Tess Flashcards
(20 cards)
“Her hat had blown of into the road”
The small moment subtly foreshadows the power imbalance and the tragic turn in Tess’s journey.
Hat symbolises modesty and protection in Victorian contexts. Tess losing her hat can symbolise a shedding of her social and personal protection foreshadowing her vulnerability and what is to come with Alec.
Her uncovered head suggests her growing exposure - literally and metaphorically - to Alec’s predatory intentions and to the dangers of the world outside her rural innocence.
“When she had fallen asleep he had not disturbed her”
Tess falling asleep on alecs horse mirrors the tragic event of Prince - her own horse - foreshadowing the inferred rape scene.
Her falling asleep symbolises how unprotected she is in Alec’s world.
“He wrapped her in his grey coat”
a chilling symbol of false protection
A coast suggests comfort but instead conceals harm and betrayal - “wrapped” connotes warmth and safety.
These lines are deliberately subtle and full of dark irony—Alec’s supposed “protection” is what enables his violation of Tess. The “greatcoat” seems caring, but it masks the moment’s predatory nature.
The greatcoat symbolizes patriarchal power disguised as care.
“With the milk pail in her hand”
The process of producing milk is pure - her new job could suggest the renewal of her purity or a reminder of her purity lost over time
Tess working closely with this pure produce is deliberate as hardey wants to redefine purity inferring Tess still has natural beauty innocence and purity in his mind
“He was above her in every way”
the milkmaids’ admiration for Angel serves as a vehicle for highlighting the novel’s tragic themes
Milk maids’ admiration paints Angel as a figure of natural purity who is removed from the corrupting forces of society.
Tess similarly sees him in this light hoping for love free from the stains of her past which turns out to be false.
Tess’ failure of living up to Angel’s idealism leads to her downfall. Tension between idealism and the harshness of reality
“Adam and Eve”
Angel compares him and tess to adam and eve inferring he views the relationship as pure and untainted - this foreshadows angels later discovery that Tess is stained and a fallen woman - eves biblical fall in the garden of eden
garlic in the cheese
Milk symbolising - purity - garlic shows how easily milk/purity can be tainted mirroring Tess
“Angel i was a child”
Angel’s conflict is about self-idealization versus societal expectations—he tries to reject societal norms for himself- the class societal norms by wanting to be with tess- to live the life he wants and marry the woman he chooses , but when it comes to Tess, he’s unwilling to extend that freedom to her, succumbing to the same rigid moral standards that govern society.
Angel is deeply bound by the same oppressive societal norms he attempts to escape
what does angel represent?
Double standards
“I would be wrong to marry you” - Tess rejecting angels proposal
even when offered a way out of her suffering she believes her fate is sealed
Or
Fate is inescapable
she tried to avoid tragedy through self sacrifice of her happiness actually becomes part of the tragic pattern she can’t escape her tragedy
“Too late too late”
It reinforces the tragic idea that even love, when delayed, can become meaningless in the face of irreversible loss
Angel and Tess coming back together is fate in itself
almost an illusion of redemption offered to late however there reunion highlights that this fate does not save her but bring her back to love only when it cannot change her end hardy uses this to show how society makes tragedy unavoidable
“The woman i have been loving is not you”
referencing the letter slipping under the rug shows how Angel is blind to the truth, both literally and emotionally. The truth was there, under his feet, but he didn’t look for it. This symbolizes how Angel fails to see Tess as a whole, real person—he clings to an ideal, not reality
Marian drinking herself to death
foreshadows tess own psychological collapse due to angels rejection but tess continues to fight against her suffering making her endurance more tragic
“You have been making my life black with misery”
In tragedy “black”ness represents death despair and darkness of the soul conveying a sense of overwhelming sorrow it also foreshadowing her death
Tess is often portrayed as being at the mercy of forces beyond her control. The repetition of misery is reflective of the cyclical nature of Tess’s suffering — there is no escape, and she feels trapped in a never-ending series of misfortunes- alec’s actions have been following tess and she can’t escape him just like she can’t escape her tragic fate
“No will to resist”
“dangerous”
Alec describes Tess’ face as this “dangerous” force of temptation. Weaponizing her face shows the danger of her attractiveness which echoes a common trope in tragic literature blaming women for men’s moral failings it is Tess’s looks that cause alec to act this way
Tess father’s death
This causes Tess to reach back out to Alec - catalyst for tess downfall his death is a turning point that leads to tess tragic entanglement with Alec - this evokes pathos readers feel deep sympathy for her impossible situation
This moment highlights her noble sacrifice, a defining trait of a tragic heroine — she chooses suffering to protect others
her going back to alec symbolises that society ties her to her sins alec embodies the societal punishment
The door between Tess and Alecs conversation
Tess speaks to Alec with a door between them - the door symbolises threshold between her past moral resistance and her surrender to alec
Act of murdering Alec
she is trapped in a tragic cycle she can’t escape
Tess kills Alec in a desperate attempt to free herself from the man who has wronged and controlled her, believing that removing him will finally allow her to be with Angel without guilt or shame
blood dripping from the ceiling
haunting symbol of the consequences she cannot avoid. It reveals that, despite her attempt to take control, her fate is already sealed.
“I am ready”
accepting her punishment as something inevitable. Hardy uses this tragic arc to show that Tess, no matter what choices she makes, is doomed by the forces of fate, society, and male dominance. Her act of violence, rather than saving her, only completes the tragic pattern she was always caught in.
