Tess of the d’Urbervilles Chapter Summaries

Tess of the d’Urbervilles Chapter Summaries Chapter 1 On his way home to the village of Marlott, a middle-aged peddler named John Durbeyfield encounters an old parson who surprises him by addressing him as “Sir John.” The old man, Parson Tringham, claims to be a student of history and says that he recently came across a record indicating that Durbeyfield descends from a noble family, the d’Urbervilles. Tringham says that Durbeyfield’s noble roots come from so far back in history that they are meaningless, but Durbeyfield becomes quite selfimportant following the discovery and sends for a horse and carriage to carry him home. Chapter 2 Tess enjoys the May Day with the other women from her village. A drunk Jack rides by in the carriage, which embarrasses Tess, but she still defends her father. Whilst dancing, three brothers spectate and Tess notices one named Angel Clare. Angel takes the opportunity to dance with some of the girls and leaves shortly after. Upon leaving, Angel notices Tess and regrets his decision to dance with someone else. Chapter 3 When Tess returns home,her mother explains that they come from noble lineage nad that her father has a heart condition. Mrs. Durbeyfield reads the ‘Compleat Fortune-Teller’ , a, old book, for guidance and due to her superstitions, she leaves the book in an outhouse. Tess’ father goes top Rollivers to drink and her mother goes to collect him, however, ends up drinking with him. Tess ends her little brother to look for them, however, has to look for them herself when he fails to return. Chapter 4 At the pub, Tess’s young brother hears Mr. and Mrs. Durbeyfield discussing their plan for Tess to seek out Mrs d’Urberville, to gain some money. When she arrives, Tess realises her father is too drunk to take his beehives to the market, so Tess and her brother take them instead. Abraham asks Tess if there are other worlds. Tess boldly answers that other stars are better than their world and that their world is a “blighted one.” Tess explains that this is the reason for all of her and her family’s misfortunes. They both fall asleep and are awakened by chaos, in which their horse, Prince has been killed by the local mail man’s cart. Tess is overcome with guilt, but they eventually get towards the market. When they return, no one balmes Tess but she is ashamed. Tess remains the only one who recognizes the impact that the loss of the horse will have.. Refusing to sell the dead horse, Mr. Durbeyfield works harder than he has in an entire month to bury it. Chapter 5 In part because of her guilt over the horse, Tess agrees with her mother’s plan to send her to Mrs. d’Urberville. When she arrives, she does not find the crumbling old mansion she expects, but rather a new and fashionable home. She meets Mrs. d’Urberville’s son Alec, who, captivated by Tess’s beauty, agrees to try to help her. Alec says that his mother is unwell, but he says he will see what he can do for Tess. Chapter 6 When Tess returns home, she finds a letter. It is from Mrs. d’Urberville, offering her a job tending the d’Urbervilles’ fowls. Tess looks for other jobs closer to home, but she cannot find anything. Hoping to earn enough money to buy a new horse for her family, Tess accepts the d’Urbervilles’ job and decides to go back to Trantridge. Chapter 7 On the day Tess is scheduled to leave for the d’Urbervilles’ home, Mrs. Durbeyfield dresses Tess up and is pleased by her own efforts, as is Mr. Durbeyfield, who begins speculating about a price at which he will sell their family title. When Alec arrives to retrieve Tess, they become uncertain that she is doing the right thing. The children cry, as does Mrs. Durbeyfield, who worries that Alec might try to take advantage of her daughter. Chapter 8 On the way to the d’Urberville estate, Alec drives recklessly, and Tess pleads with him to stop. He continues at a fast pace and tells her to hold on to his waist. She complies only out of fear for her safety. When traveling down the next steep hill, he urges her to hold on to him again, but she refuses and pleads with him to slow down. He agrees to drive more slowly, but only if she will allow him to kiss her. Tess allows him to kiss her on the cheek, but when she unthinkingly wipes the kiss off with her handkerchief, he becomes angry and outraged at her unwillingness to submit to his advances. They argue, and Tess finishes the journey on foot. Chapter 9 The next morning Tess meets Mrs. d’Urberville for the first time and discovers that the old woman is blind. Tess is surprised by Mrs. d’Urberville’s lack of appreciation for Tess’s coming to work for her. Mrs. d’Urberville asks Tess to place each of the fowls on her lap so she can examine and pet them. She tells Tess to whistle to her bullfinches every morning. Tess agrees and leaves. Tess is later unable to blow any whistles, and Alec agrees to help her remember how. Chapter 10 After several weeks at the d’Urbervilles’, Tess goes to the market and realises that she will return as she likes it.. Several months later, she goes to the market and discovers a local fair. When her friends are ready to leave, Tess finds that