Tess of the d’Urbervilles Questions and Answers 2
. 1. Bring out the significance of the following line – ‘Don’t you really know, Durbeyfield, that you are the lineal representatives of the ancient and knightly family of the d’Urbervilles?[Tess of the d’Urbervilles Questions and Answers 2]
Parson Tringham’s revelation of the family lineage is the start of everything that goes wrong for Tess Durbeyfield. Her father’s drinking to celebrate means Tess must take the hives to market, even though she has not slept. The ill-fated trip leads to the death of the horse, which leads to Tess’s parents sending her off in hopes of her marrying well or gaining money from the d’Urbervilles.
2. Who is Alec d’Urberville?
The principle antagonist of the novel, the handsome, libertine son of the wealthy d’Urberville-Stokes. He is fickie and impetuous by nature, but his infatuation with Tess seems more lasting than his feelings for other girls. His rape of Tess is the beginning of her misfortunes and the tragic undercurrent of the entire novel. Alec briefly takes up religion and becomes a preacher, but he discards his faith when he sees Tess again.
3. “But I don’t want anybody to kiss me, sir!’ she implored, a big tear beginning to roll down her face, and the corners of her mouth trembling in her attempts not to cry.’ – Who said this and why?
Alec d’Urberville regularly accuses Tess Durbeyfield of being a temptress, and later, she is accused by Angel Clare of being a flirt. However, Tess is neither. At the time of Alec’s initial interest, she is a teenager. Only 16 years old, Tess was not prepared to handle Alec’s advances, nor was she doing anything to encourage them.
4. Who is Angel Clare?
The intelligent, idealistic son of the parson James Clare. He rejects his father’s and brothers’ profession to instead study agriculture, and remains skeptical of religion. Tess, Izz, Retty, and Marian all fall in love with him at Talbothays, but he chooses Tess. He loves an idealized, “child of nature” version of Tess, however, and is shocked to learn about her past sexual experiences (even if they were done to her rather than of her own volition). Angel cares more than he would like about the approval of his family and society, and he rejects Tess despite his own sexual transgressions in his past.
5. ‘I was born bad, and I have lived bad, and I shall die bad in all probability. But, upon my lost soul, I won’t be bad towards you again, Tess.’Explain.
Alec d’Urberville admits he was in the wrong, but his admission does not change anything practical. In fact when Tess Durbeyfield encounters him several years later, he again pursues her. His integrity is absent, even after he has found religion. Alec’s “badness” is oddly conditional, however: although his attempt to pressure her by offering to provide for her family is appalling, he actually remains steadfast toward her-unlike Angel Clare, who deliberately abandons her.
6. Who are John and Joan Durbeyfields?
Tess’s father, a peddler with a bad heart condition and a love of alcohol. The novel begins with Durbeyfield learning that he is the last descendent of the ancient d’Urberville
family. The news immediately goes to his head and he acts entitled for the rest of the book. He hopes to profit from his ancestry, and sends Tess off to connect with the wealthy d’Urberville-Stokes, which leads to her many misfortunes.
Tess’s mother, a housewife with many children and responsibilities. She loves to sing and is very superstitious, often consulting her book the Compleat Fortune-Teller. She likes to make matches for Tess and first proposes the visit to the d’Urberville-Stokes. Joan maintains a sense of cheerful fatalism throughout the novel and takes her family’s many misfortunes in stride.
7. ‘Why didn’t you tell me there was danger in men-folk? Why didn’t you warn me?’- comment.
In this moment Tess Durbeyfield is aware her mother and likely her father—knew danger of her going to work for Alec d’Urberville. Her mother’s desire to find a quick way to money meant she chose not to prepare Tess. Would such warnings have mattered? Perhaps not with a man like Alec. However, Joan Durbeyfield sent her daughter out to the wolves with no defenses at all.
8. Who is Izz Huett?
One of the Talbothays dairymaids who befriends Tess and falls in love with Angel. She is heartbroken when Angel rejects her , but never grows bitter towards Tess. When Angel is leaving for Brazil he briefly asks Izz to accompany him. Later she and Marian write him on Tess’s behalf.
