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Tess of the D

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Title: Tess of the D


1
Tess of the DUrbervilles A Book of Symbols
2
Landscape
  • Thus Tess walks on a figure which is part of
    the landscape (220).

3
Blakemore
  • Hardys description?
  • The village of Marlott lay amid the
    north-eastern undulations of the beautiful Vale
    of Blakemore or Blackmore aforesaidan engirdled
    and secluded region, for the most part untrodden
    as yet by tourist and landscape-painter . . .
    fertile and sheltered . . . (5).

4
May Day Dance
(Blakemore, cont.)
  • What is May Day all about?
  • A ritual celebrating the fertility of nature
  • White dresses
  • Flowers
  • May pole or wands
  • Red ribbon

5
The Slopes
  • Hardys description?
  • A country-house built for enjoyment pure and
    simple, with not an acre of troublesome land
    attached to it . . . The house proper stood in
    full view. It was of recent erection, indeed
    almost new, and of the same rich red colour . . .
    Everything looked like moneylike the last coin
    issued from the Mint (26-27).

6
Early or Forced Strawberries
(The Slopes, cont.)
  • He conducted her about the lawns, and
    flower-beds, . . . And green-houses, where he
    asked her if she liked strawberries.
  • Yes, said Tess. When they come.
  • They are already here. DUrberville begn
    gathering specimens of the fruit for her . . . A
    specially fine product of the British Queen
    variety he stood up and held it by the stem to
    her mouth.
  • No, no! she said quickly, putting her fingers
    between his hand and her lips. I would rather
    take it in my own hand. (29)

7
The Chase
  • Setting in relation to Alecs home?
  • Far behind the corner of the house . . .
    Stretched . . . The Chasea truly venerable tract
    of forest land one of the few remaining
    woodlands in England of undoubted primaeval date,
    wherein Druidical mistletoe was still found on
    aged oaks, and where enormous yew-trees, not
    planted by the hand of man, grew as they had
    grown when they were pollarded for bows. All this
    sylvan antiquity however, though visible from The
    Slopes, was outside the immediate boundaries of
    the estate (26).
  • . . . Darkness and silence ruled everywhere
    around
  • What might this place symbolize?

8
Talbothays Dairy in Froome Valley
  • Not quite sure of her direction Tess stood still
    upon the hemmed expanse of verdant flatness . . .
    The red and white herd nearest at hand . . . Now
    trooped towards the steading, their great bags of
    milk swinging under them as they walked. Tess
    followed slowly in their rear (82)

9
Paradise
(Talbothays, cont.)
  • Being so oftenpossibly not always by chancethe
    first two persons to get up at the dairy-house,
    they seemed to themselves the first persons up of
    all the world. . . . The spectral,
    half-compounded, aqueous light which pervaded the
    open mead impressed them with a felling of
    isolation, as if they were Adam and Eve (102)
  • her eyes son lifted, and his plumbed the
    deepness of the ever-varying pupils, and their
    radiating fibrils of blue, and black, and grey,
    and violet, while she regarded him as Eve at her
    second waking might have regarded Adam (133).

10
Tesss Mouth
(Talbothays, cont.)
  • Her mouth he had seen nothing to equal on the
    face of the earth . . . No they were not
    perfect. And it was the touch of the imperfect
    upon the would-be perfect that gave the
    sweetness, because it was that which gave the
    humanity (118).

11
Angel and Alec Literary Foils
Talbothays, cont.
  • Differences
  • Berry picking, carriage manners
  • courtesy vs. force
  • Angel and Devil?
  • Similarities
  • Both pursue Tess, struggle with faith
  • Both change because of Tess
  • Role Reversal Alec becomes Protector
  • Angel deserts her

12
Flintcomb-Ash
  • Hardys description?
  • Every leaf of the turnips having already been
    consumed the whole field was in colour a desolate
    drab it was a complexion without features, as if
    a face from chin to brow should be only an
    expanse of skin. The sky wore, in another colour,
    the same likeness a white vacuity of countenance
    with the lineaments gone. So these two upper and
    nether visages confronted each other, all day
    long the white face looking down on the brown
    face, and the brown face looking up at the white
    face, without anything standing between them but
    the two girls crawling over the surface of the
    former like flies (223-24).

