Tess of the D’Urbervilles

Tess of the D’Urbervilles Lecture 4 Phase the First – The Maiden (Chaps 7 – 11)

To what extent can Tess’s plight be attributed to the following factors? By what means does Hardy show this? Factors leading to Tess’s downfall: • Gender relations – male-female & female-female • Tess’s personality • Coincidence / fate Literary methods • Imagery (symbolism, metaphor) • Setting • Narrative voice and perspective

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)

Male-female relations • Alec and Angel arrive at contrasting interpretations of Tess’s personality, in response to the image of her in the white muslin dress she wears at the May-Day dance • Angel’s 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) • Angel’s 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.

Male-female relations • Alec’s 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)

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)

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 Alec’s 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 Gerald’s taming of the mare in WIL • Eg. on the horseride through The Chase immediately before the rape / seduction scene, Alec’s literal manipulation of their route mirrors his manipulation and emotional blackmail of Tess

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

Male-female relations • Economically – Alec uses his position as Tess’s 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 D’Urberville’s 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 lady’s comparative helplessness, upon him.’ (Ch 9, p.62)

Male-female relations • Sexually – Hardy builds up the narrative tension through the progressive escalation of Alec’s sexual advances. • Tess’s 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 D’Urberville gave her the kiss of mastery.’ (Ch 8, p.56) • Sentence structure (parallel clauses) highlights the contrast between Alec’s sexual aggression and Tess’s passivity

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

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 Alec’s careful cultivation of her acquaintance

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 don’t marry her afore he will after. For that he’s all afire wi’ love for her any eye can see.” “What’s her trump card? Her D’Urberville 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)

Female-female relations • Sexual rivalry that contributes to Tess’s 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 men’s attempt to ‘make peace’ only serves ‘directly to increase the war.’ (Ch 10, p.67) • Tess’s decision to accept Alec’s 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)

Coincidence / fate • Prince’s death functions as an ominous double foreshadowing of a) the Chase scene b) Tess’s 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

The Chase scene • The ‘central ambivalence’ in the novel (Kristin Brady) • Enormous implications for the question of Tess’s “purity” and culpability

The Chase scene • A continuation and intensification of the relationship dynamic established at their first meeting: a mixture of resistance and passivity • Note: Tess’s silences (eg. p. 69: ‘She did not reply’, ‘She was silent’)  ambiguity • In contrast: Alec’s active manipulation of the situation – prolonging the horseride, telling her about his gifts to her family, the ‘well-known cordial’

The Chase scene • Ambivalence in Tess’s response • ‘still panting in her triumph, yet in other respects dubious’ (Ch 11, p.69) • ‘between archness and real dismay’ (Ch 11, p.71) • Tess’s 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)

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

The Chase scene Intrusive narrator • Defends Tess – mitigating circumstances (eg. p.70: ‘She was inexpressibly weary….’) • Insistent rhetorical questions that are strongly suggestive of Tess’s 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

Tess of the D’Urbervilles