9. ‘Suppose your sin was not of your own seeking?’- Who said this letter appealing and why?
Tess Durbeyfield is asking the question many thinkers were asking-and one readers often struggle with. How can she be judged when she did not choose to sin? She did not seek out or consent to sex outside of marriage. The decision was not hers, and considered guilty of all the same.
11. ‘The baby’s offence against society in coming into the forgotten by the girl-mother; her soul’s desire was to continue that offence by the life of the child.’ – Explain. ,
Initially Tess Durbeyfield was unhappy about her son, for obvious it was not the child’s fault. Tess’s love for her baby starts to outweigh the circumstances of his birth and proof of her status as “fallen”; she wants him to thrive. But he does not, herself choosing to act heretically to save his soul.
13. “‘Was once lost always lost really true of chastity?’ she would ask herself.” – Comment.
Tess Durbeyfield, for all of her simple upbringing and age, is contemplating a complex question. Is she irredeemably impure since she is “fallen”? This is, in essence, the question Hardy is asking by writing the novel. Moreover, he has answered it by choosing “A Pure Woman” as the subtitle.
14. How does the novel Tess of d’Urbervilles reflect a naturalistic theme?
Nature is an important theme in Tess of D’Urbervilles. Hardy uses nature to express the emotions and feelings of Tess, when Tess is happy nature also presents spring time, blue sky and flowers but at Flintcomb-Ash Dairy the hardships of work and hard weather heighten the sadness of Tess.
15. What does the person tell Mr. Durbeyfield?
The person calls Mr. Durbeyfield with the name of Sir John and tells him that he belongs to a noble family of D’Urbervilles.
16. ‘o, will you go away-for the sake of me and my husband-go, in the name of your own Christianity!’ – Explain.
Tess Durbeyfield is well aware Alec d’Urberville is relentless when he wants something. She has experienced it firsthand. It is the reason she lost her husband (theoretically), and it has haunted her for years. Tess is four years older now, and she appeals to his recent religious conversion in the hope it will make him go away.
17. What does Mr. talks to the person?
He orders to a boy that he sent a carriage for him which takes him home.
18. Where does Angel first see Tess?
Durbeyfield do after he Angel first sees Tess at the May Day dance in Marlot.
19. why does Angel leave without talking to Tess?
At the May Day dance, Angel leaves the Tess without talking to her because brothers move away on the way.
20. Who is Abraham Durbeyfield?
Abraham Durbeyfield Lu. He is with Tess when Prince dies. the younger brother of Tess. Abraham is younger than Louisa
21. Who is Joan Durbeyfield?
Joan Durbeyfield is the mother of Tess. She is simpleminded and forgiving woman.
22. Who is Jack Durbeyfield?
Jack or John Durbeyfield is the father of Tess Durbeyfield. He is a lazy peddler work. When he knows that he descends from a noble family of D’Urbervilles, he wants to make profit from connection.
23. Who is Mercy Chant?
Mercy Chant is the daughter of a friend and neighbor of Reverend Clare. Mr. Clare wants that Angel will marry her but he married to Tess then Mercy engaged to Cuthbert Clare.
24. What is the role of Izz Huett in Tess of the d’Urbervilles?
Izz Huett is milkmaid and friend of Tess at Talbothays Dairy. She loves to Angel. Angel after deserting Tess meet Izz Huett and requested her to go with him to Brazil but she .
25. ‘All the while they were converging, under an irresistible law, as two streams in one vale.’ – Comment.
Despite Tess Durbeyfield’s decision never to marry, she is drawn to Angel Clare, and he to her. Hardy’s wording here ties that attraction to fate as well as to nature. Some simply put, unavoidable in the fatalistic logic espoused in the novel.