some of them are drunk, and they express their irritation that she has Alec’s attention all to herself. The scene grows unpleasant. Suddenly Alec arrives on his horse, and Tess finally agrees to let him carry her away. Chapter 11 Alec lets the horse wander off the path and deep into the woods, where he tries to convince Tess to take him as a lover. Tess is wary, and Alec realizes that they have become lost in the fog. He gives Tess his coat and goes to look for a landmark. Still trying to win her favor as a lover, he tells Tess that he has bought her father a new horse. When he returns, Tess is asleep, and Alec uses the opportunity to take advantage of her sexually. Chapter 12 After a few weeks with Alec, Tess goes home as she doesn’t have feelings for him. Alec questions her early departure, and tries to convince her to return with him. Alec tells Tess to let him know should she ever need help. Tess continues on her way home, randomly passing by a painter who is busy painting Bible passages onto random walls. She spots a sign that reads “THY DAMNATION SLUMBERETH NOT.”, which is a misquotation of the Bible These words resound in Tess’s mind. She continues home, where her mother is surprised to see her. Her mother is frustrated with her for refusing to marry Alec, but she softens when Tess reminds her mother that she never warned Tess of the danger she faced. Chapter 13 Some of Tess’s friends come to visit, and in their high-spirited company Tess feels cheered. But in the morning she lapses back into her depression: to her, the future seems endless and bleak. She tries to attend church but hears the crowd whispering about her. Shaken, she falls into the habit of only going out after dark. Chapter 14 The following August, Tess decides the time has come to stop pitying herself, and she helps her village with the harvest. Her baby boy, conceived with Alec, falls ill, and Tess becomes worried that he will die without a proper christening. She decides to christen him herself and names him Sorrow. When he dies the following morning, Tess asks the parson if her christening was sufficient to earn her baby a Christian burial. Moved, the parson replies that though he cannot bury the child himself, Tess may do so. That night Tess lays Sorrow to rest in a corner of the churchyard, and makes a little cross for his grave. Chapter 15 Tess realizes she can never be happy in Marlott and longs to begin a new life in a place where her past is unknown. The next year, the chance arises for Tess to become a milkmaid at the Talbothays Dairy. She seizes the opportunity, in part drawn by the fact that the dairy lies near the ancestral estate of the d’Urbervilles and spurred on by “the invincible instinct towards self-delight.” Chapter 16 In good spirits, Tess sets out to begin work at the Talbothays Dairy, located in the Valley of the Great Dairies. On her way, the new scenery enchants her as she travels through the mists of Blackmoor. The beautiful day and the beautiful landscape put Tess in an optimistic mood. She passes the burial ground of her ancient ancestors, but decides to keep going. Chapter 17 Tess arrives at the Talbothays Dairy. She quickly fits in and feels very much at home. One of the men at the dairy looks familiar to her, and she recognizes him as the man whom she noticed back at the May Day village dance. That evening, Tess overhears the dairymaids talking about him and learns that he is Angel Clare, the son of a well-respected Wessex clergyman. Angel’s two brothers have also joined the church, but Angel himself prefers a life in agriculture and, thus, has come to the dairy to learn about its work. There is much talk about Angel among the other dairymaids. Chapter 18 The narrator focuses in Angel’s story, explaining he is the most gifted of his brothers but decided not to go to Cambridge. He has doubts about the church and feels that it would be dishonest to join the clergy. He has spent time in London and has been involved with an older woman. Finally, he decided that the farm life would enable him to preserve his intellectual liberty outside of city life. Now twentysix years old, he learns about farming by visiting sites devoted to the subject. He is gentlemanly and thoughtful and acts a bit shy at first, but he soon befriends the other workers and spends more time with them. He finds himself drawn to Tess’s beauty and thinks that she seems virginal and pure. Tess, however, tries to stay away from him out of shame for her secret, woeful past. Chapter 19 Eventually, Tess discovers that Angel is breaking the rules by lining up her favorite cows for her. She tells him of her discovery and, later that night, walks alone in the garden, listening to him strum his harp. Angel finds it compelling that a girl as young as Tess would have such a dark view of life. She deflects his questions about her with general comments about life, and then she inquires about him. Tess is interested in Angel’s education and learning He offers to tutor her, but she refuses, claiming that the answers she seeks are not to be found in books. Chapter 20 As the months passed, Angel and Tess grow closer, and Tess finds herself in the happiest