Title: Tess of the D
1Tess of the DUrbervilles A Book of Symbols
2Landscape
- Thus Tess walks on a figure which is part of
the landscape (220).
3Blakemore
- 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
5The 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).
6Early 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)
7The 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?
8Talbothays 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)
9Paradise
(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).
10Tesss 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).
11Angel 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
12Flintcomb-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)
14Stonehenge
- 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).
15Symbolism 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)
16Tesss Journey of Faith
- Early in life, she loses her Angel
- on this blighted planet.
- Is tempted and falls.
17Tess 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
20Tess 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)
21Sources 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/
22Leftover 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).
24Too late, too late
25I 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)
26Ah, happy housegood-bye!
- Why should we put an end to all thats sweet and
lovely! . . . All is trouble outside there
inside here content (308).