Hardy portrays Tess as being beautiful; a beauty that, in fact, is close to nature itself. Later in the book he describes her as being “akin to nature.” His first description of Tess is “she was a fine and handsome girl – not handsomer than some others, possibly – but her mobile peony mouth and large innocent eyes added eloquence to colour and shape”. The description of her peony mouth immediately brings to mind a lush, full red mouth and this description alone marks her as a beauty. It would be hard to imagine a plain girl with such a beautiful mouth.
Marlott is also described as being a natural, fertile and lush place and Hardy also uses the word untrodden, “….for the most part untrodden…..”. This landscape reflects Tess’s persona, as she too, is very beautiful, innocent, natural, fertile and unsullied. She is unspoilt, as she has not yet encountered the world and is still virginal and pure. She is sheltered from the cruelty of life, as is Marlott. “ This fertile and sheltered tract of country…”. This sheltered and safe upbringing makes her naïve and innocent and her innocence makes her very susceptible to men.
“ The district is of historic, no less than of topographical interest”. “In those days, and till comparatively recent times, the country was densely wooded. Even now, traces of its earlier conditions are to be found in the old oak copses and irregular belts of timber that yet survives upon its slopes, and the hollow-trunked trees that shade so many of its pasture”. This defines Tess’s heritage in that she is the direct descendant of nobility and like the landscape, which has been eroded with time, so have the trappings of John Durbeyfield’s noble ancestry.
Hardy sets the novel in springtime, this is a very suitable season to use as spring heralds the beginning of life, just as Tess is in the springtime of her life. Spring is also important as it signifies growth and Tess is beginning to mature from an adolescent into a young woman.
We first get a glimpse of Tess, with a group of women and girls who are taking part in an ancient custom of the May dance, a celebration of the spring. “The forests had departed, but some old customs of their shades remain. Many, however, linger only in a metamorphosed or disguised form. The May-Day dance, for instance, was to be discerned on the afternoon on notice, in the guise of a club revel, or ‘club walking’ as it was there called”. Hardy notes that such clubs are forgotten in cities, but have retained their former glory in the country. This is an indication that Tess is not worldly or sophisticated, a character trait that leaves her unprepared for the advances of a worldly man, such as Alec D’Urberville. In this dance the women parade around the village in white gowns, carrying a bundle of white flowers in one hand and a peeled willow stick in the other. Hardy stresses the colour white here. White is the colour of purity and innocence and he wants Tess’s virginal qualities emphasised. He describes the maidens at the May Dance as like individual flowers in bud “ warmed without by the sun, so each had a private little sun for her soul to bask in…at least some remote and distant hope which, though perhaps starving to nothing, still lived on”.
Hardy’s use of the May dance is also significant because May Day is an ancient pagan celebration. It is a celebration to the Roman goddess Floralia, who represented spring flowers and Maia, the goddess of May. It was a pagan festival to rejoice in for spring, growth and replenishment.
We rejoin the novel at chapter XVI, ‘ The Rally’, where Tess is leaving her home for the second time, to work at Talbothays dairy. Hardy again sets the scene in the season of spring “On a thyme-scented, bird-hatching morning in May” This evokes a mood of optimism and new beginnings which is what Tess is looking for. She is hoping for a new start in life and to forget the harsh winters that have just passed. She wants to start a new chapter of her life “she appeared to feel that she really had laid a new foundation for her future”.
The setting of Talbothays is described in breath-taking terms, which is applicable as Tess spends the happiest time of her life here. “…the valley in which milk and butter grew to rankness and were produced more profusely, if less delicately, than at her home - the verdant plain so well watered by the river Var or Froom”. This gives a picture of abundance – a kind of land of milk and honey where there is almost too much. Against this background Tess first encounters her destiny in the form of Angel Clare. Finally, when she leaves the safety of Marlott to go in search of her kinsmen things start to go wrong for Tess.
Hardy again uses the difference of settings between the Vale of Blackmoor and Talbothays to show a new way of life, by looking at the rivers and their temperaments “The river itself, which nourished the grass and cows of these renowned dairies, flowed not like the streams in Blackmoor. Those were slow, silent, often turbid; flowing over beds of mud into which the incautious wader might sink and vanish unawares. The Froom waters were clear as the pure River of Life shown to the Evangelist”. He uses the words clear and pure like this in some kind of re-birth, especially as he talks about it being a “river of life”. This comparison shows that Blackmoor, although beautiful, had an undercurrent that might trap the incautious person, whereas Talbothays is inviting, serene and even heavenly, as in the comparison to a river in the Bible. It is almost like this is Tess’s Holy Land and she must undergo a pilgrimage to get there. “In which the dairy stood as the aim of a days pilgrimage”. Talbothays is projected as a wholly good, open and natural way of life. There does not seem to be anything here that could harden fate against Tess and yet out of that goodness things may yet turn bad, just as the butter turns to rankness.
