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Title: Lecture 3 Tess of the d


1
Lecture 3 Tess of the dUrbervilles
  • Why didnt you tell me there was danger in
    men-folk?

2
Lecture Focus
  • Chance and Coincidence
  • Structure in relation to its Phases
  • Setting and Season
  • Symbolism 1 Pervasiveness of colour Red
  • Symbolism 2 Symbolical significance of the Fog
  • Critically significant instances of Irony in
    Chapter 5 and Chapter 7

3
Chance and Coincidence
  • Chance and coincidence have become one of the
    primary motions of the universe
  • (At the same time, Hardy could not help seeing
    human life and Nature in more conventional ways)
  • Re- Choice, responsibility, and freedom

4
Life at the Mercy of Chance
  • Hardy manipulates the events in the lives of his
    characters so that it will be plain
  • that human life is at the mercy of chance
  • and the most arbitrary of circumstances
  • He engages his characters in the most incredible
    conjunctions of unfortunate incidents

5
Structure of the novel and Phases
  • Hardy uses the word phase to describe the
    stages of Tesss life
  • Connotations of the word, Phase?
  • Normally associated with the waxing and waning of
    the moon
  • Phases of the moon from its first appearance as
    a slender crescent to fullness and then to its
    broken appearance as it comes to the end of its
    cycle

6
Phases / Cycles of the Moon and stages of
Womanhood
  • Traditionally, these phases of the moon connote /
    have been associated with the major stages of the
    life of a woman
  • (1)Maiden, (2) Wife, (3) Old Woman
  • The first two phases The Maiden and Maiden No
    More symbolically represent the first stage of
    Tesss life, as maiden.

7
  • The next three stages
  • The Rally The Consequence and The Woman
    Pays
  • represent the second, that of a wife
  • The last two phases
  • The Convert and Fulfillment
  • represent her decline

8
Philosophical Asides
  • Along the way of the narrative in its structured
    phases from 1 to 7
  • We have, along side the narrative, Hardys
    Philosophical Asides or philosophical
    broodings, or brooding, bleak, ironic reflective,
    philosophical commentaries
  • Part of his reaction as observer of the action
  • Perception and reflection kept separate

9
Setting and Season
  • Tess and her family live in the village of
    Marlott village in the Vale of Blackmore
  • Tess meets Angel Clare in Talbothays in the
    Valley of the Great Dairies
  • Flintcomb Ash is where she spends the winter,
    abandoned by Clare
  • Each setting supports the mood of the action
    which takes place there

10
Literary Purpose of Landscape
  • These landscapes have a literary purpose
  • Each provides the frame and background for the
    phases / stages in Tesss life
  • Which take her farther and farther away from the
    more safe and secure shelter of her home in
    Marlott
  • Hardy thus uses setting / landscape, and season
    in a symbolically suggestive way

11
From Chapter 16 The Vale of Little Dairies and
Blackmoor Vale
  • The Vale of Blackmoor is portrayed as static,
    unchanging, luxuriantly beautiful.
  • There the water-flower was the lily, the
    crowfoot here.
  • Referring to the clear, rapid waters of the river
    Froom
  • The symbol of the Valley of Blackmoor is the
    lily, symbolizing Tesss purity, and innocence

12
Chapter 5 Chance, and Joans blissful ignorance
  • We must take the ups wi the downs, Tess, said
    she
  • and never could your high blood have been found
    out at a more called-for moment.

13
Different Parents points of view in Hardys TD
Lawrences WL
  • I dont like my children going and making
    themselves beholden to strange kin. Ch 5
  • I dont quite like my children going away from
    home, said the haggler. As the head of the
    family, the rest ought to come to me.
  • But do let her go, Jacky,
  • Hes struck wi heryou can see that. He called
    her Coz! Hell marry her, most likely, and make a
    lady of her, and then shell be what her
    forefathers was. Chapter 6
  • Will Brangwen (father of Ursula and Gudrun) to
    Rupert Birkin in Chapter 19. Moony
  • But Id rather see my daughters dead to-morrow
    than that they should be at the beck and call of
    the first man that likes to come and whistle for
    them.
  • They have got themselves to please, and if they
    can help it theyll please nobody but themselves.

