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Tess Summary No. 4Part Wise Summary, Analysis, Character Study andPoints to Discuss

For most readers, the major issue in this novel is whether Tess is victimized, whether she is responsible for her fate, or whether she is partially victimized and partially responsible for her fate.

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The title of the first section with its reference to maiden indicates Tess's innocence; she is, as Hardy describes her, "a mere vessel of emotion untinctured by experience" (page 9).

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The deep emotions that move Tess and the feeling with which Hardy writes about her led J.I.M. Stewart to write, "Tess of the d'Urbervilles is not merely an emotional novel; it is one of the greatest distillations of emotion into art that English literature can show."

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PHASE THE FIRST: THE MAIDENTHE OPENING: CHAPTERS 1 AND 2. The opening two

chapters introduce several major themes: the effect of the past in the present, coincidence or chance, degradation of the poor, integration into the folk or community, and the fertility of nature.

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Both Tess's father and Tess are involved with the past. Parson Tringham impulsively reveals his illustrious family tree to Durbeyfield. The immediate effect of this meaningless information about the past is Durbeyfield' s foolish behaviour: he is taken by his own self importance and then becomes drunk.

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Consider, as you read, how much of an impact the revelation of her ancestry has on Tess's life.

Discussion Topic One

Discussion Topic Two

Is chance or coincidence operating in

the timing of the revelation, that Durbeyfield

must take the beehives to market early the

next morning?

To be Continued