A summary of 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' by Thomas Hardy. This summary is suitable for those studying A Level English Literature.
It includes:
- Summaries of each of the Phases
- Quotes and Analysis
- Key Themes with colour coding
Key
Religion/Morality
Power
Gender/Beauty
Nature
Fate/Superstition
Justice
Class
Love
Innocence
Important words/phrases
Characters
‘Tess of the d’Urbevilles’ Notes
Phase the First : The Maiden
Summary
- Introduced to Durbeyfield family
- Quite poor
- BUT descended from the aristocratic d’Urbervilles
- Joan wants Tess to travel to where there is a family by the name of d’Urberville
- John is meant to go to earn money but is too drunk
- Tess goes instead
- The family horse, Prince, dies
- Tess agrees to go to the d’Urberville family’s estate at Trantridge for work
- Tess is greeted by Alec who gets her a job
- He pursues Tess
- Alec takes advantage of Tess and it is implied that he rapes her
Quotes and Analysis
Quote Analysis Themes
‘There was bias in his gait’ John Durbeyfield = the first character we meet Class
He is portrayed as drunk which creates a
negative association with the lower classes.
‘tell ‘em to send a horse and John finds out about his aristocratic ancestors Class
carriage to me immediately’ and takes it literally. Portrayed as uneducated.
Ideas of class and how John responds to class.
‘Mobile peony mouth’ First introduction to Tess. Appearanc
e/Beauty
Focus on her appearance and her mouth (which
has associations with love and her sexuality). A Nature
‘peony’ is a flower and so there are immediate
associations between Tess and nature.
‘She wore a red ribbon in her hair Tess is immediately isolated from other women Appearanc
and was the only one of the white (‘only’) e
company who could boast of such
a pronounced adornment’ Foreshadowing - ‘red’ has associations with sex Isolation
, Key
Religion/Morality
Power
Gender/Beauty
Nature
Fate/Superstition
Justice
Class
Love
Innocence
Important words/phrases
Characters
AND with violence →Tess ends up having
experiences with both. Fate
Foreshadows her loss of innocence at the end of Violence
the phase.
Sex
Focus on her appearance and what she is
wearing
‘Phases of her childhood lurked Tess is portrayed as innocent due to her being Appearanc
in her aspect still’ associated with ‘childhood’. e
‘Ninth sparkling from her eyes’ Suggestions of her being naive Innocence
Focus on her appearance and how it links to her Lack of
childhood and innocence. experience
‘Sparkling’ suggests she is innocent and yet to
see the reality of the world → she lacks
experience
‘Uncribbed, uncabined aspect in Referring to Angel →different to his brothers
his eyes and attire’
‘And take the Compleat Fortune Joan is superstitious - does not want the book in Superstitio
Teller to the outhouse’ the house at night n
‘A blighted one’ referring to the ‘star’ that Tess and her family live Fate
on
suggests that she is doomed to a bad life - this is
her fate
‘Splashed from face to skirt with Death
the crimson drops’
‘The atmosphere turned pale’ The use of nature reflects the happenings in Nature
Tess’ life. This emphasises the connection of
Tess with nature.
‘Well-groomed black moustache’ Alec is initially presented to us the way a typical Violence
villain would be in Victorian literature. This
‘Touches of barbarism in his creates an immediate sense of him being bad Views on
contours’ and that he will cause trouble for Tess. This is women
emphases by the use of ‘barbarism’ which has
violent connotations and suggests that Alec is
cruel. It also could connote that Alec’s views are
primitive which helps to aid Hardy’s message
about how women were treated and had limited
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