Presentation of courtship in Tess of the d’Urbervilles
Tess and Angel first meet in Chapter 2. When they meet again in Chapter 17, Tess immediately
recognises him. Angel’s interest in Tess begins at the end of Chapter 18: he begins to remember
her, where Hardy says, ‘But the circumstance was sufficient to lead him to select Tess in
preference to the other pretty milkmaids when he wished to contemplate contiguous
womankind’. Their courtship culminates in their marriage, on New Year’s Eve, in Chapter 33.
The relationship between Tess and Angel is central to the novel’s narrative, and their courtship
is presented in a number of different ways. Many of the methods Thomas Hardy uses are given
below, followed by a selection of extracts that include these methods.
Task one: Exploring Tess and Angel’s courtship
This activity will help you prepare for the examination or coursework, where you need to be
able to demonstrate your understanding of the ways meaning is shaped in literature through
textual analysis (AO2) and accurate use terminology (AO1).
You will use the extracts below, and the list of presentation methods below to complete the
tasks. NB All extracts are taken from the Wordsworth Classics (2000) version of the text.
1. Find the extract(s) in the novel and read it/them closely in context, checking any unfamiliar
words.
2. Identify at least one of the presentation methods listed below in the extract(s) (you might
like to use the numbers as a key, or colour code these).
3. Analyse the presentation methods Hardy uses in the extract(s) using terminology e.g. similes,
metaphors, local dialect or farming language.
4. Make a note of any links to important themes, structure, omniscient narrator or other events
in the novel.
Presentation methods
1. The seasons mirror their love: ever-changing, sometimes growing, sometimes withering.
2. The farm routine reflects Angel’s courtship and intentions: it is practical and unglamorous
work, appropriate for a farmer’s wife.
3. Biblical analogies reflect the religious background to Angel’s upbringing and Tess’s downfall;
references to paganism reflect Tess’ upbringing.
4. History and ancestry: the characters present different attitudes. Angel thinks Tess being a
d’Urberville is a merely interesting oddity while she sees it as a drawback to their happiness.
5. Superstition and fate/coincidence: these reflect the customs and beliefs of country life,
create suspense and affect the narrative, e.g. Tess’s letter not being found by Angel.
6. Tess is presented as part of nature (both to enhance descriptions of her and to convey inner
qualities, whilst she is shown to be uncomfortable with new industrial developments).
7. Angel is presented as part of conventional society shown through his attitudes, family and
possessions.
8. Magical aspects of their love: often when Tess is alone with Angel; conversely, their love is
sometimes described using scientific language.
© www.teachit.co.uk 2015
24227
Page 1 of 9
Presentation of courtship in Tess of the d’Urbervilles
9. Symbolism of red: at sunrise/sunset, for passion, for violence and death, with pathetic
fallacy creating suspense.
10. Mythological references: these reflect Angel’s learned background and again make Tess
appear uncomfortable.
Text extracts
Chapter 19
Tess was conscious of neither time nor space. The exaltation which she had described as being
producible at will by gazing at a star, came now without any determination of hers; she
undulated upon the thin notes of the second-hand harp, and their harmonies passed like breezes
through her, bringing tears into her eyes. The floating pollen seemed to be his notes made
visible, and the dampness of the garden the weeping of the garden’s sensibility. Though near
nightfall, the rank-smelling weed-flowers glowed as if they would not close for intentness, and
the waves of colour mixed with the waves of sound.
Hint: look up the word ‘synaesthesia’ and use this to analyse the extract.
Chapter 20
It was then, as has been said, that she impressed him most deeply. She was no longer the
milkmaid, but a visionary essence of woman – a whole sex condensed into one typical form. He
called her Artemis, Demeter, and other fanciful names half teasingly, which she did not like
because she did not understand them.
‘Call me Tess,’ she would say askance; and he did.
Then it would grow lighter, and her features would become simply feminine; they had changed
from those of a divinity who could confer bliss to those of a being who craved it.
Hint: find out what these two goddesses symbolise and make the link to Tess.
© www.teachit.co.uk 2015
24227
Page 2 of 9
Presentation of courtship in Tess of the d’Urbervilles
Chapter 23
‘I may be able to clim’ along the bank perhaps – I can clim’ better than they. You must be so
tired, Mr Clare!’