13
The Machine
(Flintcomb-Ash, cont.)
  • Maltese cross of the reaping-machine (68), the
    Red Tyrant, blue turnip slicer, thresher,
    buzzing red glutton (262)
  • 19th century industrialization exploits the
    countryside and the past just like Alec exploits
    Tess I was you master once . . .
  • Machine repository of force
  • The sun seems to approve from the west sky a
    wrathful shine . . . burst forth (262).
  • Machine Natural force Alec (a ticking like
    the love-making of the grasshopper-68)

14
Stonehenge
  • Why this?
  • Tess, really tired by this time, flung herself
    upon an oblong slab that lay close at hand, and
    was sheltered from the wind by a pillar. Owing to
    the action of the sun during the preceding day,
    the stone was warm and dry. . . I dont want to
    go any further, Angel (310).
  • Did they sacrifice to God
  • here? asked she.
  • No, said he.
  • Who to?
  • I believe to the sun (311).

15
Symbolism of the Sun Natures Plan for Tess
(Stonehenge, cont.)
  • The sun
  • lit up their figures at dance (6)
  • absorbed the young strangers retreating figure
    (10)
  • makes Princes hooves sparkle (23)
  • is a godlike creature gazing down on earth with
    a curious . . . personal look (67)
  • stretches Tesss and Angels shadows a quarter of
    a mile (152)
  • sets a spot like a paint-mark on Tesss skirt
    during honeymoon (171)
  • receives sacrifice at Stonehenge (311)

16
Tesss Journey of Faith
  • Early in life, she loses her Angel
  • on this blighted planet.
  • Is tempted and falls.


17
Tess Challenges Christianitys Rules
(Tesss Journey of Faith, cont.)
  • I dont believe God said such things.
  • Becomes a priestess for her innocent child.
  • Wonders why the sun do shine on the just and the
    unjust alike (99).

18
(Tesss Journey of Faith, cont.)
  • Meets an Angel in the fallen gardenfinds a new
    Eden at Talbothays Dairy and a new religion
    LOVE. For a few perfect months, they live as if
    they were Adam and Eve (102).
  • There was hardly a touch of earth in her love
    for Clare (151).
  • Tesss Angel falls (as all humans do) Tesss
    faith in LOVE is tested.
  • Again she is tempted--A jester might say that
    this is just like paradise. You are Eve, and I am
    the old other one come to tempt you (275)--in
    returning to Alec, she denies her faith in LOVE.
  • Tess is able to slay the evil force in her life
    and regains her Eden, but in the process she
    becomes a sacrificial victim to LOVE.

19
(Tesss Journey of Faith, cont.)
  • Tess believes love is redemptive Tell me now,
    Angel do you think we shall meet again after we
    are dead? . . . Whatnot even you and I Angel,
    who love each other so well? (311)
  • Ironically, Angel condemned Tess for her
    imperfection, but she is the Christ figure of the
    story, acting out love, forgiveness, and a higher
    justice.
  • She would have laid down her life for ee.
  • No man hath greater love than thisthan to lay
    down his life for a friend. John 1513

20
Tess A Christ Figure?I am ready.
(Tesss Journey of Faith, cont.)
  • Two persons were walking rapidly . . . With bowed
    heads, which . . . The suns rays smiled on
    pitilessly. . . . They moved on hand in hand, and
    never spoke a word, the dropping of their heads
    being that of Giottos Two Apostles (313)

21
Sources for Images
  • Virtual tour of settings http//www2.sisu.edu/dep
    ts/ english/Tess1.htm
  • http//justinewaddell.ourfamily.com/gallery.htm
  • http//www.aande.com/tv/shows/tess/

22
Leftover Stuff Follows
23
  • A large shadow of her shape rose upon the wall
    and ceiling. She bent forward, at which each
    diamond on her neck gave a sinister wink like a
    toads (177).

24
Too late, too late
25
I have done itI dont know how
  • I will not desert you I will protect you by
    every means in my power, dearest love, whatever
    you may have done or not have done! (304)

26
Ah, happy housegood-bye!
  • Why should we put an end to all thats sweet and
    lovely! . . . All is trouble outside there
    inside here content (308).
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