Tess of the D'Urbervilles

“If the heads of the Durbeyfield household chose to sail into difficulty, disaster, starvation, disease, degradation, death, thither were these half-dozen little captives under hatches compelled to sail with them.”

This quotation criticizes Joan and John Durbeyfield and their failure to live up to their parental responsibilities. Their children are utterly dependent on them, and therefore the choices that the Durbeyfield couple makes impact not just themselves but also these “little captives.” The quotation uses an extended metaphor in which the Durbeyfield parents are captaining a ship, with their children confined aboard and at the mercy of their parents’ choices. This quotation reflects Hardy’s belief that individuals should seriously consider the prospects and quality of life that they can offer to their children.

“Her face was dry and pale as though she regarded herself in the light of a murderess.”

This quotation occurs after the death of Prince the horse and reveals how Tess blames herself for the accident. Tess’s view of herself as “a murderess” foreshadows that Tess will eventually kill a human being. The connection also establishes the role of fate in the novel, as seemingly small events gradually lead to larger and more tragic consequences. The death of Prince sets off a chain of events leading to Tess becoming a murderess many years later.

“Thus the thing began. Had she perceived this meeting’s import she might have asked why she was doomed to be seen and coveted that day by the wrong man.”

This quotation occurs when Alec d’Urberville happens to catch sight of Tess after she reluctantly attempts to visit his mother. Rather than building suspense, Hardy’s narrative establishes a foreboding and fateful tone, making it clear that a tragic destiny has been set in motion. This narrative structure is important because it removes Tess’s moral agency and therefore reduces her culpability: Once Alec set eyes on her, her fate was effectively sealed, and nothing she could have done would have changed the outcome.

“Well, as one of the genuine stock, 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.”

Joan Durbeyfield says this to her husband, revealing her hopes for the outcome of Tess’s visit to the d’Urberville estate. The quotation shows Joan and John’s naive belief in Tess’s aristocratic heritage and the privilege they believe this entitles her to. However, Joan also reveals her more pragmatic and calculating approach by referencing Tess’s beauty as her “trump card” and acknowledging that Tess may end up having sex out of wedlock. Joan causes much suffering in her daughter’s life because she overestimates Tess’s ability to be cold and calculating; while it may well be true that (as Joan tells Tess when the latter becomes engaged to Angel) many women silently violate norms regarding female purity, Tess has deeply internalized those norms and is in any case too honest to perpetuate such a deceit. Joan also does not account for the class difference that makes it virtually impossible that Alec would ever marry the daughter of a farmer.

“Why it was that upon this beautiful feminine tissue, sensitive as gossamer, and practically blank as snow as yet, there should have been traced such a coarse pattern as it was doomed to receive.”

This quotation refers to the ambiguous sexual encounter between Tess and Alec. Rather than describing the specifics of what happened, Hardy uses figurative language to describe Tess’s traumatic transition from innocence to experience. Hardy compares Tess to delicate and pure substances such as gossamer and snow, emphasizing her innocence in order to build sympathy for her. He also uses the word “doomed” to highlight the role of fate and Tess’s lack of culpability. These choices are important because Hardy’s contemporaries might have been inclined to see Tess as “fallen” or morally corrupt.

“My God, I could knock you out of the gig! Did it never strike your mind that what every woman says, some women may feel?”

Tess says this when she angrily lashes out at Alec after their encounter. Alec has made a cynical statement indicating that he assumes that women protest sexual advances simply to maintain their reputation—not because they truly object to sex. Tess counters that her objections were genuine, implicitly contrasting Tess—a woman who is direct, genuine, and open about her feelings—with the feminine stereotype of playing coy and calculating games. The quotation also contains assertive and even violent language such as “knock” and “strike,” revealing just how angry Tess is and foreshadowing her eventual violent revenge against Alec.

“I was a child when I left this house four months ago. Why didn’t you tell me there was danger in men-folk? Why didn’t you warn me?”

After returning home from the d’Urberville estate, Tess is broken and embittered, and she lashes out against her mother. Tess highlights that Joan Durbeyfield had a responsibility to educate her daughter so that Tess would have better known how to protect herself. The quotation highlights the development in Tess’s character; the statement that she was a child when she first left home underscores her innocence and how she was manipulated by Alec.

“She had been made to break an accepted social law, but no law known to the environment in which she fancied herself such an anomaly.”

This quotation occurs shortly after Tess’s return to Marlott as she settles into a new routine, living quietly with her family. Tess’s shame leads her to hide from people and spend time in nature. The narrator sympathetically comments on how the natural world of plants, animals, and the environment does not abide by the same artificial and arbitrary rules as human society. Sexuality and reproduction are in particular deeply natural processes, but Tess herself can’t recognize this, instead viewing her actions as violating even the laws of nature. With this quotation, Hardy develops his theme of the contrast between nature and society.

