Chapter 35-44

1. Tess of the
d’Urbervilles
ThomasHardy
Instructor:Bibi Halima
Bibi.halima@uow.edu.pk

3. Phase-V
Chapter35-44

4. “Godis not in His Heaven:
All’s wrong with the world”
“

5. Finally, Tess has revealed all what was in her heart with sobbing and tears. Upon ending the
narrative, Tess desires for results but Angel was all stunned. Tess begs him to forgive her, as she
forgave him for “the same.” The sharp contrast between Tess's reaction to Angel's confession and
Angel to Tess's emphasizes the unfairness of the sexual double standard. He should treat her past
as lightly as she did his. (Social Structure)
1. Story telling and its result
Angel in whom the virtues paralyzed and humanity began to suffocate refused to forgive. He
admits that though “Tess is more sinned against than sinning” yet forgiveness does not apply to all
cases. She kept begging for his forgiveness but he has become a man and man could never
forgive such a sin committed by his WIFE. (Social definitions)
Tess is ready to pay the price of her sin; she suggested to expiate her sin by drowning herself in
river. She offered she would not write her marriage to her parents and if he likes she would not
even accompany him abroad but anyhow he should forgive her. Nothing could move Angel.
Angel's image of Tess comes crashing down, and they both realize how naïve he has been.
Tess's love is still mature and deep, but Angel only loved an ideal, and that ideal has now
been broken.
This was their first honey-moon night!

6. “O Tess, forgiveness does not apply to the case! You were
one person; now you are another. My God—how can
forgiveness meet such a grotesque—prestidigitation as
that!”
“I repeat, the woman I have been loving is not you.”
“But who?”
“Another woman in your shape.”
“Angel!—Angel! I was a child—a child when it
happened! I knew nothing of men.”
“You were more sinned against than sinning, that I
admit.”
“Then will you not forgive me?”
“I do forgive you, but forgiveness is not all.”
“And love me?”
To this question he did not answer.
Chapter 25

8. Is she reallymore sinned against than Sinning?
Sins
• She felt a sense of danger when first
met with Alec yet she decides to ride
and even sleeps twice in the woods
• She does not tell truth to Angel before
wedding
• Remarries Alec
• Stabs him to death
Defense
• She cries to world for Mercy
• She suffers for the sake her devotion
to the family
• She is ruined by an irresponsible
young man representing modern
civilization
• Her helplessness and weakness is
used by Alec (Right woman
approach by wrong man)
• She suffers for the sake of all
women of the world
• Angel turns Poison of her life
• Suffers in the hands of conventional
morality
Pure in her intentions. Her sins are insignificant
when it is compared with her sufferings and end
she is subjected to during her lifetime. Her life
after the first sixteen years is all agony, pain and
sorrow. It is nothing but distress, dejection,
disappointment, inhuman suffering and cruel
departure.

9. Hardy’s Determinism
Character is fate or destiny

10. Next Morning, Tess is found all dressed in
white garments and looking extremely
beautiful which moves Angel and he comes
closer to ask if she entertained him by this
lie. Tess keeps telling him truth and his face
gets stiffened.
2. Next morning and last poison-moon-night
Tess proposes that he should divorce her but
Angel calls her crude and not understanding of
the law. He again draws attention to her lower
class and lack of understanding of his society.
Tess works all day long and he finds her and says to stop working, that she is not his slave but his
wife, and Tess says she thought she was not respectable enough for him. She starts to cry and any
other man but hard, sceptical Angel would have had mercy, but he rejects her like he rejected the
Church. He says it is not a matter of respectability, but of principle. (Who defines principles?)
Angel clings to his principles and beliefs even in the face of others' pain. He has just as much power
over Tess now as Alec did, and he also abuses it, although in a very different way. (Yet she is
charity)
Angel decides that they must depart and never meet again. They both pack their Luggage.
Their parting is now real, and Tess starts to understand some of her husband's terrifying,
unsympathetic firmness. He is like society itself, unwilling to be merciful no matter the
special circumstances.
This was their last poison-moon-night!

