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.