14
The colour Red and its Symbolical Suggestiveness
  • For an artist as visually sensitive as Hardy,
    Colour is of great critical significance.
  • One colour in particular strikingly catches our
    eyes throughout the entire novel
  • The colour, RED.
  • Colour of blood
  • Connotations?
  • Associated with beauty, passion, sex, violence,
    rage, destruction, and death

15
  • In one set of circumstances, blood and the
    spilling of blood can mean
    sexual passion and the creation of
    life
  • In another, blood and spilling of blood can mean
    murderous passion
    and death.
  • After the death of Prince, Chapter 4 Tess is
    constantly encountering the colour red.
  • When she approaches the dUrberville house, we
    read

16
The colour Red and its Symbolical
Suggestiveness Chapter 5
  • The crimson brick lodge came first in sight, up
    to its eaves in dense evergreens
  • It was of recent erectionindeed almost newand
    of the same rich, red colour that formed such a
    contrast with the evergreens of the lodge.

17
  • Mysteriously, inevitably, this house will play a
    part in Tesss destiny
  • For this red house contains her future rapist,
  • And another red house later on contains her final
    executioner, where she is hanged
  • Red is symbolically suggestive the red marks
    the houses of sex and death

18
Middle of Chapter 5
  • He Alec had an almost swarthy complexion, with
    full lips, badly moulded, though red and smooth
  • Despite the touches of barbarism in his contours
  • Tesss sense of a certain ludicrousness in her
    errand was now so strong
  • And her general discomfort at being here, her red
    rosy lips curved towards a smile much to the
    attraction of the swarthy Alexander

19
Chapter 5
  • Tess wished to abridge her visit as much as
    possible but the young man was pressing, and she
    consented to accompany him. He conducted her
    about the lawns, and flower-beds, and
    conservatories and thence to the fruit-garden
    and green-houses, where he asked her if she liked
    strawberries.
  • Yes, said Tess, when they come.

20
From Chapter 5
  • They are already here. DUrberville began
    gathering specimens of the fruit for her, handing
    them back to her as he stooped and, presently,
    selecting a specially fine product of the
    British Queen variety, he stood up and held it
    by the stem to her mouth.
  • Nono! she said quickly, putting her fingers
    between her hands and her lips. I would rather
    take it in my own hand.
  • Nonsense! he insisted and in a slight distress
    she parted her lips and took it in.

21
Chapter 10 Saturday Night Disco
  • A good laugh from behind Tesss back, in the
    shade of the garden, united with the titter
    within the room. She looked round, and saw the
    red coal of a cigar Alec dUrberville
    was standing there alone. He beckoned to her, and
    she reluctantly retreated towards him.
  • Well, my Beauty,
  • what are you doing here?

22
Omniscient Narrators Voice and IRONY Chapter 5
  • Parson Tringham had spoken truly when he said
    that our shambling John Durbeyfield was the only
    really lineal representative of the old
    dUrberville family existing in the country, or
    near it
  • he might have added, what he knew very well, that
    the Stoke-dUrbervilles were no more
    dUrbervilles of the true tree than he was
    himself.

23
Simon Stoke (merchant) and Stoke-dUrbervilles
Chapter 5
  • Conning for an hour in the British Museum the
    pages and works devoted to extinct, half-extinct,
    obscured, and ruined families appertaining to the
    quarter of England in which he proposed to
    settle, he Simon considered that dUrberville
    looked and sounded as well as of them and
    dUrberville was annexed to his own name for
    himself and his heirs eternally.

24
Name, Fortune, and Nature Ch 5
  • Of this work of the imagination poor Tess and
    her parents were naturally in ignorancemuch to
    their discomfiture
  • indeed, the very possibility of such annexations
    was unknown to them
  • who supposed that, though to be well-favoured
    might be the gift of fortune, a family name came
    by nature.