phase of her life. They wake up early, before the others, and feel as if they are the only people on Earth. Indeed, the dairy seems to be an Eden, where Angel is Adam and Tess is Eve. Tess is Angel’s “visionary essence of woman,” and he playfully nicknames her “Artemis” and “Demeter.” Tess does not understand these nicknames and simply tells him to call her Tess. Chapter 21 There is worry about the butter, which is not churning properly. Mrs. Crick jokes that this sort of thing happens only when someone on the farm falls in love. Tess does not want to marry, though, because she is still ashamed of her past. After some further churning, the butter begins to set and everyone’s fears melt away—except for Tess’s. Chapter 22 Early in the morning, the Cricksnews that the butter had a sharp taste. Mr. Crick realizes that this taste must be the result of the cows eating from garlic weeds. The dairymaids go out to the pasture to search for these disastrous weeds. Tess feels faint, and Mr. Crick encourages Tess to take a moment to rest. Angel stops with her, and she makes a point of mentioning the virtues of two of her close milkmaid friends, Izz and Retty. Angel agrees that they are nice women and capable dairymaids, but indicates that he has no romantic interest in them. Chapter 23 Two months after her arrival at the dairy, Tess sets out with her friends to attend the Mellstock Church. There has been a torrential downpour the day before, and the girls come to a long stretch of flooded road. Angel offers to carry them across, and they agree. Tess begins to avoid Angel, but she notices from afar his grace and self-discipline in the company of the girls who dote on him. One night, Marian, Izz, and Retty each confess to feeling love for Angel, and Tess feels guilty, since she too loves Angel but has already decided never to marry. Chapter 24 Later that summer, Angel and Tess are milking cows, and Angel is overcome with his feeling for Tess. He embraces her, and she gives way to her feelings for a moment before trying to pull away. Angel tells Tess that he loves her and is surprised to hear the words come out of his mouth. No one has noticed their encounter, and the two return to their milking, shaken. Chapter 25 Angel feels that he needs to understand his relationship with Tess, so decides to spend a few days visiting his family. At his father’s house in Emminster, he finds his parents with his brothers: the Reverend Felix, a town curate, and the Reverend Cuthbert, a college dean at Cambridge. Angel’s family notices that his manners have worsened somewhat during his time with common farm folk, while Angel thinks that his brothers have become mentally limited by their comfortable situations. Chapter 26 The Clares hope Angel will marry Mercy Chant, a religious girl. Angel explains that a farming wife would be an asset, and he tells them about Tess, emphasizing her religious purity. Angel’s father also tells Angel that he has saved the money and he is willing to give it to Angel to buy land. Angel’s father tells him about his efforts to convert people, and mentions his failed efforts to convert a young man named Alec d’Urberville. Angel’s dislike for old families increases. Chapter 27 When Angel returns to the dairy, he takes Tess in his arms and asks her to marry him. Tess replies that she loves him but that she cannot marry. Angel replies that he will give her time to think it over, but she replies that the marriage is impossible. In the coming days Angel continues to try to persuade her, and Tess quickly realizes that she loves him too strongly to keep up her refusal. Chapter 28 In the early fall, Angel again asks Tess to marry him. Tess hesitates, saying that one of the other girls might make a better wife than she. Tess still feels that she cannot marry Angel because of her past indiscretions. But Angel still believes that Tess is objecting only because of her low social status, and he thinks that she will accept soon enough. Tess believes that she must tell Angel about her lineage and her dark past, but hesitates and resolves to tell him later. Chapter 29 The farm hears gossip about a failed marriage. A man named Jack Dollop married a widow, expecting to receive money, only to discover that her financial stability vanishes as a result of the marriage. Most people at the dairy think the widow was wrong to deceive Jack Dollop of this fact and that she should have been completely truthful with him before marrying. This widespread opinion makes Tess nervous again about her past. She wonders whether she should reveal this past to Angel. Chapter 30 Angel mentions offhandedly to Tess that they are near the ancestral territory of the ancient d’Urbervilles during work. She tells Angel that she descends from the d’Urbervilles, and he is pleased, realising that this will make her a better match in the eyes of his family. At last Tess agrees to marry him, and she begins to weep. Tess asks if she may write to her mother, and when Angel learns she is from Marlott, he remembers where he has seen her before—on May Day, when they did not dance. Chapter 31 When Mrs. Durbeyfield receives Tess’s letter, she immediately writes