11. “I cannot” he said, “without despising myself, and what is worse, perhaps,
despising you. I mean, of course, cannot live with you in the ordinary sense.
At present, whatever I feel, I do not despise you. And, let me speak plainly, or
you may not see all my difficulties. How can we live together while that man
lives?—he being your husband in nature, and not I. If he were dead it might
be different... Besides, that’s not all the difficulty; it lies in another
consideration—one bearing upon the future of other people than ourselves.
Think of years to come, and children being born to us, and this past matter
getting known—for it must get known. There is not an uttermost part of the
earth but somebody comes from it or goes to it from elsewhere. Well, think
of wretches of our flesh and blood growing up under a taunt which they will
gradually get to feel the full force of with their expanding years. What an
awakening for them! What a prospect! Can you honestly say ‘Remain’ after
contemplating this contingency? Don’t you think we had better endure the
ills we have than fly to others?”
Chapter 36

12. 3. Departure finally happens
1. Late that night Angel sleepwalks into Tess's room and begins to grieve that she is dead.
“Dead! dead! dead!” “My wife—dead, dead!”
Tess knows that in times of great stress he does things like this, but she does not wake him up.
He carries her outside towards river to kill but Tess becomes a sort of sacrificial figure, one willing
do die for love or to spare her loved on pain. Angel is so self-obsessed that he lacks the empathy
to see the situation from Tess's point of view.
2. Next morning, a carriage picks them up and they go to bid farewell to the Cricks. Marian and Retty
were not there but Mrs Crick is able to see something wrong with both of them. However, both of
them keep pretending the normalcy.
3. They re-leave Talbothays and on the way Angel assures her he is not angry, but they cannot be
together right now. He says he will write to her, but to not come to him unless he tells her. Tess
finds conditions very hard yet she accepts quietly for she accepts her unjust fate yet again, having
internalized society's view of her own guilt and wrongdoing. Despite this self-loathing she retains
enough d'Urberville pride to not beg.
4. Angel gives Tess some money and takes her jewels to keep safe in the bank, and then they part.
The necessary exchange of money makes their goodbye all the more tragic, as it contains no love
and is just a transaction. Angel hopes she will look back, but Tess is so distraught that she cannot.
He remarks on the inherent wrongness of the world, and as he turns away he “hardly knew that
he loved her still.”

13. “How onnatural the brightness of her eyes did
seem, and how they stood like waxen images and
talked as if they were in a dream! Didn’t it strike ’ee
that ’twas so? Tess had always sommat strange in
her, and she’s not now quite like the proud young
bride of a well-be-doing man.”
“Now, let us understand each other,” he said gently. “There is no anger between us, though there is
that which I cannot endure at present. I will try to bring myself to endure it. I will let you know
where I go to as soon as I know myself. And if I can bring myself to bear it—if it is desirable,
possible—I will come to you. But until I come to you it will be better that you should not try to come
to me.”
“Until you come to me I must not try to come to you?”
“Just so.”
“May I write to you?”
“O yes—if you are ill, or want anything at all. I hope that will not be the case; so that it may happen
that I write first to you.”
“I agree to the conditions, Angel; because you know best what my punishment ought to be; only—
only—don’t make it more than I can bear!”
Chapter 37

14. God’s not in his heaven: All’s wrong with the world!
God is in His heaven and,
All is right with the world
—Robert Browning
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned.
—W. B. YeatsIs Angel justified in saying
so for Tess?
Chapter 37

16. 4. Re-entering Marlott
1. Tess drives towards Marlott but she hesitates a lot to go home for she is afraid
to face her parents for the news has already her village and his father is
planning to celebrate at village pubs.
2. Her mother greets her whole heartedly and she discloses to her that how she
has told everything to Angel and what is the price she is asked to pay. Both of
her parents are heart broken and are upset with her.
3. Tess quickly realises she has no place in the family home any more. She hears
from Angel that he has gone north, and, to save the face of the family, makes
an excuse that she has to join him. She leaves her mother half the money
(twenty-five of fifty pounds) Angel gave her, which is soon spent. She sets off
into the unknown.

17. “Why—Tess!—my chil’—I thought you was married!—married really and truly this
time—we sent the cider—”
“Yes, mother; so I am.”
“Going to be?”
“No—I am married.”
“Married! Then where’s thy husband?”
“Oh, he’s gone away for a time.”
“Gone away! When was you married, then? The day you said?”
“Yes, Tuesday, mother.”
“And now ’tis on’y Saturday, and he gone away?”
“Yes, he’s gone.”
“What’s the meaning o’ that? ’Nation seize such husbands as you seem to get, say I!”
“Mother!” Tess went across to Joan Durbeyfield, laid her face upon the matron’s
bosom, and burst into sobs. “I don’t know how to tell ’ee, mother! You said to me,
and wrote to me, that I was not to tell him. But I did tell him—I couldn’t help it—and
he went away!”
“O you little fool—you little fool!” burst out Mrs Durbeyfield, splashing Tess and
herself in her agitation. “My good God! that ever I should ha’ lived to say it, but I say
it again, you little fool!”
Chapter 38

18. Hardy is evoking Garden of
Eden motif to portray experience
tutoring Tess on the world as
Eve learnt knowledge when
eating the forbidden fruit.