‘No, no, Tess,’ said he quickly. And almost before she was aware she was seated in his arms and
resting against his shoulder.
‘Three Leahs to get one Rachel,’ he whispered.
‘They are better women than I,’ she replied, magnanimously sticking to her resolve.
‘Not to me,’ said Angel.
He saw her grow warm at this; and they went some steps in silence.
‘I hope I am not too heavy?’ she said timidly.
‘O no. You should lift Marian! Such a lump. You are like an undulating billow warmed by the
sun. And all this fluff of muslin about you is the froth.’
Hint: research the qualities of chivalry. How far does Angel fulfil them?
Chapter 24
Amid the oozing fatness and warm ferments of the Froom Vale, at a season when the rush of
juices could almost be heard below the hiss of fertilisation, it was impossible that the most
fanciful love should not grow passionate. The ready bosoms existing there were impregnated by
their surroundings.
July passed over their heads, and the Thermidorean weather which came in its wake seemed an
effort on the part of Nature to match the state of hearts at Talbothays Dairy. The air of the
place, so fresh in spring and early summer, was stagnant and enervating now. Its heavy scents
weighed upon them, and at midday the landscape seemed lying in a swoon.
Hint: explore Hardy’s use of pathetic fallacy.
© www.teachit.co.uk 2015
24227
Page 3 of 9
Presentation of courtship in Tess of the d’Urbervilles
Chapter 27
Tess’s excitable heart beat against his by way of reply; and there they stood upon the red-brick
floor of the entry, the sun slanting in by the window upon his back, as he held her tightly to his
breast; upon her inclining face, upon the blue veins of her temple, upon her naked arm, and her
neck, and into the depths of her hair. Having been lying down in her clothes she was warm as a
sunned cat. At first she would not look straight up at him, but her eyes soon lifted and his
plumbed the deepness of the ever-varying pupils, with their radiating fibrils of blue, and black,
and grey, and violet, while she regarded him as Eve at her second waking might have regarded
Adam.
Chapter 29
His plan of procedure was different now – as though he had made up his mind that her negatives
were, after all, only coyness and youth startled by the novelty of the proposal. The fitful
evasiveness of her manner when the subject was under discussion countenanced the idea. So he
played a more coaxing game; and while never going beyond words or attempting the renewal of
caresses, he did his utmost orally.
In this way Clare persistently wooed her in undertones like that of the purling milk – at the cow’s
side, at skimmings, at butter-makings, at cheese-makings, among broody poultry, and among
farrowing pigs – as no milkmaid was wooed before by such a man.
Hint: explore how dramatic irony lets the reader understand Tess’s reluctance more than Angel
does.
© www.teachit.co.uk 2015
24227
Page 4 of 9
Presentation of courtship in Tess of the d’Urbervilles
Chapter 30
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.
She mounted again beside her lover, with a mute obedience characteristic of impassioned
natures at times, and when they had wrapped themselves up over head and ears in the sailcloth
again, they plunged back into the now thick night. Tess was so receptive that the few minutes
of contact with the whirl of material progress lingered in her thought.
Hint: from what unusual point of view do we get this third person narrative description?
Chapter 31
Her affection for him was now the breath and life of Tess’s being; it enveloped her as a
photosphere, irradiated her into forgetfulness of her past sorrows, keeping back the gloomy
spectres that would persist in their attempt to touch her – doubt, fear, moodiness, care, shame.
She knew that they were waiting like wolves just outside the circumscribing light, but she had
long spells of power to keep them in hungry subjection there.
© www.teachit.co.uk 2015
24227
Page 5 of 9
Presentation of courtship in Tess of the d’Urbervilles
Chapter 33-34
‘Oh?’ said Mrs Crick. ‘An afternoon crow!’
Two men were standing by the yard gate, holding it open.
‘That’s bad,’ one murmured to the other, not thinking that the words could be heard by the
group at the door-wicket.The cock crew again – straight towards Clare.
‘Well!’ said the dairyman.
‘I don’t like to hear him!’ said Tess to her husband. ‘Tell the man to drive on. Good-bye, goodbye!’
The cock crew again.