27. How can we live together while that man lives?-he being your not 1. If he were dead it might be differents’ – Explain,
This comment foreshadows the novel’s conclusion. Angel Clare has plainly stated cannot live with Tess Durbeyfield—although they are married-because of Alec d’Urberville. He subscribes to the idea that marital relations are what make Alec, the man who raped her, her husband. To modern readers this idea of sex and marriage may seem extreme, which may factor into Angel’s thinking.
31. What are the major themes of ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’?
The injustice of existence, changing ideas of social class in Victorian England, men dominating women, fate and free will, memory and the past, nature and modernity, Paganism and Christianity, contrasting regions, marriage, time and sex are the major themes of “Tess of the d’Urbervilles”.
32. What is foreshadowing?
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which a writer gives and advance hint of what is to come later in the story. It is used to avoid disappointment and arouse the reader. For example, “He had no idea of the disastrous chain of events to follow”. In this sentence, while the protagonist is clueless of further developments, the reader leams that something disastrous is about to happen for the protagonist.
33. What is the significance of the legend of the d’Urberville Coach?
The d’Urberville coach is an old legend of the family which Angel mentions and Alec later explains to Tess. The coach is a symbol of foreshadowing and the theme of fate that looms over all the characters in the novel. Whenever a d’Urberville hears the sound of an invisible coach it is supposed to be a bad omen. The coach also symbolizes the ancient idea of being punished for one’s ancestors.
34. Why did contemporary critics think that ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ was ‘immoral’?
Contemporary critics like Mowbray Morris though that “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” was ‘immoral because people usually associate the Victorian Period with sexual repression and general prudishness. Thus the sexiness in the novel made is ‘immoral in their eyes.
35. What defect marks the social life of the people in and around Trantridge?
The villagers around Trantridge live for the moment, disdaining the idea of saving for the future. Many of them are hard drinkers.
36. What does Hardy mean when he says that Angel’s fastidious love could ‘guard the loved one against his very self’?
Angel really loves Tess. However, he has problems with Tess’s sexual history. Though it takes a while for him to reconcile her past with his ideas about sexual morality, he never stops loving her and his devotion is always complete.
37. ‘It is that this sound of a non-existent coach can only be heard by one of d’Urberville blood, and it is held to be of ill-omen to the one who hears it’ • Bring out the significance.
The legend of the d’Urberville coach is one of the superstitions in the novel. This one ties directly to the idea that there was a murder by a d’Urberville, and the novel ends with a murder by another d’Urberville. This story, as well as those told by Dairyman Crick, is not simply a story but foreshadowing in the novel and lessons within the story for Tess Durbeyfield herself.
38. Who is Tess?
Tess is the heroine and moral centre of the novel “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” by Hardy. She is beautiful and irresistible to men. She lives with her impoverished family in the village Com.
Marlott. She is also young, innocent, and uneducated unaware that the world is rifle with lust, cruelty, and vanity.
39. Why is it difficult for Tess to reject Alec outright when he asks her to become his mistress?
It is difficult for Tess to reject the marriage proposal of Alec outright because Alec can offer economic security, not only for Tess but her family as well.
40. Who causes more destruction to Tess, Alec or Angel? Why?
Angel causes more destruction to Tess. Angel has a moral centre and knows right from wrong. Alex is an idiot, an easily readable wolf who has no redeemable qualities. Alex is incompetent and cannot be held responsible. Angle is the only character in the novel who should have known better, did know better and still behaves like a child.
41. The ancient name of Tess’s family is, as the title stipulates, d’Urberville. However, the family uses a different form of the name. What is it?
It is Durbeyfield. Tess’s ancestors came to England with William the Conqueror and once were a potent family in the area. However, in the time of the novel Tess’s father is the only descendant of the family and, being a pauperized drunkard, he cannot restore the bygone splendor of the family.
42. Why does Tess decide to leave Marlott?
Tess leaves the d’Urberville estate when she is going to have a baby. Then she decides to leave Marlott when she is hurt by her father’s words, when her father says that the people will laugh at them again by the story of her marriage.
43. As a result of a very unlucky decision Tess agrees to go to her supposed relatives to seek help for the family. What is the main reason that makes her ?