“So passed away Sorrow the Undesired—that intrusive creature, that bastard gift of shameless Nature who respects not social law.”

This quotation describes the death of Tess’s infant son, whom she names Sorrow. The quotation uses word choice and metaphor to highlight the contrast and tension between nature and society. In the eyes of society, the baby is a “bastard” (illegitimate) and an object of shame because he was born outside of wedlock. Social conventions aside, however, the baby is just like every other one. Hardy personifies nature as “shameless,” implicitly connecting the transgressive nature of an illicit sexual act with the defiance of arbitrary rules in service of nature’s deeper “rule”: to survive and generate new life. At this point in the plot, Tess is still suffering because she strives to obey those social laws.

“The recuperative power which pervaded organic nature was surely not denied to maidenhood alone.”

This quotation occurs as Tess contemplates her move to the Talbothays Dairy and the possibility of reinventing herself. While Tess is devastated and ashamed after the experience of becoming an unwed mother, she eventually becomes hopeful that she can rebuild her life and reclaim some form of joy. The quotation reflects Tess’s logic: As someone who lives in the country, surrounded by the rhythms of nature and the cyclical changes of seasons, she sees everything eventually renewing itself and assumes that individuals can also go through that same process of renewal.

“‘What a fresh and virginal daughter of Nature that milkmaid is,’ he said to himself.”

This quotation occurs when Angel first begins to notice and be attracted to Tess. The quotation is ironic because Angel explicitly uses the word “virginal” to describe Tess’s beauty, unaware that Tess is not a virgin and in fact has given birth to a child. This irony serves as social commentary and critique: Nothing is different about Tess after she has sex and gives birth, and no one would know simply by looking at her that these events are part of her history. Therefore, it is arbitrary and silly that these events should completely change Tess’s social position. The quotation also foreshadows the problem that will emerge in the relationship between Tess and Angel: Angel is attracted to a fantasy of Tess living outside of social conventions and according to the laws of nature, but he cannot cope with the reality of her having violated social norms.

“Amid the oozing fatness and warm ferments of the Var Vale, at a season when the rush of juices could almost be heard below the hiss of fertilization, it was impossible that the most fanciful love should not grow passionate.”

This quotation describes the summer months when Tess and Angel are falling in love while working alongside one another in the dairy. Hardy uses nature imagery—particularly the changing seasons—to enhance the themes and mood of the novel. The ripeness and lushness of summer reflect the increasing desire and sexual tension between the two young lovers; by aligning the nature imagery with this experience of desire, Hardy also strengthens his argument that desire and sexuality are natural, normal, and not anything shameful. This specific quotation makes use of alliteration (with “s” and “f” sounds repeating throughout) to heighten the heated and lush atmosphere in which Tess and Angel’s mutual desire blooms.

“She was yawning, and he saw the red interior of her mouth as if it had been a snake’s.”

This quotation occurs when Angel happens upon Tess waking from a nap, just before he proposes marriage to her for the first time. The simile comparing Tess’s open mouth to that of a snake foreshadows the idea of Tess as a sinful source of temptation by introducing imagery associated with the Garden of Eden: When Angel learns of Tess’s past, he will view her as someone who seduced and entrapped him. The imagery also highlights how Angel’s sexual desire is goading him into making hasty decisions; Tess’s yawning mouth allows him to see inside of her body, introducing vaginal imagery and highlighting Angel’s desire to access and penetrate her.

“His experience of women was great enough for him to be aware that the negative often meant nothing more than the preface to the affirmative.”

This quotation occurs after Tess has rejected Angel’s proposal of marriage and reveals Angel’s thinking around this rejection. Angel thinks that Tess is merely being coy and that if he persists in courting her, she will eventually accept him. This quotation reveals the similarities between Angel and Alec—in particular, their shared patriarchal perspective towards women that largely disavows the notions of consent and agency. While Angel genuinely wants to marry Tess and give her a good life (whereas Alec was merely seeking sexual gratification), both men do not believe that Tess means no when she says it. Part of Tess’s tragedy is that neither man respects her lack of consent.

“She was conscious of the notion expressed by Friar Lawrence: ‘these violent delights have violent ends.’ It might be too desperate for human conditions, too rank, too wild, too deadly.”

On the day of Tess and Angel’s marriage, she reflects on the occasion and prepares to move away with him. The quotation alludes to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, in which Friar Lawrence expresses his doubts about the nature and intensity of the love between the two protagonists shortly before performing an illicit marriage ceremony. Since the play is a tragedy, the allusion hints at the forthcoming rupture between Tess and Angel and also shows Tess’s misgivings. She (correctly) suspects that her attempt to circumvent social conventions, much like Romeo and Juliet’s, will end in tragedy.

“O Angel—I am almost glad—because now you can forgive me!”

