Group Reading of Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Phase the Second: Maiden No More

Chapter 12

Tess, in sorrow and disgrace finds her way back to her home village. Has Tess told her mother the entire story? It seems to me that Hardy is being coy here; there's surely a lot more than is being revealed to us as readers.

It's clear that Tess is conflicted, admitting to having failed to act as prudently as she ought, and yet believing deep down that whatever guilt she bears was essentially forced upon her.

Mrs. Durbeyfield reluctantly accepts what can't be helped but for Tess, the future looks bleak indeed. In such a village, she will be seen as "damaged goods", a poor prospect for any kind of marriage, never mind a rich one.

Hardy is obviously making a moral argument here, pointing out the sheer unfairness of it all and the dreadful double standard applied to men and women. But I doubt if many readers in Hardy's day would be receptive to his protest. It's plain to see why he had difficulty getting the book published.

Chapter 13

A gloomy chapter. Tess tries to integrate back into her community, socializing with the other young women, tries going to church again. But her status has changed, she no longer fits in and she has become the subject of "whispers". She feels increasingly isolated and gradually withdraws, trying to become invisible, hoping that her plight may be forgotten. But this is impossible in a small village.

Hardy's treatment of this period engenders dramatic tension; we find ourselves waiting for something to happen, some event that may resolve Tess's dilemma.

Chapter 14

This is certainly the saddest chapter in the novel thus far, appropriately emphasized by the name that Tess assigned to her infant: Sorrow. Hardy most poignantly sums up the child as “a waif to whom Time had been a matter of days merely, who knew not that such things as years and centuries ever were; to whom the cottage interior was the universe, the week’s weather climate, new-born babyhood human existence, and the instinct to suck human knowledge.”

With that summation of innocence in mind, the notion that such a blameless creature might somehow be damned to eternity seems outrageous.

One more thought struck me profoundly — even an old agnostic like me: Actively preventing a dying infant from receiving the last rites must surely mean that Tess’s father has much to answer for, if the precepts of Christianity count for anything at all.

Chapter 15

Even though Hardy is a fatalist, he suggests that Tess does have the capacity not only to heal but also to influence her future. Doing so will demand a degree of maturity and strength of character and in this chapter, Hardy gives us reason to believe that Tess does possess both of those qualities. Tess appears to be emerging from the dark place where she has been ever since her return to he home town. One other hopeful sign is that she has an opportunity to live in a different community, one where her past is largely unknown.