25
A little later in Chapter 5 we read
  • Alec
  • But, Tess, no nonsense about dUrbervilleDur
    beyfield only, you knowquite another name.
  • Tess
  • I wish for no better, sir, said she with
    something of dignity.

26
End of Chapter 7 Further Irony
  • Joan Durbeyfield always managed to find
    consolation somewhere
  • Well, as one of the genuine stock, she ought to
    make her way with en, even if she plays her
    trump card aright. And if he dont marry her
    afore he will after. For that hes all afire wi
    love for her any eye can see.
  • Whats her trump card? Her dUrberville blood,
    you mean?
  • No stupid her faceas twas mine

27
Additional Symbolism The Fog Chapter 11
  • She was silent, and the horse ambled along for a
    considerable distance, till a faint luminous fog,
    which had hung in the hollows all the evening,
    became general and enveloped them. It seemed to
    hold the moonlight in suspension, rendering it
    more pervasive than in clear air.

28
  • You cannot walk home darling, even if the air
    were clear. We are miles away from Trantridge, if
    I must tell you, and in this growing fog you
    might wander for hours among these trees.
  • As to your getting to Trantridge without
    assistance, it is quite impossible for, to tell
    the truth, dear, owing to this fog, which so
    disguises everything, I dont quite know where we
    are myself.

29
  • He Alec touched her with his fingers, which
    sank into her as into down. You have only
    that puffy muslin dress onhows that?
  • by this time the moon had quite gone down, and
    partly on account of the fog The Chase was
    wrapped in thick darkness, although morning was
    not far off.

30
Narrators Philosophical Aside and Tone End of
Phase the First
  • Darkness and silence ruled everywhere around.
    Above them rose the primeval yews and oaks of The
    Chase,
  • But, might some say, where was Tesss guardian
    angel? Where was the providence of her simple
    faith? Perhaps, like that other god of whom the
    ironical Tishbite spoke, he was talking, or he
    was pursuing, or he was in a journey, or he was
    sleeping and not to be awaked.
    Echoes a text
    from Kings in the Bible

31
Explanation of Biblical Allusion
  • The narrator is referring to the Hebrew prophet
    Elijah, who chides Ahabs people for worshipping
    a false god (Baal) and mocks them when
    their god fails to produce fire upon their
    request
  • Cry aloud for he is a god either he is
    talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a
    journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be
    awaked. (1 Kings 1827)

32
Follow up Tutorial on TD
  • Assignment matters
  • Use of Symbolism
  • Reading Dialogue and Subtext

33
Assignment Questions based on the death of Prince
episode Ch 4
  • Discuss the effects of the writing in this
    passage, showing how far and in what ways the
    novels characteristic methods and concerns are
    evident here.
  • OR
  • Discuss the effects of the writing in this
    passage, considering the critical significance of
    the episode described here in your reading of the
    novel as a whole.

34
Analysis of Question
  • Discuss the intended effects of the writing
    (diction, syntax, imagery, symbolism, narrative
    method, use of dialogue etc) in this passage
  • Showing how far to what extent
  • And also in what ways techniques used
  • The novels characteristic methods
  • And characteristic concerns
  • Are evident here in this passage

35
  • Essay Introductory paragraph
  • Must state thesis
  • For a literature essay
  • The central framework of ideas

36
  • Topic sentence (central idea)
  • Selected quotation / illustration
  • Analysis of quotation(s)
  • Conclusion of paragraph
  • NB Conclude with a statement showing the
    relevance (how it is linked) to the controlling
    idea(s) of your essay

37
Abraham looking up at the stars
  • He leant back against the hives, and with
    upturned face made observations on the stars,
    whose cold pulses were beating amid the black
    hollows above, in serene dissociation from these
    two wisps of human life. He asked how far away
    those twinklers were, and whether God was on the
    other side of them.

