Tess of the D

1
Tess of the DUrbervilles

• Lecture 4
• Phase the First The Maiden
• (Chaps 7 11)

2
To what extent can Tesss plight be attributed to
the following factors? By what means does Hardy
show this?

• Factors leading to Tesss downfall
• Gender relations male-female female-female
• Tesss personality
• Coincidence / fate
• Literary methods
• Imagery (symbolism, metaphor)
• Setting
• Narrative voice and perspective

3
Gender

• Angel, Alec, Mrs Durbeyfield, and the Trantridge
  women construct Tess in particular ways that
  entrap her in stereotypical roles as defined by
  an intersection of class and gender expectations
• Hardy shows these different gender constructs
  through the use of shifting narrative
  perspectives (mediated by the 3rd person
  omniscient narrator)

4
Male-female relations

• Alec and Angel arrive at contrasting
  interpretations of Tesss personality, in
  response to the image of her in the white muslin
  dress she wears at the May-Day dance
• Angels viewpoint Tess is a white shape among
  a troop of country hoydens, albeit a pretty
  maiden who is modest, expressive, soft ?
  ie. Woman as Madonna (Ch 2, p.18)
• Angels silent acceptance of his brothers
  judgement (dancing in public with a troop of
  country hoydens) makes his first encounter with
  Tess a non-encounter, because he is unable at
  that point to see Tess as anything more than a
  country girl to be dismissed from his mind.

5
Male-female relations

• Alecs viewpoint Tess is a farm girl whose
  position as poor relation can be used to obtain
  / force her sexual surrender without the
  necessity for love or marriage
• Alec constructs Tess as an object of male desire,
  using stereotypical props like strawberries and
  roses (Ch 5)
• Alec typecasts Tess based on his understanding of
  the sexual ethics of her class assumes her
  sexual availability ? Woman as Whore
• You are mighty sensitive for a farm girl! (Ch
  8, p.56)

6
Male-female relations

• The relationship between Tess and Alec involves
  an unequal balance of power that is rooted in
  class, economic and gender differences
• Alec characterised as a stock villain (the
  moustachioed seducer of Victorian melodrama)
• an almost swarthy complexion, with full lips,
  badly moulded, though red and smooth a
  well-groomed black moustache with curled points
  touches of barbarism in his contours singular
  force bold rolling eye (Ch 5, p.40)

7
Male-female relations

• Often presented on horseback or driving a
  carriage / cart symbolic representation of his
  position of power control over Tess.
• Eg. the dog-cart ride shows Alecs mastery of the
  mare - If any living man can manage this horse
  I can it was evident that the horse, whether
  of her own will or of his (the latter being the
  more likely) knew so well the reckless
  performance expected of her that she hardly
  required a hint from behind. (Ch 8, p.54)
• Compare with Geralds taming of the mare in WIL
• Eg. on the horseride through The Chase
  immediately before the rape / seduction scene,
  Alecs literal manipulation of their route
  mirrors his manipulation and emotional blackmail
  of Tess

8
Male-female relations

• Hardy shows how patriarchal power is asserted in
  various ways verbally, economically, sexually.
• Verbally seen in the way Alec assigns her
  different names which define her identity and her
  relationship with him
• my Beauty (Ch 5), my pretty Coz, Durbeyfield
  only, you know quite another name, Miss
  Independence (Ch 10) NB use of possessive
  pronoun

9
Male-female relations

• Economically Alec uses his position as Tesss
  de facto employer to get close to her tries to
  buy her affection with gifts for her family.
• It was in the economy of this regime that Tess
  Durbeyfield had undertaken to fill a place A
  familiarity with Alec DUrbervilles presence
  which the young man carefully cultivated But she
  was more pliable under his hands than a mere
  companionship would have made her, owing to her
  unavoidable dependence upon his mother, and,
  through that ladys comparative helplessness,
  upon him. (Ch 9, p.62)