back advising her daughter not to tell Angel about her past. Tess enjoys October, and, when Angel asks her to finalize the date of their wedding, she again appears reluctant. When Angel announces their engagement to Mr. Crick in front of the dairymaids, Tess is impressed by their joyous reaction. She feels that she can finally express her happiness, but she soon feels unworthy of Angel. Tess decides that she will finally tell him about her past. Chapter 32 Tess agrees to leave the dairy with Angel around Christmas, and their wedding date is set for December 31. Angel hopes to spend that time visiting a flour mill and staying in a home that belonged to the d’Urbervilles. Angel buys Tess clothes for their wedding and, to her relief, quietly takes out a marriage license rather than publicizing his intent to marry Tess. Chapter 33 While out shopping, Angel and Tess encounter a man from Alec d’Urberville’s village, who denies her virginity. Angel strikes the man, but when the man apologizes, Angel gives him some money. Tess is wracked with guilt, and that night she writes a confession and slips it under Angel’s door. Strangely, in the morning, Angel’s behavior toward her has not changed. On the morning of the wedding, Tess tries to tell Angel about her past, but he explains that there will be time for such revelations after they are married. The dairyman and his wife accompany them to church, and they are married. As they are leaving for the ceremony, a rooster crows in the mid-afternoon. Chapter 34 After the wedding, the couple travels to the old d’Urberville mansion, where they will have a few days to themselves. Tess receives a package from Angel’s father, containing some jewellery from Angel’s godmother. The newlyweds enjoy a happy moment, which is broken news arrived that after the wedding, Retty attempted suicide and Marian became an alcoholic. After this news, Angel asks Tess for forgiveness, telling her of his past indiscretion with an older woman in London. Tess says that she, too, has a confession and tells him of her past with Alec. Chapter 35 Angel is distraught by Tess’s confession. He begs her to deny it, but she cannot. He flees the house, and Tess follows after him. For hours, they walk the grounds of the mansion. Tess tells her husband that she will do anything he asks and even offers to drown herself. Angel orders her to go back to the house. When he returns, Tess is asleep. After an uncomfortable moment looking at the d’Urberville ladies’ portraits, Angel goes to sleep in a different room. Chapter 36 Three miserable days go by, during which Angel spends his time at the mill or with his studies. Tess wonders if they should get a divorce, but she learns that the law does not allow divorces. Finally, Tess offers to go home, and Angel tells her she should go. Chapter 37 Clare came close, and bent over her. “Dead, dead, dead!” he murmured. That night, Tess wakes up and discovers that Angel is sleepwalking. He stumbles into Tess’s room and seizes her in his arms. Moaning that his wife is dead, he carries her over a narrow bridge and into the churchyard, where he lays her in a coffin. Tess carefully leads Angel back into the house, and in the morning he shows no recollection of the event. The couple makes a brief stop at the dairy on their way to Marlott. They behave awkwardly together in public. Angel leaves Tess near her village, telling her that he will try to accept her past, but that she should not try to come to him until he comes for her. Chapter 38 Tess returns home dolefully and confesses to her mother what has happened. Mrs. Durbeyfield calls her a fool, and Mr. Durbeyfield finds it hard to believe Tess is even married. Tess is miserable at home, and when a letter arrives from Angel informing Tess that he has begun looking for a farm in the north, Tess seizes the excuse to leave and tells her family that she is going to join her husband. She gives them half of the fifty pounds Angel gave her and leaves her home. Chapter 39 Three weeks after their marriage, Angel visits his parents and tells them he is traveling to Brazil and not taking Tess. His parents are alarmed and disappointed, but Angel tells them they will meet Tess in a year, when he returns. Chapter 40 Angel puts the jewelry in the bank and arranges to have some additional money sent to Tess, then travels to the Wellbridge Farm to finish some business there. He encounters Izz and impetuously invites her to go to Brazil with him. Izz agrees, and says that she loves him. He asks if she loves him more than Tess, and Izz replies that no one could love him as much as Tess did. Angel sadly takes Izz to her home and leaves for Brazil alone a few days later. Chapter 41 Tess finds sporadic work at different dairies and manages to conceal from her family that she is separated from her husband. When her money begins to run low, she is forced to dip into the money Angel left for her. Her parents write to her asking for money to help repair the cottage roof, and she sends them nearly everything she has. In the meantime, Angel is ill and struggling in Brazil as part of a desperate and failing community of British farmers. Even though she is