38
Interpretative Analysis Stylistic Analysis
  • Diction
  • The renewed subject, which seemed to have
    impregnated the whole family, filled Tess with
    impatience.
  • The mute procession ltpast her shouldersgt of trees
    and hedges became attached to fantastic scenes
    ltoutside reality,gt and the occasional heave of
    the wind became the sigh of some immense sad
    soul, conterminous with the universe in space,
    and with history in time.

39
  • Then, examining the mesh of events in her own
    life, she seemed to see 1) the vanity in her
    fathers pride, 2) the gentlemanly suitor
    awaiting herself in her mothers fancy to see
    him as a grimacing personage, laughing at her
    poverty, and her shrouded knightly ancestry.
    Everything grew more and more extravagant, and
    she no longer knew how time passed.

40
Reading Dialogue in the novel
  • Reading and hearing voices in Dialogue?
    (spoken language)
  • Like eavesdropping on a conversation taking place
    among strangers
  • Is the conversation engaging?
  • When we humans speak, we are not merely
    communicating information,
  • but attempting to make an impression, and achieve
    a goal.

41
Dialogue and Subtext
  • And sometimes we are hoping to prevent the
    listener from noticing what we are not saying,
  • Which is often not merely distracting but,
  • We fear, as audible (hearable) as what we
    really are saying.
  • As a result, dialogue usually contains as much or
    even more subtext than it does text. More is
    going on under the surface

42
Dialogue Hardys tender sensitivity to the human
voice
  • Did you say the stars were worlds, Tess?
  • Yes.
  • All like ours?
  • I dont know but I THINK so. They sometimes
    SEEM to be like the apples on our stubbard-tree.
    Most of them splendid and sounda few blighted.
  • Which do we live ona splendid one or a blighted
    one?

43
More Dialogue
  • You was on the wrong side, he said. I am bound
    to go on with the mail-bags, so that the best
    thing for you to do is to bide here with your
    load. Ill send somebody to help you as soon as I
    can. It is getting daylight, and you have nothing
    to fear.
  • Tis because we be on a blighted star, and not a
    sound one, isnt it, Tess? murmured Abraham
    through his tears.

44
  • Mesh a fine network of small holes and threads
  • I find Hardys imagery to be very suitably and
    effectively chosen. For example in the sentence,
    Then examining the mesh of events in her own
    life The word mesh is very apt in this
    instance because it makes the reader see more
    graphically and vividly and indeed appreciate the
    extent to which Tess is entangled, caught up by
    the criss-crossing of various, all-coming-to-the-
    fore events that are affecting her life, and the
    way these are presented to her consciousness in
    those moments of reflection.

45
Fog as symbol
  • Fog standardly is suggestive of some sort of
    confusion
  • Authors tend to use fog to symbolically suggest
  • That a person / people cannot see clearly
  • That matters under consideration are somehow
    murky

46
  • Suggestive of sexual impropriety
  • Haze suggestive of the passions of pagan nature
  • The darkness that contributed to the loss of the
    family horse
  • Symbolically suggestive of the darkness that
    shrouds Alecs conquest of Tess

47
  • On the night of the rape episode at the dance,
    everything is in a mist like illuminated
    smoke
  • There is a floating, fusty debris of peat and
    hay stirred up as the panting shapes spun
    onwards.
  • Everything together seems to form a sort of
    vegeto-human pollen.

48
  • The implication being that it becomes part of a
    basic natural process
  • in which Tess is caught up simply by being alive,
    fecund, and female.
  • DUrberville is that figure, that force, at the
    heart of the haze, the mist, the smoke,
  • waiting to claim her when the dance catches her
    up.

49
  • What happens to Tess is a continuation of this
    blurred narcotic, foggy atmosphere
  • Hardy has the rape take place in a dense fog,
    while Tess is in a deep sleep.
  • Her consciousness and perception are alike
    engulfed, blinded, and obliterated in this veil
    of confusion.
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