While Tess is walking to Talbothays, Hardy uses nature to echo Tess’s newfound hope, as everywhere is lush, alive and effulgent. Hardy has used pathetic fallacy here, as nature seems to be in sympathy with her affairs. Nature also seems to be conveying signs of hope and friendship to her, “she heard a pleasant voice in every breeze, and in every bird’s note there seemed to lurk a joy”. With all of these beautiful and encouraging images and scenes Tess reaches Talbothays feeling a little more optimistic and at peace with herself. This was evident in her countenance and helped to enchant Angel Clare. “Her face had latterly changed with changing states of mind, continually fluctuating between beauty and ordinariness, according as the thoughts were gay or grave. One day she was pink and flawless; another pale and tragical. When she was pink she was feeling less than pale; her more perfect beauty accorded with her less elevated mood; her more intense mood with her less perfect beauty. It was her best face physically that was now set against the south wind”. Her face also reflects the moods and changes of nature and gives her an air of mystery.
When she is at the dairy and her love for Angel is growing, the season is summer. This is very apt because when you think of summer, you conjure up the images of heat, passion and love.
When Tess follows Angel’s music, Hardy use a simile to liken her to a fascinated bird who is drawn to the music and Angel almost hypnotically “..as she listened Tess, like a fascinated bird could not leave the spot. Far from leaving she drew up towards the performer…”. She is also, later in the passage, described as a cat “she went stealthily as a cat through this profusion of growth.”
The scene occurs at dusk, which heightens the suspense; it is also very earthy and sensual. “ The outskirt of the garden in which Tess found herself has been left uncultivated for some years and was now dank and rank with juicy grass which sent up mists of pollen at a touch; and with tall blooming weeds emitting offensive smells – weeds whose red and yellow and purple hues formed a polychrome as dazzling as that of cultivated flowers…gathering cuckoo-spittle on her skirts, cracking snails that are underfoot, staining her hands with thistle-milk and slug slime and rubbing off upon her naked arms sticky blights which, though snow white on the apple-tree trunks, made madder stains on her skin”. The scene Hardy created is very luxurious and he makes keen uses of the senses, for example “with tall blooming weeds emitting offensive smells”. Hardy’s use of the pollen is also very visual, as when you think of pollen, you tend to think of fertility, life and energy. It is brimming with life and colour, a profusion in its most glorious and rawest forms and the sexual imagery is abundant. She finds herself in the part of the garden, which has been left uncultivated for years. This is a comparison with Tess’s life after the birth and loss of her child. There is almost a ripeness of his description of nature, cuckoo spittle, cracking snails, offensive smells, slug slime. This could be quite a repulsive description, but it shows a place teeming with life, and beautiful in its essence. It can be judged in two ways just as the sexual act could be seen as dirty, or beautiful as the design of nature, to express love and procreate new life. Despite all of this Hardy creates a spell-binding atmosphere, as if Mother Nature has made an incantation that will inevitably draw them together.
Chapter XX starts with “the season developed and matured”, this is, in a way, showing that the love between Tess and Angel is also developing and maturing. It also carries on to say that “another year’s instalment of flowers, leaves, nightingales, thrushes, finches and such ephemeral creatures, took up their positions….”. This is a very pleasant setting, which prepares you for the rest of the chapter. The phrase “ took up their positions” also gives you the impression that they were waiting for something to happen, to witness a forthcoming event.
Hardy gives the reader a strong feeling that Talbothays environment is perfect for Tess when he writes, “the sapling which had rooted down to a poisonous stratum on the spot of its sowing had been transplanted to a deeper soil”. This image gives the impression that Blackmoor was not good for her growth, but at Talbothays she will prosper and grow.
Hardy also creates a very romantic scene for Tess and Angel to meet daily and where their love grows stronger. Hardy sets the time they meet at being twilight dawn, this is like dusk, in their first romantic encounter. This again gives an air of mystery, as he describes the sky as being violet or pink and there being a summer mist, these images create a romantic, dreamy atmosphere and create a kind of suspense. “They met daily in that strange and solemn interval, the twilight of the morning, in the violet or pink dawn….”.
Hardy also describes Angel and Tess as being Adam and Eve. “ The spectral, half compounded, aqueous light which pervaded the open mead, impressed them with a feeling of isolation, as if they were Adam and Eve”. He describes them as being Adam and Eve because they feel like they are the only ones awake on earth. This is a very effective comparison, because Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden until they lost their innocence, were forced out of paradise and into the harsh, cruel world; this is an indicator of what is to come.