‘Hoosh!’ Just be off, sir, or I’ll twist your neck!’ said the dairyman with some irritation, turning
to the bird and driving him away. And to his wife as they went indoors: ‘Now to think o’ that
just to-day! I’ve not heard his crow of an afternoon all the year afore.’
‘It only means a change in the weather,’ said she; ‘not what you think: ‘tis impossible!’
They drove by the level road along the valley to a distance of a few miles….
‘Welcome to one of your ancestral mansions!’ said Clare as he handed her down. But he
regretted the pleasantry; it was too near a satire.
Hint: consider linguistic features, e.g. sentence length and type and links to Tess’s fate at the
end
Task two: Symbolism of red and fire
These activities will help you to explore the symbolism of fire and the colour red in more detail.
Fire and the colour red are linked to strong feelings as Tess and Angel, on their wedding night,
confess their pasts to each other.
1. Find as many relevant references as you can in the first extract, just before Angel’s
confession in Chapter 34 (Extract 1, below), as Hardy builds tension towards Tess’s
confession. (Look up Aldebaran and Sirius if you don’t know what they are.)
© www.teachit.co.uk 2015
24227
Page 6 of 9
Presentation of courtship in Tess of the d’Urbervilles
Extract 1:
A steady glare from the now flameless embers painted the sides and back of the fireplace with
its colour, and the well-polished andirons, and the old brass tongs that would not meet. The
underside of the mantel-shelf was flushed with the high-coloured light, and the legs of the table
nearest the fire. Tess’s face and neck reflected the same warmth, which each gem turned into
an Aldebaran or a Sirius – a constellation of white, red, and green flashes, that interchanged
their hues with her every pulsation.
2. Now read and analyse the presentation of Tess’s confession in the final paragraph of Chapter
34 (Extract 2, below). Again, highlight all the references to fire and red imagery that you
find. Can you explain:

the ‘Last Day’ reference

the effect the fire has on Tess’s shadow

the effect the fire has on her necklace?
Extract 2:
‘…’tis just the same! I will tell you now.’
She sat down again.
Their hands were still joined. The ashes under the grate were lit by the fire vertically, like a
torrid waste. Imagination might have beheld a Last Day luridness in this red-coaled glow, which
fell on his face and hand, and on hers, peering into the loose hair about her brow, and firing the
delicate skin underneath. A large shadow of her shape rose upon the wall and ceiling. She bent
forward, at which each diamond on her neck gave a sinister wink like a toad’s; and pressing her
forehead against his temple she entered on her story of her acquaintance with Alec d’Urberville
and its results, murmuring the words without flinching, and with eyelids drooping down.
© www.teachit.co.uk 2015
24227
Page 7 of 9
Presentation of courtship in Tess of the d’Urbervilles
3. Compare the above extracts with the two that follow, after their confessions.
The pair were, in truth, but the ashes of their former fires. To the hot sorrow of the previous
night had succeeded heaviness; it seemed as if nothing could kindle either of them to fervour of
sensation anymore. (Chapter 36)
He thus beheld in the pale morning light the resolve to separate from her; not as a hot and
indignant instinct, but denuded of the passionateness which had made it scorch and burn;
standing in its bones; nothing but a skeleton, but none the less there. Clare no longer hesitated.
(Chapter 37)
© www.teachit.co.uk 2015
24227
Page 8 of 9
Presentation of courtship in Tess of the d’Urbervilles
Task three: making comparisons with other texts
Compare the presentation of relationships in Tess of the D’Urbervilles with those in your paired
text, by completing the grid below with examples.
Passion/loving
relationships
Tess of the
D’Urbervilles
Why or how is this
presented?
Wuthering Heights
Mercenary
relationships
Tess and Angel
Tess and Alec
Conventional
marriage
Angel and Mercy
Chant
The natural, rural
settings mirror their
action and feelings.
Heathcliff and Cathy;
Young Catherine and
Hareton
Cathy and Edgar
Linton; Heathcliff and
Isabella; Young Cathy
and Linton Heathcliff
Hindley and Frances
Why or how is this
presented?
The Great Gatsby
Jay Gatsby and Daisy;
Tom and Myrtle
Tom and Daisy
Tom and Daisy
Myrtle and George
Wilson
Why or how is this
presented?
© www.teachit.co.uk 2015
24227
Page 9 of 9