Classics and the Western Canon discussion

Angel’s feelings toward Tess become more intense as he contemplates marriage. He decides to go home to get his thoughts in order. We meet Angel’s family—his mother, father, and two brothers. His brothers observe a change in his mannerisms; he thinks his family’s outlook is limited. Angel tells his parents he is considering marriage to someone he met. His parents advocate for Mercy Chant, their neighbor’s daughter, but they agree to meet Tess.

Angel’s father accompanies him for part of the journey back to the dairy. He tells him of a nasty encounter he had with Alec D’Urberville. Angel embraces Tess when he returns to the dairy. He declares his love for her and proposes marriage. She admits to loving him but rejects his proposal on the grounds his parents would not approve of her.

Angel persists in learning why she declines his offer of marriage. She continues to maintain she is not worthy of him and is conflicted about telling him about her past. Eventually, she tells him she is a D’Urberville and encourages him to believe it is his antipathy to old families that causes her to reject his proposal. Angel dismisses her concerns and tells her of his father’s altercation with a D’Urberville.

Tess writes to her mother announcing her marriage. Her mother cautions her against revealing anything about her past to Angel. Tess remains conflicted. She wants to tell him the truth but is afraid of losing him. She sends another letter to her mother, hoping to get encouragement to be honest with Angel. Her mother doesn’t reply. The wedding is set for Christmas.

This very powerful image sums up in a nutshell one of the major themes of the novel. It happens when Tess is at the train station. We have seen Tess associated with nature, the rustic outdoors, and natural purity. Here Hardy contrasts her with the industrial machinery of the modern age.

Then there was the hissing of a train, which drew up almost silently upon the wet rails, and the milk was rapidly swung can by can into the truck. The light of the engine flashed for a second upon Tess Durbeyfield’s figure, motionless under the great holly tree. No object could have looked more foreign to the gleaming cranks and wheels than this unsophisticated girl, with the round bare arms, the rainy face and hair, the suspended attitude of a friendly leopard at pause, the print gown of no date or fashion, and the cotton bonnet drooping on her brow

Hardy describes the train as “hissing” into the station with all the negative connotations the word “hissing” conjures up. It draws up “almost silently.” Combined with “hissing,” it suggests the silent, inexorable advancement of something menacing. The light flashes for a second on Tess’ figure and then is gone as if dismissive of her presence. She is a fleeting image, here for a flash only to disappear. Tess is frozen in time (“motionless”) against the onslaught. By contrast, the train is animated, vibrant, and personified with its cranks and wheels that “looked” at Tess. The train perceives her presence as alien (“foreign”), out of place. She is “unsophisticated” with “bare arms” suggesting her vulnerability. Her attitude is of a “friendly leopard at pause.” The wild and magnificent leopard, out of its natural habitat, has been stripped of what comes naturally to it. Its nature has been suspended/transformed/subdued into one of accommodation, acquiescence, eager to please (“friendly”). Tess is out of time, (“the print gown of no date or fashion”). Here, even nature seems to conspire against her with the pouring rain covering her face and hair and causing her bonnet to droop, a bit like a lifeless, wet rag.

In one very powerful and telling image, we see Tess as vulnerable, fragile, powerless, and glaringly out of place and out of time against this noisy, mechanical incursion of modernity.

So much is conveyed in one image. It’s quite breathtaking.

Tess is plagued with inner turmoil. On the one hand, she wants to reveal the truth about her past to Angel; on the other hand, she fears losing him if she does. Angel dismisses her concerns, including her D’Urberville ancestry. Does his view of Tess and his dismissal of her concerns make it harder for her to reveal the truth? Does he see her as a flesh and blood human being or does he idealize her?

Reminders of Tess’ past continually crop up: Mr. Crick’s story of Jack Dollop and a betrayed woman; the altercation between Angel’s father and Alec D’Urberville; the newly-weds intended move into a former D’Urberville farm house at the Wellbridge water mill. What purpose do these constant reminders serve?

Is Tess’ mother right in cautioning her not to reveal the truth about her past to Angel?

