Nineteenth-Century British Novel

Study Questions – Tess of the D’urbervilles

• Agree or Disagree: Hardy’s opening description of the May Day procession and of Tess encourages a prurient voyeurism that objectifies women (especially Tess) as sexually-tantalizing objects. What are the implications of your answer for the narrative discourse of this novel? In other words, how does the narrator’s attitude toward Tess support or refute the larger moral attitude of this novel?

• At the end of Phase 1, Hardy writes: “An immeasurable chasm was to divide our heroine’s personality thereafter from that previous self of hers who stepped from her mother’s door to try her fortune at Trantridge poultry-farm” (74). In what ways does Tess’s personality change after her rape? What do these changes imply about the nature and effects of sexual violation?

• As mentioned in footnote #14, in the original, serialized version of Tess, Alec had actually asked Tess to marry him after he “made love to” her, and Tess had agreed, “knowing [her mother] would be angry if [she] didn’t.” Alec then arranged a sham marriage, about which Tess later learned. How do the tone and implications of the original sequence differ from those of the current version (where Tess states she would refuse to marry Alec)? Why do you think Hardy’s original editors would have insisted on the first version? How does the change effect your view of Alec, of Tess, and of the story as a whole?

• On page 82, Tess cries to her mother: “Why didn’t you tell me there was danger? Why didn’t you warn me? Ladies know what to guard against, because they read novels that tell them of these tricks; but I never had the chance of discovering in that way; and you did not help me!” In your own opinion, do Tess’s words redistribute the blame for her rape? Is Tess’s mother more responsible than Alec for what happened to Tess? What do Tess’s words suggest about Hardy’s view of novels and their function?

• In the original publication of this novel, the entirety of chapter 14 was omitted along with any mention that Tess was impregnated by Alec and has his baby. How does the addition of this chapter and these events change the story? Why do you think Hardy’s original editors would have insisted on the omission of this chapter?

• This novel seems to support an essentialist view of women – i.e., it seems to believe that women are born with certain innate characteristics and instincts. How would you characterize Hardy’s view of women? Which of Tess’s characteristics seem to be innately “womanly”? In what ways do Tess’s natural instincts contradict social mandates / society’s moral values?

• While Hardy seems to disapprove of doctrinal, systematic religion, he does use the language of the Bible in numerous instances as part of his narrative. For instance, he refers to Tess and Angel as “Adam and Eve,” to Tess as a “Magdalen,” and to Tess and Angel’s mornings together at the dairy as the “Resurrection hour” (130). How would you reconcile the discrepancy between Hardy’s disapproval of doctrinal religion and his obvious respect for (and use of) scripture?

• Agree or Disagree: Hardy’s novel supports the idea that individuals’ lives are governed by fate (i.e., a greater force beyond their own control) and that it is futile to believe that one can control one’s own life.

• Agree or Disagree: Hardy supports the idea that individuals’ identities and the true substance of their natures can be regarded a separate from and independent of their actions and beliefs.

• How might you reconcile Angel Clare’s rustic ideals, his “indifference to social forms and observances” (116), and his disdain for aristocratic blood-lines with the intense awareness of social judgment that underlies his abandonment of Tess? That is, does Angel care or not care about what society deems right and moral?

• Which side would you support?

A. Tess’s “marriage” to Alec near the novel’s end evidences the inescapable justice dealt by the laws of nature.

B. Tess’s “marriage” to Alec near the novel’s end suggests the absence of justice in the laws of nature.

12. Which side would you support?

A. Tess is still a “pure woman” even after she murders Alec D’urberville, and she does not deserve to be punished for her action.

B. Tess can not be considered a “pure woman” after she commits murder, and she deserves to be punished for her action.