Tess Of the D'Urbervilles Quotes

Question 1

“peony mouth”

Answer 1

Phase 1: the maiden
Chapter 2

Innocence and purity, Tess blends in eight he vale around her.

Question 2

“When they were together the Jacobean and Victorian are juxtaposed”

Answer 2

Phase 1: the maiden
Chapter 3

Unity of Time, shows how modern Tess is in her own home.

Question 3

“blighted one”

Answer 3

Phase 1: the maiden
Chapter 4

Linking to fate and foreshadowing, shoes how cynical Tess is and that she understands the situation she is in

Question 4

“like a sword”

Answer 4

Phase 1: the maiden
Chapter 4

Symbolic, a noble death for a Prince. Foreshadowing Tess’ death

Question 5

“nobody blames Tess like she blames herself.”

Answer 5

Phase 1: the maiden
Chapter 4

Tess is the most responsible in her family.

Question 6

“breadwinner”

Answer 6

Phase 1: the maiden
Chapter 4

The horse is the person who generates money, not the father. Context

Question 7

“full lips, badly moulded”

Answer 7

Phase 1: the maiden
Chapter 5

Contrasts Tess’ mouth, suggesting he more experienced and has darker intentions.

Question 8

“thus the thing began.”

Answer 8

Phase 1: the maiden
Chapter 5

Link to fate, foreshadowing what will happen between Alec and Tess.

Question 9

“not the first mother compelled to love her offspring resentfully.”

Answer 9

Phase 1: the maiden
Chapter 9

Context, morals and beliefs in Victorian society.

Question 10

“owing to this fog, which so disguises everything.”

Answer 10

Phase 1: the maiden
Chapter 11

Pathetic fallacy, the fog hides the evil of the rape.

Question 11

“it was to be.”

Answer 11

Phase 1: the maiden
Chapter 11

Links to fate, the idea that it is inevitable Tess would get raped.

Question 12

“T’is mater, after all, and what do please God.”

Answer 12

Phase 2: Maiden no more
Chapter 12

Link to fate, the idea her rape was a will from God. Context of lower class girls.

Question 13

“she looked upon herself as a figure of Guilt intruding into the haunts of Innocence.”

Answer 13

Phase 2: Maiden no more
Chapter 13

Metaphor showing how Tess feels out of place in her home.

Question 14

“they did not blame her.”

Answer 14

Phase 3: the Rally
Chapter 23

Glimmer for hope for Tess as she realises people don’t always blame her.

Question 15

“her eyes open, yet unseeing.”

Answer 15

Phase 3: the Rally
Chapter 24

Metaphor showing how after all that has happens, she is still naive.

Question 16

“the impressionable peasant leads to larger, fuller, more dramatic life than the pachydermatous King.”

Answer 16

Phase 4: the Consequence
Chapter 25

Link to tragic hero and whether the common man is more fitting.

Question 17

“her ripe mouth tragical”

Answer 17

Phase 4: the Consequence
Chapter 27

Contrasts the initial description of her mouth, showing how much she has gone through.

Question 18

“society is hopelessly snobbish.”

Answer 18

Phase 4: the Consequence
Chapter 30

Context to Victorian society and how they were obsessed with status and reputation.

Question 19

“she accordingly drifted into passive responsiveness to all things her lover suggested”

Answer 19

Phase 4: the Consequence
Chapter 32

Context, women were very submissive to their husbands in Victorian society.

Question 20

“Elizabethan bridge.”

Answer 20

Phase 4: the Consequence
Chapter 34

Unity of Time, the couple are travelling to a less modernised place.

Question 21

“quick tempered.”

Answer 21

Phase 5: the Woman Pays
Chapter 36

An example of her hamartia.

Question 22

“like the majority of women, she accepted the momentary presentment as if it were the inevitable.”

Answer 22

Phase 5: the Woman Pays
Chapter 36

Hardy is suggesting women believe everything happens because of fate.

Question 23

“Gods not in his heaven; all’s wrong with the world.”

Answer 23

Phase 5: the Woman Pays
Chapter 37

Linking fate to God, and how his absence creates disorder.

Question 24

“he was incensed against his fate.”

Answer 24

Phase 5: the Woman Pays
Chapter 40

Angel doesn’t understand why fate had given him an impure girl.

Question 25

“no railway had climbed as yet”.

Answer 25

Phase 5: the Woman Pays
Chapter 44

Flintcomb-Ash is an isolated area untouched by the Industrial Revolution.

Question 26

“that’s just like you women. Your mind is enslaved to his.”

Answer 26

Phase 6: the Convert
Chapter 46

Linking to fate and a Victorian woman’s morals.

Question 27

“once a victim, always a victim - that’s the law.”

Answer 27

Phase 6: the Convert
Chapter 47

Foreshadowing her death, also referring to unspoken rules of Victorian society.

Question 28

“Tess had descended with such hopes and ascended with such shattered purposes.”

Answer 28

Phase 7: fulfilment
Chapter 54

Summarising the metaphor of the landscape in Hardy’s Wessex and how it foreshadows what will happen in each location.

Question 29

“Ixionian wheel”

Answer 29

Phase 7: fulfilment
Chapter 56

Unity of Time. Ixion was a wrongdoer condemned by the Gods to be chained to wheel which would spin forever. Maybe how Tess feels / is portrayed and linking to the Wheel of Fortune.

Question 30

“older than the centuries; older than the d’Urbervilles.”

Answer 30

Phase 7: fulfilment
Chapter 58

Unity of Time, suggesting there are more important things before her ancestors.

Question 31

“the President of the Immortals had ended his sport with Tess.”

Answer 31

Phase 7: fulfilment
Chapter 59

Tess’ fate finally caught up with her, and she is finally at peace.