Phase The First - The Maiden Flashcards
The Maiden
Title of Phase the First. A maiden is an unmarried girl or young women and links to virginity. This is ironic and foreshadows Tess no longer being a virgin.
Tess is pure and a virgin in this Phase until the end, when Alec seduces/rapes her in the Chase. This is significant as it characterises Tess as a ‘pure woman’ at the start of the novel.
“how are the…
mighty fallen.” (p.g9)
- A chance meeting with Parson Tringham along the road one night, John Durbeyfield discovers that he is the descendent of the d’Urbervilles, an ancient, monied family. Parson Tringham says this about John’s ancestors.
AO2: Foreshadowing the Durbeyfield’s downfall. biblical allusion - the phrase is said in the story of David in the bible when high expectations of a person is shattered.
AO4: Jack finding out about his family lineage provides him with his perceived megalopsychia, which is ironic because he is going to fall like them.
AO3: Hardy had an interesting relationship with the church and often criticised it for it’s hypocrisy. Using s biblical reference this early on in the novel is interesting as it makes an immediately link between religion/the church and the downfall of the Durbeyfield’s.
“This fertile and…
sheltered tract of country” (P.g.12)
AO2: Hardy’s use of lang links Tess to the setting. The use of these adjectives is ironic because fertility links to Tess’ pregnancy later on in the playing and while Tess is sheltered now she will not be by the end of the novel.
AO4: “sheltered” Links to Tess’ hamartia, lack of education and naivety.
‘The vale was known in former times as the Forest of…
White Hart’ (p.g12-13)
AO2: Ref. to a legend of King Henry IIIs reign, in which Henry III spares the stag in the Vale of Blackmore and then certain Thomas de la Lynd comes along and kills it and is fined. This foreshadows death. The imagery of white also symbolises purity and innocence which is ironic.
AO3: People killing and destroying nature links to the Industrial Revolution 1820-1840 and urbanisation. Hardy doesn’t want us to blame Tess. She is the White Hart.
‘her **mobile peony…
mouth** and large innocent eyes added eloquence to colour and shape.’
AO2: Hardy zooms in on Tess. The peony flower symbolises happiness, romance, happy marriage and good fortune, which is what’s supposed to happen for Tess but doesn’t.
AO4: It is also Ironic that Tess has large eyes yet is myopic to danger. It emphasises the extent of her innocence. Hardy doesn’t want us to blame Tess.
‘She wore a red ribbon…
in her hair, and was the only one of the white company who could boast pf such a pronounced adornment.’ (p.g14)
AO2: ‘red’ has connotations of danger, passion and violence, foreshadowing the danger Tess encounters with Alec, as he becomes associated with the colour red. ‘White’ symbolises purity and innocence and the juxtaposition of colours separates Tess from the other girls.
AO3: Tess = outcast, Hardy also felt like a social outcast throughout much of his life.
‘Phases of her childhood…
lurked in her aspect still.’ (p.g15)
AO2: verb ‘lurked’ is -ve. Trying to get rid of it but it’s always there.
AO4: Tess’s hamartia is that she’s naive and unaware? The novel repeatedly stresses that Tess is physically a women, but is a child in character and experience.
AO3: Perhaps this is due to class and lack of education? Prior to the 19th century, education was often limited to the elite and privileged classes. However, during the 19th century, there was a growing emphasis on universal education and the expansion of educational opportunities for all social classes. Hardy’s, being born into a working class family, had a strong awareness of the problems of rural life, classism, and morality is often reflected in his fiction; poverty, job instability, and a generally hard life are more responsible for lower morality. This concepts is shown in the portrayal of Tess. She is not impure because she is poor; rather she is exposed to dangers that arise because her family’s poverty places her in a vulnerable position.
‘There was an uncribbed…
,uncabined aspect in his eyes and attire’ (p.g16)
AO2: Allusion to Macbeth, who feels himself ‘cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in/To saucy doubts and fears’ after the 1st murderer informs him that while Banquo has been killed, Banquo’s son has escaped. This allusion suggests Angel’s openness of mind a spirit, but also foreshadows a time when he will be best by doubts and fears.
AO4: The reference to Angel’s eyes foreshadows his myopia to what’s coming. The allusion foreshadows Angel’s downfall/
‘This white figure…
stood apart by the hedge alone.’ (p.g.18)
- about Tess
AO2: Recurring motif of white to create irony. Hardy emphasising that Tess is pure. Metaphorically an outcast in society.
AO3: Hardy often felt like an outcast growing up. Like many who rise in society, Hardy experienced what might be called a double bind. While he had connections to both the working class and the upper classes, he did not feel that he belonged in either.