19. 5. Angel going to Brazil
1. Angel sees an advertisement for agriculturalists to go to Brazil and decides this is
what he should do. He returns to see his parents who are frankly puzzled why Tess is
not with him. His excuse is that Tess is not yet ready to meet them at a social level.
He tells them he will return from Brazil when he is settled there, collect Tess and
then present her to them.
2. Mrs. Clare is still disappointed and asks Angel to describe Tess. She imagines how
beautiful and pure Tess must be, and how inexperienced with other men. Mrs. Clare
seems to say all the wrong things, and accidentally reaffirms Angel in his decision to
reject Tess as an “impure woman.”
3. Mrs. Clare seems to say all the wrong things, and accidentally reaffirms Angel in his
decision to reject Tess as an “impure woman.” (Impractical definitions)

20. “Cannot you describe her? I am sure she is very pretty, Angel.”
“Of that there can be no question!” he said, with a zest which
covered its bitterness.
“And that she is pure and virtuous goes without question?”
“Pure and virtuous, of course, she is.”
“I can see her quite distinctly. You said the other day that she was
fine in figure; roundly built; had deep red lips like Cupid’s bow;
dark eyelashes and brows, an immense rope of hair like a ship’s
cable; and large eyes violety-bluey-blackish.”
“I did, mother.”
“I quite see her. And living in such seclusion she naturally had
scarce ever seen any young man from the world without till she
saw you.”
“Scarcely.”
“You were her first love?”
“Of course.”
Chapter 39

21. 5. Story progresses
1. Before going to Brazil, Angel returns to the d'Urberville house where they had
their unhappy wedding night. He stands sadly by the gate, wondering if he
has done the right thing. At that moment Izz Huett appears, as she had been
hoping to visit Angel and Tess there proving that Hardy’s Wessex is a very
small area.
2. Izz admits she was in love with him, and Angel asks Izz to come with him
to Brazil . He claims he has been betrayed and needs relief, and Izz
immediately accepts. Angel again makes a rash decision that leaves others
very hurt. He is willing to defy society's codes in his request to Izz, but still
not enough to accept Tess in her innocence (Unsympathetic enough )
3. Angel asks if Izz loves him more than Tess does. Izz cannot help but say that
she does not, that Tess would have “laid down her life” for him. She proves
herself very honest and generous lady here but Angel is upset by this and he
changes his mind, refuses to take her to Brazil.

22. “You love me very, very much, Izz?” he suddenly asked.
“I do—I have said I do! I loved you all the time we was at the
dairy together!”
“More than Tess?”
She shook her head.
“No,” she murmured, “not more than she.”
“How’s that?”
“Because nobody could love ’ee more than Tess did!... She
would have laid down her life for ’ee. I could do no more.”
Chapter 40

23. 6. The age of Calamity
1. After separation in the month of October, Tess has quite changed wandering
here and there to find work but there is no hope for getting any job. On the
other side, her husband’s days in Brazil have proven so full of trial for him; he
had fallen severely ill in Brazil.
2. Tess receives a letter from Marian and she decides to move near the house of
Angel’s father, Chalk Newton. She reaches there and sees Alec’s companion and
she ran forward (Ill Omen)
3. Tess thinks of Angel far away and feels that she is the most unhappy thing in
the world. She repeats “All is vanity” to herself, but then sees that it is worse,
there is injustice and important things that are taken away, and Tess wishes she
was dead. (The lowest moment of her life)

24. 7. Reaching ChalkNewton
1. She reached Chalk Newton and finds the farm where Marian works. Marian
helps her and she secures an employment; she writes a letter to home telling
about her whereabouts and requesting to forward her any letter they receive
for her.
2. Flintcomb-Ash is a dreary place not even cared for by its residents,
but Tess sets to work hacking at turnips in a field of rocks. The earth and sky
are both colorless and she and Marian seem alone on earth. Flintcomb-Ash is
the polar opposite of Talbothays, reflecting the stark change in the dairymaids'
moods, so once again they seem integral to the landscape.
3. Izz too has joined them and they start to work and then the owner, Farmer
Groby, arrives. Tess recognizes him as the man who was beaten by Angel once
when he misbehaved with Tess. Groby keeps all his grudges and punishes Tess
very hard and so is her life in this farm, Sweede-field.
Long depression, Global economic crises