All through chapter XX nature seems to be trying to draw Angel and Tess closer together, as the environment enhances Tess’s beauty, with every facet of the day, trying to make them more attractive to one another. “ She was no longer the milkmaid, but a visionary essence of woman- a whole sex condensed into one typical form”. “Then it would grow lighter, and her features would become simply feminine…”. “ Tess then lost her strange and ethereal beauty..”, “…she was again the dazzling fair dairymaid…”. Tess was also endowed with gifts from nature, which again made her more appealing to Angel. “Minute diamonds of moisture from the mist hung, too, upon Tess’s eyelashes, and drops upon her hair, like seed pearls”, “ her teeth, lips and eyes scintillated in the sunbeams…”.
It is interesting to see how Hardy contrasts this love scene so much from the one at the Chase with Alec D'Urberville. The love scene with Angel happens in the morning, whereas in the Chase it is at night. I think he is showing how, not only are the environments a contrast, but also how the characters of Alec and Angel appear to differ, along with the circumstances and results.
It is during the heat of the summer that Angel can no longer control his passion for Tess and embraces her “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”. “Oozing fatness”, “rush of juices” and “hiss of fertilisation”; this imagery is very sexually charged and the writing certainly creates sexual tension. The word passion, as we understand it, is almost an understatement.
Flintcomb-Ash is a complete contrast to Talbothays dairy. Whereas Talbothays represents the best of farm life, Flintcomb-Ash represents the worst. Hardy creates Flintcomb-Ash as abhorrent and unwelcoming, in complete contrast to Talbothays. Hardy bombards the audience with obscene images “…rising above stony lanchets or lynchets - the outcrop of siliceous veins in the chalk formation, composed of myriads of loose white flints in bulbous, cusped and phallic shapes”. Talbothays is fresh, in tune with nature and unspoilt, but Flincomb-Ash is where the industrial revolution is happening, so the landscape is scarred and is misshapen by machines covering its hideous facade. Now the sexual images are verbalised when Hardy talks about phallic shapes, but this is a hard world devoid of love and feeling. The personification of Flintcomb-Ash owes more to monster than man, or perhaps man as monster; “siliceous veins” “cusped and phallic shapes”. Tess has also witnessed the monster in Angel Clare and his flint-like resolve to desert her.
Hardy even starts off with Tess in a poor frame of mind after her witnessing the fallen birds the night before “…..her recollection of the birds’ silent endurance of their night of agony impressing upon her the relativity of sorrows and the tolerable nature of her own, if she could once rise high enough to despise opinion”. This is a complete contrast to when she was travelling to Talbothays feeling optimistic and hopeful, but on this journey she felt disheartened, sorrowful and pessimistic about her future without Angel Clare.
Hardy even has Tess herself dressed plainly as if she were a part of the dreary landscape, so as to discourage the attention of men, “Thus Tess walks on; a figure of the landscape; a fieldwoman pure and simple, in winter guise; a grey serge cape, a red woollen cravat, a stuffed skirt covered by a whitey-brown rough wrapper and buff leather gloves. Every thread of that old attire has become faded and thin under the stroke of raindrops, the burn of sunbeams, and the stress of winds”.
Hardy again shows signs of his atheist views, as he describes the scenery of Flintcomb-Ash to summon images of a pagan goddess, this goddess is a Phrygian goddess called Cybele the Many-breasted, a fertility goddess that symbolises nature and mountains. The landscape is very mountainous and rugged, whereas the dairy’s landscape was very flat and lush. “…She reached the irregular chalk table-land or plateau, bosomed with semi-globular tumuli – as if Cybele the Many-breasted were supinely extended there - which stretched between the valley of her birth and the valley of her love”. There is a kind of irony as this goddess with many breasts again is a sexual figure representing fertility and yet this is a totally barren land. It mocks Tess because this fertile goddess stretches between the valley of her birth and the valley of her love, but now she had arrived at this place between, which is cold, harsh and infertile.
Even the name that Hardy created for this area – Flintcomb-Ash, gives an uninviting impression of the place as flint reminds you of a sharp, cutting, grey stone, and ash makes you think of the words white, pale, and bleak and dead or burnt out. All of these images that he conjures are very true of the landscape and area.
Hardy uses the weather and the landscape to portray Tess’s feelings of desolation, despair and complete loneliness, as the landscape is barren, and bleak, and the weather cruel and harsh. The bare, bleak countryside is a complete contrast with Talbothays green and luxurious landscape “…that happy green tract of land where summer had been liberal in her gifts;…”, “….memories of green, sunny, romantic Talbothays…..”. The place in which she now finds herself is in keeping with the desolate and harsh circumstances of Tess’s life, “ …almost sublime in its dreariness”. “There was not a tree within sight; there was not, at this season, a green pasture – nothing but fallow and turnips everywhere; in large fields divided by hedges plashed to unrelieved levels. Here the air was dry and cold and the long cart-roads were blown white and dusty a few hours after rain. There were trees, or none, those that would have grown in the hedges being mercilessly plashed down with the quickset by the tenant-farmers, the natural enemies of tree, bush and brake” The lack of trees, also gives a sense of bleakness as trees represent age, luxury and colour, the loss of which results in a loss of heritage and brightness. The introduction of the word “enemies” in this passage also projects a feeling of isolation and bitterness again reflected in Tess’s circumstances. Hardy though, shows that Tess has a strong character and does not succumb to consoling herself with drink as Marion does.