‘She had no spirit to dance again for a long time, though…
she might have had plenty of partners; but, ah! they did not speak so nicely as the strange young man had done.’ p.g.18
- Tess after Angel didn’t dance with her at the May Day dance
AO2: Ironic that Tess has no spirit to dance again for a long time but then almost immediately begins dancing again. Hints of passivity and unpredictability. Exclamation ‘Ah!’ shows how Tess is caught up in the dreaminess of men from upper class. Adjective ‘strange’ shows how unfamiliar Angel’s class is to Tess.
AO3; Links to Hardy courting and marrying a woman of higher class. unaware of it’s complications including being rejected by her family and feeling like a social outcast.
‘The struggles and wrangles of the lads for her hand in a jig were…
an **excitement to her no more; and when they became fierce she rebuked them!’
AO3: Tess is described as an unconventional woman. During the Victorian era women were expected to embrace their roles as wives and motherhood. Their main focus was expected to be finding a husband and starting a family. However Tess does not desire the attention of men in this way. Women were expected to consider marriage as the primary goal.
‘The Spotted Cow’
(III p.g.19)
AO2: Intertextuality and foreshadowing
Joan sings a song about a young man who offers to help a maid find her lost cow and leads to a grove: Instead they become lovers and spend the day there. This foreshadows the events in the chase with Tess and Alec.
AP3; Women and their innocence being used and the men not necessarily coming back to them. Responsibility was tied solely to the women. Hardy emphasising that it isn’t just Tess that this happens to, Tess is just a representation of an issue that is real for many women in this society.
‘From the holiday gaieties of the day - the white gowns, the…
nosegays, the willow-wands, the whirling movements on the green, the flash of gentle sentiment towards the stranger - to the yellow melancholy of this one-candled spectacle’ III, 20
AO2: Alliteration of ‘w’ mirrors the freedom of these pagan rituals. There is juxtaposition between nature/the outside world and the indoor world (inside Tess’ home). Candle = symbolic of their poverty. The description of the household as ‘melancholy’ (a pensive kind of sadness) gives the atmosphere of the family home and shows the effect of poverty and laziness.
AO3: Candles were essential as electricity wasn’t available, but they were expensive, and the Durbeyfield’s are so poor that the can only afford to have/burn one of them.
Hardy was a humanist. He would argue that we need to make sense of the world in human terms rather than God or religion. He uses Paganism and nature to find the meaning of life. In Hardy’s view paganism is a good explanation for our existence. Modern characters could learn something from these natural, traditional characters.
‘(Mrs Durbeyfield still habitually spoke…
the dialect; her daughter, who had passed the Sixth Standard in the National School under a London-trained mistress, used only when excited by joy, surprise, or grief). (IIII, 21)
AO2: Hardy uses dialect and education to present Tess as an outcast, she doesn’t fit into the working class world of her family but equally she doesn’t fit into the new world of Alec and Angel. She doesn’t fit completely into the old pastoral world but equally she doesn’t fit into this new modern world. The increase in education between Joan and Tess shows how the world is changing.
AO3: A National school was a school founded in 19th-century England and Wales by the National Society for Promoting Religious Education. These schools provided elementary education, in accordance with the teaching of the Church of England, to the children of the poor. Prior to 1800, education for poorer children was limited to isolated charity schools.
Hardy also felt like an outcast - he married into a higher class was was able to rise in society however having connections to both the working class and the upper classes, he did not feel that he belonged in either.
‘he wished he has asked her; he wished…
he had inquired her name.’ (II, 18)
AO2: Repetition emphasises Angel’s regret
AO4: Regret adds to the tragic timing of when they do meet
Joan tells Tess to ‘take the complete Fortune Teller to the outhouse’ (III, 22)
Joan tells Tess to take the fortune telling book out to the outside toilet because she is superstitious and thinks it is bad luck to have it in the house. This starts the theme of superstition and ignorance in rural life, and shows how deeply it is engrained. It also highlights Joan’s simplicity and lack of education.
Foreshadows that something bad might happen.
Between the mother, with her fast-perishing lumber of superstitions, folk-lore, dialect, and orally transmitted ballads, the daughter, with her trained National teachings and Standard knowledge under and infinitely Revised Code. there was a gap of…
…two hundred years as ordinarily understood. When they were together the Jacobean and the Victorian ages were Juxtaposed III, 23
This description further characterises Tess and Joan and demonstrates just how much the world has moved on in a generation, leaving ‘a gap of two hundred years’ between mother and daughter. Highlighting the simplicity and ignorance of Joan, as well as the education and intelligence of Tess, creating juxtaposition.
AO3: The Victorian Era was a period of vast political reform and social change, the Industrial Revolution, and profound scientific discovery. It was a period of great social change in England, and of an expanding empire abroad. The society was extremely conservative and patriarchal and old fashioned pagan beliefs from the Jacobean era, which Joan represent, are beginning to fade.