Susanna wrote: "I'm assuming that D.H. Lawrence read Hardy before writing the short story that we read earlier, "The Odor of Chrysanthemums". That story begins with a train disrupting nature..."

He probably did read Hardy. Good connection.

Yes, I constantly thought of our discussion of D.H. Lawrence's story "The Odor of Chrysanthemums." BTW I think that was a superior example of the value of our discussions along with the story. As a group, we did a great thing. Hardy seems to just about burst out with that story as a (dark) blossom.x

Lawrence definitely read Hardy. He wrote a whole "Study of Thomas Hardy." Being Lawrence, at least half of it had nothing to do with Hardy and was about the life force, being and not-being, the painter Raphael, the man as axle and woman as hub and whatever else Lawrence wanted to write about, but he is astute about Hardy when he stays on topic!

This is the wonder of Hardy's novels, and gives them their beauty. The vast, unexplored morality of life itself, what we call the immorality of nature, surrounds us in its eternal incomprehensibility, and in its midst goes on the little human morality play, with its queer frame of morality and its mechanized movement; seriously, portentously, till some one of the protagonists chances to look out of the charmed circle, weary of the stage, to look into the wilderness raging round. Then he is lost, his little drama falls to pieces... There is this quality in almost all of Hardy's work, and this is the magnificent irony it all contains, the challenge, the contempt.

Emily wrote: "Lawrence definitely read Hardy. He wrote a whole "Study of Thomas Hardy." Being Lawrence, at least half of it had nothing to do with Hardy and was about the life force, being and not-being, the pai..."

An eloquent description of Hardy's novels. Thanks for sharing it, Emily.

Mind you, I think he's generally doing something a little different in Tess, as your great quote shows. Nature here seems quite domesticated, and there's more a classic tension between nature and industry and rural life and progress and internationalism (Angel's plans to go to the colonies -- it's hard to imagine Tess in Brazil).

This is my first time reading this book and I on purpose have not read any summaries or anything about it. Given Hardy’s images of Tess as being fragile I find myself reading with a constant sense of fear that things will go poorly for Tess.

Mike, it is a testament to Hardy's skill as an author that he is able to communicate the fear for Tess you are sensing as a first-time reader of the novel. You are reading it with fresh eyes, which is of tremendous value to those of us who are more familiar with the novel. I hope you will continue to share your impressions.

Hardy has this to say about Tess’ love for Angel and Angel’s actual qualities:

She had not known that men could be so disinterested, chivalrous, protective, in their love for women as he. Angel Clare was far from all that she thought him in this respect: but he was, in truth, more spiritual than animal; he had himself well in hand, and was singularly free from grossness. Though not cold-natured, he was rather bright than hot—less Byronic than Shellyan; could love desperately, but his love more especially inclined to the imaginative and ethereal; it was an emotion which could jealously guard the loved one against his very self. This amazed and enraptured Tess, whose slight experiences had been so infelicitous till now; and in her reaction from indignation against the male sex she swerved to excess of honor for Clare. (Chapter 31)

Is this another example of Tess’ inexperience causing her to misjudge an individual, in this case, Angel Clare? Is Hardy preparing us for a fall?

Tamara wrote: "Hardy has this to say about Tess’ love for Angel and Angel’s actual qualities:

She had not known that men could be so disinterested, chivalrous, protective, in their love for women as he. Angel Cl..."

I think Tess's feelings about Angel here are a mix of healthy and unhealthy. Is she projecting and idealizing? Absolutely. No one is like that. Is Angel a step up from Alec? Also absolutely, and I think she's correct in recognizing the ways he's different, and the importance of those differences.

Whether it works out is yet to be seen...

Also, as a person who was much more into Shelley than Byron as a poetical teenager, I approve of Tess's taste! :-D (Though further reading suggests Shelley wasn't a great husband, hmmm)

Emily wrote: "I wasn't getting into all that because I didn't think we were there yet.... I'm working on the info Tess has at the time, and I don't think it's unusual for lovers to idealize the object of their a..."

Emily, you are absolutely correct. I made the mistake of jumping ahead in my post. I deleted my comment. Thank you for pointing that out. My apologies to all.