25. “So you be the young woman who took my civility in such
ill part? Be drowned if I didn’t think you might be as soon
as I heard of your being hired! Well, you thought you had
got the better of me the first time at the inn with your
fancy-man, and the second time on the road, when you
bolted; but now I think I’ve got the better of you.” He
concluded with a hard laugh.
Tess, between the Amazons and the farmer, like a bird
caught in a clap-net, returned no answer, continuing to
pull the straw. She could read character sufficiently well to
know by this time that she had nothing to fear from her
employer’s gallantry; it was rather the tyranny induced by
his mortification at Clare’s treatment of him. Upon the
whole she preferred that sentiment in man and felt brave
enough to endure it.
Chapter 41

26. Tess is not receiving
any news of Clare and
she is still so
determined in her love
for him so she decides
to visit his parents in
Emminster
She adorns herself with the
best outfit; Marian and Izz
wish for good luck and with
such charming looks she
leaves but upon reaching no
one opens her door for they
all are gone to Church on
Sunday.
8. Tess going to Angel’s parents
She decides to go church and
stays outside. It seems as if all
people are coming out.
Meanwhile she hear out some
guys talking and taunting at
Angel’s unhappy marriage.
They are Angel’s brother and
Miss Chant
Tess cannot tolerate it and runs off but
in between this narration, narrator
gives a heart wrenching scene of Tess’s
changing boots
Tess can't help her ingrained superstitions, and
her journey was already tenuous. Fate again
deals cruelly with her, and Hardy points out the
unhappy coincidence that she meets the
brothers instead of the father

27. As they drew nearer she could hear their voices
engaged in earnest discourse, and, with the natural
quickness of a woman in her situation, did not fail
to recognize in those noises the quality of her
husband’s tones. The pedestrians were his two
brothers.
Chapter 44

28. 9. Happening the very unexpected yet expected
1. In utter frustration, her journey becomes rather a meander than a march till
she reaches the village or townlet of Evershead.
2. She perceives the place quite deserted and meanwhile a woman directs Tess
towards a barn where a Christian man is preaching.
O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes
Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?”
3. He was saying that he was the great sinner and scoffed until he met a
clergyman who wanted to set him right.
4. Tess forwarded to a corner to the face of preacher and when she saw she was
stunned. He was none but he seducer, Alec d’Urbervilles. Things just keep
getting worse for Tess as everyone from her past eventually returns. It is an
elegant plot twist that the antagonist should become a Christian, converted by
Angel's father to repent his sins against the heroine, but surely this will lead to
more turmoil for Tess.

29. But more startling to Tess than the doctrine had been the voice,
which, impossible as it seemed, was precisely that of Alec
d’Urberville. Her face fixed in painful suspense, she came round to the
front of the barn, and passed before it. The low winter sun beamed
directly upon the great double-doored entrance on this side; one of
the doors being open, so that the rays stretched far in over the
threshing-floor to the preacher and his audience, all snugly sheltered
from the northern breeze. The listeners were entirely villagers, among
them being the man whom she had seen carrying the red paint-pot on
a former memorable occasion. But her attention was given to the
central figure, who stood upon some sacks of corn, facing the people
and the door. The three o’clock sun shone full upon him, and the
strange enervating conviction that her seducer confronted her, which
had been gaining ground in Tess ever since she had heard his words
distinctly, was at last established as a fact indeed.
Chapter 25

30. Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A revolt against Conventional
Morality
1. Record of impressions: it is not an argument, neither didactic or aggressive
but simply a representative of society and its patterns
2. It portrays moral villainy of men and women along with magnificent
understanding of human deeds.
3. Theory of Hardy: Chastity does not consist in physical or bodily purity – purity
of heart (intentions)
4. Despite her reluctant dealings with Alec, she remains pure for there is
something very spiritual in her character

31. Hardy’s subject is human life. But human life can be
looked at from many aspects and in many relations.
Hardy regards it in its most fundamental aspect. He sees
human beings less an individual than as representative of
a species, and in relation to the ultimate conditioning
forces of their existence. His subject is not men but MAN.
His theme is mankind’s predicament in the universe.
-Lord David Cecil

32. 1. What does sleepwalking incident reveal about Angel?
2. Looking at the farewell between Angel and Tess, Hardy seems to suggest that if
Tess had tried harder, she may have been able to make Angel change his
mind. Would you agree?
3. Why does she sense she has no place at Marlott any more? Has she become a
wanderer?
4. Based on the theme of social class and lineage, discuss what is Hardy saying
about the social stereotypes in the novel with reference to main characters.
5. Alec is so close to his return. What are you expecting him to do this time? Are
you shocked to see him preaching? If yes, why?
Questions