‘All these young souls were passengers in the Durbeyfield ship - entirely dependent on the judgment of the two Durbeyfield adults for their pleasures, their necessities, their health, even their existence. If the heads of the Durbeyfield household chose to sail into difficulty, disaster, starvation, disease, degradation, death, tither were these half-dozen little captives under hatches compelled to sail with them. Six helpless creatures who had never been asked if they wished for life on any terms, much less if they wished for it on such hard conditions as were involved in being of the shiftless house of Durbeyfield (IV, 24)
AO2: Hardy’s use of the word ‘chose’ to explain how the Durbeyfield’s became so impoverished further characterises Tess’ parents as irresponsible and lazy. Anti-pastoral realism which shows just how hard rural life can be. Metaphor of a ship used to demonstrate the lack of social security in the Victorian Era and also show how Jack and Joan’s irresponsibility is negatively effecting their children, referred to as ‘captives’, which alludes to the idea that they have no other choice in life because of how their parents have behaved. Hardy is commenting on fate and the injustice of classism/poverty.
‘the shiftless house of Durbeyfield’ This is a mockery on Hardy’s behalf of the Durbeyfield family trying to act as if they’re better than they really are; it is a corruption of a biblical quotation. This anti-pastoral phrase shows how the Durbeyfields are lazy and this has caused them financial problems, leading them to have no financial security.
AO4: Foreshadowing the downfall of the family
AO3: 1800s: Industrial revolution made agricultural work increasingly industrialised. This placed traditionally rural lifestyles under threat and many had to migrate to towns to find employment. During the Victorian era child labour and poverty were also a features of rural life, where farm work involved long hours, very low pay and exposure to all weathers. Hardy, born into a working class family in rural Dorset so he was aware of the hardships of rural life and classism, which he reflects in TOTD. Hardy was also rejected by his wife’s upper-class family, despite not choosing to have been born into a lower class.
Reference to ‘Nature’s holy plan’ (III, 24)
AO2: Intertextuality from ‘Lines written in early spring’ by Woodworth, which questions whether we should just accept fate or whether we should do something about it.
AO3: Hardy has conflicting beliefs on religion and fate and here he is inviting the reader to ponder his curiosity’s with him.
Jack says “Tess is queer” (IV, 27)
Tess in unconventional
One of the locals drinking in Rolliver’s says to Joan “But Joan Durbeyfield must mind that she don’t get green malt in flower”. (IV, 28)
This was a local phrase meaning not getting pregnant too early
AO2: This is ironic and foreshadows Tess’ pregnancy. It also highlights Joan’s naivety.
‘The girl’s young features looked sadly out of place amid the alcoholic vapours which floated here…’ (IV, 28)
Tess doesn’t fit in with the older rural people drinking at Rolliver’s Inn, illegally. Tess looks young and the ‘alcoholic vapours’ hint towards the problem of alcoholism in rural communities.
Rolliver’s is symbolic of the Durbeyfield’s class and position in society.
AO3: Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the relationship of poverty and drunkenness became a topic of bitter social controversy. There was disagreement over whether poverty caused intemperance or the reverse. Hardy is highlighting the problems with alcohol in Rural communities at this time (anti-pastoral).
Mrs Durbeyfield suggests that they get some young feller to take the beehives to market for Mr Durbeyfield but Tess declares proudly that she…
“wouldn’t have it for the world!” and admits that she is ashamed of the reason, offering to take them herself with Abraham.
AO2: Hyperbole emphasises her pride and embarrassment. Tess’ flaw is that she is too proud? Not letting someone more experiences take the horse is what causes the accident with prince.
AO4: Her pride/hubris begins the tragic chain of events.
Tess tells Abraham that the stars are worlds and compares them to the apples on their stubbard-tree - ‘Most of them splendid and sound - a few blighted.’
She then goes on to say how they live on ‘A blighted one’ (IV, 31)
This is Tess answering Abraham’s question about which sort of ‘star’ they live on - a ‘splendid and sound’ one or a ‘blighted’ one. This simile/metaphor shows Tess’ negative outlook on the world at times, demonstrating how she thinks the world can be cruel, hinting towards the impoverished state of her family. This is an anti-pastoral element.
AO4: Tess’s passivity = fatal flaw? She accepts bad fate.
AO3: Thomas Hardy was a pessimist novelist. In his novels, fate, chances, and circumstances are the worst enemies of humanity, and they dominate free will. Here we are seeing Hardy’s pessimistic, fatalistic and futile views towards life portrayed through Tess. Hardy doesn’t want us to blame Tess for her tragedy.