Even before Tess arrives at the farm, she can tell it is going to be hard and unpleasant labour, just by looking at the “stubborn soil” that the land had to offer. “The stubborn soil around her showed plainly enough that the kind of labour in demand here was of the roughest kind….”. I think Tess was trying to take all the blame here for what happened between her and Angel. I do not think she minded doing harsh work because she felt it was in some way her punishment, a kind of sack cloth and ashes. Hardy uses personification here again; the “stubborn soil” suggests that Tess is completely at odds with the land now, where once she had seemed part of it. It was rejecting her just as Angel had.
Hardy makes you visualise the location as being an area coloured by different shades of browns and greys, all in all a very desolate place. “Every leaf of the vegetable having already been consumed, the whole field was in colour a desolate drab; it was a complexion without feature, as if a face, from chin to brow, should only be an expanse of skin”. I find it very interesting how Hardy’s description of the land is like the description of a person, as in the novel nature can become more of a character than a place. This is shown exceptionally well in the film adaptation of ‘Tess of the D’Ubervilles’ by Roman Polanski, as he really gets across the feeling of the area in the scenes shown, as they were very sombre and dismal in their colours.
Flintcomb-Ash is a bleak place at the best of seasons, but Hardy sets Tess’s time there in winter, to make the area even more unappealing. He throws at her all sorts of unpleasant weather starting with torrential rain “In the afternoon the rain came on again…” which made her wet through. “ There are degrees of dampness, and a very little is called being wet through in common talk. But to stand working slowly in a field and feel the creep of rain-water, first in legs and shoulder, then on hips and head, then at back, front, and sides…”. “After this season of congealed dampness came a spell of dry frost, when strange birds from behind the North Pole began to arrive silently on the upland of Flintcomb-Ash…”. Rain turns to icy winter. “Then one day a peculiar quality invaded the air of this open country. There came a moisture which was not of rain, and a cold which was not of frost. It chilled the eyeballs of the twain, made their brows ache, penetrated to their skeletons, affecting the surface of the body less than its core. They knew that it meant snow, and in the night the snow came”. “ The snow had followed the birds from the polar basin as a white pillar of a cloud, and individual flakes could not be seen. The blast smelt of icebergs, arctic seas, whales and white bears, carrying the snow so that it licked the land but did not deepen on it”. The words ‘blast’ and ‘smelt’ reminds one of ironworks and the fires of hell, so this is cleverly used here, as Flintcomb-Ash is an alternative kind of hell. I almost get the feeling that this also reflects the hostility and coldness that Angel feels and shows towards Tess.
In this chapter Hardy again talks of Tess as being a bird “ Tess between the Amazons and the farmer like a bird caught in clap-net…” This time though she is not a contented bird being drawn to the music of her lover, but a bird trapped by her foes.
Even though the farm had so many faults like the weather and the appearance, Tess only really talks of her despise of the farm and her wish to leave it because of the machinery there. This machinery was new to the farming community as it was the start of the industrial revolution and many of the workers were not used to it. “It was the ceaselessness of the work which tried her so severely, and began to make her wish that she had never come to Flintcomb-Ash”.
Hardy, in the way he describes the machines, depicts them as a blight on the environment. He sees them as spoiling nature and the beauty and tranquillity of the land. In his view, machines will only bring unhappiness and destruction. I think he gets this across in the way he parallels Tess’s misery there. Hardy describes the machine as a “red tyrant”, which projects an image of a monster bent on destruction. The colour red gives the impression of danger and death.
The “tyrant” is unrelenting and it makes continuous demands on the workforce. They cannot rest and must keep pace with the machine and they cannot even communicate because of the overpowering noise. Tess is enslaved here by her poverty, her pride and her eagerness to take all the blame for Angel’s desertion.
In all three places, Hardy literally sets the scene with graphic description that immediately creates the mood of the place and gives an insight into the storyline, by its clever descriptions of nature, climate and season. He is conveying atmosphere and hidden emotion and his vivid descriptions of the environment are paralleled to the characters and the story. It is only when you start to analyse his words that you realise Hardy is leading you in a certain direction or putting you in a frame of mind relevant to the emotion of that particular part of the story. In this way I think he completely influences the unconscious mind of the reader and adds so much more enjoyment to the book.
