for want of chances!”, showing she thinks she has wasted her life.
21- When the butter churn stops working, what myth occurs?
That’s there’s an illict romance within the dairy, harking the story of Jack who courted and “decieved” a young woman, and mother can to find him. This is used by Hardy to foreshaow negative events between Tess and Angel, before they even get to know each other.
21- What does Tess realise in this chapter?
That all of her roomates fancy Angel, however, they say he likes Tess the best. The roomates declare they will not marry Angel and Tess is upset as she feels she also cannot marry Angel, based on her past.
23- What is interesting about what clothes Angel is in as opposed to the girls and what social comment might Hardy be trying to make?
Angel is dressed in work clothes, as he is checking this flood that has stopped the girls in their tracks’ damage to the hay. The girls are in their ‘Sunday best’ as they are going to church, however, it is more of a fun, social-status-showing-off event for them instead of a place for following the faith. Hardy has done this to show the contrast between someone, who is a more intellectual, reconnecting with nature and a ‘simple’ life, as opposed to the girls ‘stuck’ in their church dresses, leading to Hardy constructing an image of Nature and Religion ‘fighting’ over people and within them.
25- What happens when Angel arrives home?
Both his brothers are also home, as well as his parents. Whilst Reverend Clare doesn’t agree with what Angel is doing, he treats him no less. His brothers believe he has “lost culture”. Angel goes for a walk with his brother’s and takes note of their ‘mental limitations’ as both follow what is in fashion, and have no care for the world around them. Felix advises him to not to loose his morality and thought. Angel begins looking for the gifts he brought for the family from Mrs Crick, the dairyman’s wife, and notices they have gave away the puddings and put the mead in the medicine cabinet, as they don’t drink alcohol. Angel feels ashamed of his family’s stiffness.
26- What does Mrs Clare interupt Reverend Clare to ask Angel?
She interupts to ask about Tess’ family, in which Angel replies that whilst she isn’t a ‘Lady’, she has Christian faith
27- What does Angel ask Tess in this chapter and h ow does Tess react?
- He asks her to marry him, but does so through logical terms of her being a farmer’s wife.
-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.
28- What experience occurs as a encompassing moment of Tess’ pain due to Victorian societal pressures?
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.
30- What is Tess’ answer to Angel’s proposal and what are the ramifications of it?
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.