10
Male-female relations

• Sexually Hardy builds up the narrative tension
  through the progressive escalation of Alecs
  sexual advances.
• Tesss resistance becomes gradually more muted
  from her spirited, strategic resistance during
  the first journey to Trantridge, to her silences
  during the horseride through The Chase.
• He was inexorable, and she sat still, and
  DUrberville gave her the kiss of mastery. (Ch
  8, p.56)
• Sentence structure (parallel clauses) highlights
  the contrast between Alecs sexual aggression and
  Tesss passivity

11
Male-female relations

• Use of animal imagery
• Symbolic significance of the caged bullfinches
  (Ch 9)
• Ironically, like the bullfinches, Tess is trapped
  by her situation, even during the times when it
  appears that her captors are looking out for her
  welfare
• Compare and contrast with the images of the caged
  hawk in WIL bullfinches can be tamed and
  managed, while hawks are untameable birds of prey

12
Male-female relations

• Symbolic significance of the community of fowls
  Tess is entrusted with (Ch 9, p.58)
• Domestication of these hens and cocks mirrors the
  domestication that Tess gradually undergoes under
  Alecs careful cultivation of her acquaintance

13
Female-female relations

• Social reproduction of gender roles in the
  mother-daughter relationship
• she ought to make her way with en, 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? No, stupid her face as twas mine.
  (Ch 7, p.53)
• Enacted when Mrs D dresses up Tess in a way that
  might cause her to be estimated as a woman when
  she was not much more than a child (Ch 7, p.49)

14
Female-female relations

• Sexual rivalry that contributes to Tesss fall
• Imagery of war suggests a power struggle between
  Tess and the other women
• No genuine female solidarity united against
  the common enemy (ie Tess), and the mens
  attempt to make peace only serves directly to
  increase the war. (Ch 10, p.67)
• Tesss decision to accept Alecs help is partly
  motivated by fear and indignation at these
  adversaries that she knows could be
  transformed into a triumph over them (Ch. 10,
  p.68)

15
Coincidence / fate

• Princes death functions as an ominous double
  foreshadowing of
• a) the Chase scene
• b) Tesss murder of Alec
• Parallels in plot patterns, imagery / symbolism
• Parallels suggest that events are caused by
  fate, but the actual plot mechanics are largely
  driven by coincidence

16
The Chase scene

• The central ambivalence in the novel (Kristin
  Brady)
• Enormous implications for the question of Tesss
  purity and culpability

17
The Chase scene

• A continuation and intensification of the
  relationship dynamic established at their first
  meeting a mixture of resistance and passivity
• Note Tesss silences (eg. p. 69 She did not
  reply, She was silent) ? ambiguity
• In contrast Alecs active manipulation of the
  situation prolonging the horseride, telling her
  about his gifts to her family, the well-known
  cordial

18
The Chase scene

• Ambivalence in Tesss response
• still panting in her triumph, yet in other
  respects dubious (Ch 11, p.69)
• between archness and real dismay (Ch 11, p.71)
• Tesss apparent receptivity suggested in
  imagery and descriptive language
• She passively sat down on the coat that he had
  spread He touched her with his fingers, which
  sank into her as into a billow (Ch 11, p.72)

19
The Chase scene

• Use of setting
• The Chase represents a pagan past in which
  conventional codes of morality do not apply
• The darkness silence mirrors the narrative
  silence about what really happens
• The fog literally and figuratively obscures
  events, creates a sense of ambiguity

20
The Chase scene

• Intrusive narrator
• Defends Tess mitigating circumstances (eg.
  p.70 She was inexpressibly weary.)
• Insistent rhetorical questions that are strongly
  suggestive of Tesss innocence
• Alternative scenarios projected accentuate the
  sense of waste and what could have been
• Closing comments impose an interpretation on the
  reader ? Tess is undone by unjust social
  prejudices regarding female sexuality