She feels responsible for the death of the family’s only horse. Because of of attention, the Durbeyfields lost their only horse, Prince, and the ‘haggling business’ became disorganized. For this reason she felt it her duty to visit the Stokes-d’Urbervilles believe that such a visit might really help her family.
48. When does the climax in the novel take place?
The climax of the novel takes place on the wedding night of Tess and Angel after Tess reveals to her new husband the details of her relationship with Alec d’Urberville. The key moment occurs when Angel rejects Tess, saying that her disclosure makes him realize that she is not the woman he believed her to be. His inability to accept Tess as she is precipitates the tragic events that follow. There is a kind of secondary climax that occurs when police catch up with and arrest Tess at Stonehenge.
49. The novel is full of ill omens and particularly many appear on Tess’s wedding day. One of them is connected with Tess’s family lineage. What precisely does it concern?
The d’Urberville Coach. The first person to mention the legend is Angel but he abstains from telling Tess everything not to upset her. The rest is then explained by Alec. It is said that once a d’Urberville kidnapped a girl and when he was driving away with her in a coach, murder was committed. Since then d’Urbervilles see or hear the coach when something bad is going to happen to them. Tess is supposed to see the coach on her wedding day and indeed she is soon left by Angel.
50. ‘The oblong white ceiling, with this scarlet blot in the midst, had the appearance of a gigantic ace of hearts.’ – Explain.
The stain of Alec d’Urberville blood is heart shaped. This detail is somewhat melodramatic, but readers should keep in mind Hardy’s novels were initially published as serials. Although the novel was not serialized in full, some sections were. This image also underscores the color symbolism of red and white. The red stain on a white background echoes the red ribbon in Tess’s hair when she first appears as an innocent teenager in a white dress.
51. Is it true that Hardy’s own name appears in the book?
When Dairyman Crick explains Angel’s opinions on the old families he mentions a number of those which, like d’Urbervilles, were once potent and then lost their significance. The Hardys are mentioned among other families.
54. ‘Never in her life-she could swear it from the bottom of her soul-had she ever intended to do wrong; yet these hard judgments had come.’- Comment
Thinking Angel Clare has judged her as so many others have, Tess Durbeyfield faces the reality that her actions are not responsible for the wrongs she has been judged for committing. She has been judged repeatedly despite her innocence. Her family has judged her, as have townsfolk. The parson has judged her and refused to give her son a Christian burial. Even after professing love, Angel has judged her. Through it all Tess has continued to try to do right, but her actions have not changed the way others see her.
56. ‘I do love you, Tess-0, I do-it is all come back!’ – Bring out the significance.
Angel Clare can forgive murder, but he cannot forgive Tess Durbeyfield for having been raped. The importance of physical purity is clear—it is more important even than an act that causes genuine harm. However, Angel also has expressed more than once that Tess regarded him as if he were godlike. She has just killed a man to be with him.
57. After Alec’s death Angel and Tess spent a few happy days together moving to the interior part of the country. Where does Tess spend her last night with her husband?
On a stone altar. They sleep in Stonehenge and in the morning Tess is arrested for murder. She feels that the death that she will be punished with is a good thing because she won’t have to see Angel despising her again.
58. The history of Tess, as in a folk ballad to which it is sometimes compared, is brought to a tragic end. Angel and ‘Liza-Lu, whom he is to marry according to Tess’s wish, watch her die. How does Tess d’Urberville die?
She is hanged as a punishment for murder. I must say that the most striking thing about Tess is that, as Irving Howe puts it, ‘Tess is that rare creature in literature: goodness made interesting.’ Hardly ever does one find such examples.
59. After having managed to make Tess live with him, Alec does not live long. How does he die?
When Angel finally decides to forgive his wife, he finds her in a lodging with her first lover. She doesn’t feel herself worthy of Angel and when Alec begins to criticize and mock him, Tess stabs d’Urberville and runs to catch up with her husband. It is only then that they are reconciled. Though it took him so long to forgive her the accidental affair Angel has no problem to put up with her murder.
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