Tess says this on her wedding night, responding to Angel’s confession that he had a previous illicit relationship with an older woman in London. Rather than being jealous or angry, Tess is relieved. She naively assumes that Angel will treat her justly and won’t condemn her for actions similar to his own, not realizing the double standard that applies to men and women’s sexual experiences out of wedlock. The quotation introduces pathos and sympathy for Tess by showing how innocent she still is and setting the stage for the pain she will feel when Angel rejects her.

“I will obey you, like your wretched slave, even if it is to lie down and die.”

Tess speaks this quotation to Angel after he rejects her and lashes out at her for not revealing her past before they married. She shows extreme passivity and submission, offering to do whatever Angel wants. This quotation develops Tess’s character by showing that she quickly accepts Angel’s anger and his interpretation that he has been wronged. Because Tess also feels ashamed of her past and believes that she is tainted as a result, she does not try to defend herself. This lack of interest in preserving her own life foreshadows how Tess will later calmly accept her arrest and execution.

“How can we live together while that man lives—he being your husband in Nature, and not I.”

Angel reveals the crux of why Tess’s relationship with Alec so disturbs him. Angel defines marriage by the act of consummation rather than the legal and religious ceremony, so he views Alec as Tess’s rightful husband. Because Tess confides her past before she and Angel consummate their own marriage, Angel feels that Alec is the man who has the strongest claim to Tess. This quotation shows a patriarchal fixation on sexual possession and virginity rather than acknowledgment of Tess’s choice and agency or the emotional connection between partners. Even though Tess gave limited or no consent in her encounter with Alec, both men define her permanently by that event.

“If Tess had been artful; had she made a scene, fainted, wept hysterically, in that lonely lane, notwithstanding the fury of fastidiousness with which he was possessed he would probably not have withstood her.”

This quotation occurs when Tess and Angel part ways shortly after their marriage, with Angel going off to Brazil. The narrator notes that Tess could likely have persuaded Angel to stay with her but that she undermined herself through her attempt to behave honorably. Tess is both too innocent and too principled to serve her own best interests; she passively accepts Angel’s decisions. Both Alec and Angel incorrectly assume that Tess is artful and crafty, but she actually creates more tragedy for herself through her insistence on trying to behave as well as possible.

“With the impulse of a soul who could feel for kindred sufferers as much as for herself, Tess’s first thought was to put the still living birds out of their torture.”

Shortly after a man who knows about her history of being an unwed mother shames her, Tess comes upon a group of wounded pheasants in the woods. Tess has been feeling very sorry for herself because she has been abandoned by Angel and sees no hope for her future. However, she immediately puts her own suffering aside in light of the empathy she feels for others. Significantly, Tess shows more kindness and empathy towards animals than many other characters in the novel display to her. The episode also suggests that in some cases death is merciful and preferable to ongoing suffering, which foreshadows how Tess will come to feel about her own fate.

“There was revived in her the wretched sentiment which had often come to her before, that in inhabiting the fleshly tabernacle with which Nature had endowed her, she was somehow doing wrong.”

This quotation occurs when Alec tells Tess that, in spite of his religious conversion, he still feels tempted by desire for her. Tess responds with shame about her own appearance and the effect it has on men. She has internalized the patriarchal logic that men’s desire for her is her fault and her responsibility, explaining why Tess often becomes passive and guilt-ridden in response to events that are not her fault: Because she believes that she is doing something wrong simply by existing, she slides easily into self-reproach whenever something bad happens. By specifying that Tess’s appearance is a result of nature and something she has no control over, Hardy makes it clear that Tess is not at fault for what befalls her, even if men like Alec try to blame her for provoking their lust.

“Gathering her meaning [he] flagged like one plague-stricken, and his glance sank: it fell on her hands, which, once rosy, were now white and more delicate.”

This quotation occurs when Angel reunites with Tess and learns that she has become Alec’s mistress. It shows the devastation Angel feels by comparing him to someone who has fallen sick with a deadly disease. The quotation also highlights the impact of class and finances on Tess’s decisions; as Alec’s mistress, she lives a life of luxury, with no need to work. Her hands, which are now the hands of a more upper-class lady, reflect this shift. Angel’s attention to Tess’s hands in this scene is ironic because she now resembles the type of woman who would be a more suitable partner for him in terms of class and education. However, Tess has only achieved this position through sacrificing her integrity.

“She has all the best of me without the bad of me; and if she were to become yours it would almost seem as if death had not divided us.”

Tess asks Angel to consider marrying her younger sister, Liza-Lu, after her death. The quotation shows that Tess has calmly accepted her fate and is planning for a future after her death. Not only does Tess not seem disturbed about her impending death, but she wants to orchestrate a surrogate marriage for Angel. Tess’s younger sister represents the life she could have led if she had not encountered Alec; because Tess blames herself for what happened, she sees Liza-Lu as a virtuous substitute. Tess sees it as her responsibility to make Angel happy and take care of all of his needs, even after she dies.