short on money, Tess is too ashamed to ask the Clares for money. Tess has heard from Marian of a farm where she might find work, and although it is purportedly a difficult place in which to get by, Tess decides to travel there. She encounters the man from Alec d’Urberville’s village who accused her of promiscuity in front of Angel and is forced to run and hide from him. She feels as if Alec is hunting her. Continuing on her way, Tess stumbles upon a flock of pheasants, some of which have died and others that are in agony and pain. She suspects that hunters have shot them and will return to collect them. She feels an affinity for the birds in pain, and she instinctively breaks their necks to kill them and put them out of their misery. Afterward she compares her own plight with that of the pheasants and becomes angry at herself for thinking that she is the most miserable being on Earth. “Poor darlings—to suppose myself the most miserable being on earth in the sight o’ such misery as yours!” she exclaimed, her tears running down as she killed the birds tenderly. Chapter 42 Tess takes to making herself ugly to protect herself from lustful men, and she cuts off her eyebrows and dresses in old, unattractive clothing. When Tess reaches the farm near the village of FlintcombAsh, Marian is curious about Angel, but Tess asks her not to inquire about him. The proprietress of the farm agrees to give Tess a job, and Tess sends her new address to her parents—though she does not acknowledge her marital or financial difficulties. Chapter 43 Tess and Marian work digging up rutabagas in rocky ground. After a time, Izz Huett joins them. They are sent to work in the barn in the winter, and Tess meets the man who owns the farm—it is the same man from Alec d’Urberville’s village. He accuses her of being a poor worker, and she offers to work harder to compensate. Marian tells Tess that Angel invited Izz to travel with him to Brazil, and Tess at first feels as though she should write to him. Before long, however, she is overcome by doubt as to whether she really should. Chapter 44 Tess decides to visit Angel’s family to discover what has happened to him and begins the long walk to the vicarage. She takes off her boots and hides them, planning to put them on again for the walk home. She overhears Angel’s brothers discussing Angel’s unfortunate marriage, and when they find her boots, they assume they belong to a peasant. Tess is ashamed and unhappy and decides not to meet Angel’s family after all. She begins the walk home, but she stops before a barn in which a passionate sermon is being delivered. She looks inside, and sees none other than Alec d’Urberville. Chapter 45 Tess has not seen Alec since she left his family’s service. When she sees and hears him testifying to his religious conversion, she is struck dumb with a sudden terror. She withdraws, but Alec sees her and runs after her, claiming he has to save her soul. He says he has found God through the intercession of the Reverend Clare. Tess, angry and disbelieving, excoriates people like Alec, who ruin other people’s lives and then try to secure a place in heaven by suddenly converting. She then asserts that she cannot put her faith in Alec’s religion when a better man than he—meaning Angel— does not believe in that religion. Alec expresses fear of Tess, and as they come to a stone monument called the Cross-in-Hand, he asks Tess to swear that she will never tempt him again. She agrees and Alec leaves, reading a letter from Reverend Clare to calm himself. Tess asks a shepherd what the Cross-in-Hand signifies, and she learns that it is an object of ill omen. Chapter 46 The omen proves correct a few days later, when Alec approaches Tess in the fields and asks her to marry him. He proposes that they go to Africa to be missionaries. Tess replies that she is already married, and she asks the distraught Alec to leave. She begins another letter to Angel but is unable to finish it. At Candlemas, Alec again approaches Tess. This time, he asks her to pray for him. Tess replies that she cannot pray, and she recites Angel’s reasons for doubting the validity of church doctrine. Alec appears shaken, and Tess asserts that she has a religion but no belief in the supernatural. Alec says that he has missed an opportunity to preach in order to see her, and he says that he is bothered by the fact that he has no right to help or protect her, while the man who does have that right has chosen to abandon her. Tess asks him to leave before their conversation can taint her husband’s honor. Chapter 47 In early spring, Tess has been assigned a stint of difficult work as a thresher on the farm. Alec appears again, saying that he is no longer a preacher and beseeching Tess to come away with him. He says his love for her has strengthened, and he is upset that her husband neglects her. Tess slaps his face with a leather glove. He becomes angry, but calms himself, asserting his desire to be her master and telling her that he is her true husband. He says he will be back in the afternoon to collect her. Chapter 48 Alec comes back that afternoon as he promised. He walks Tess home and asks her to trust him to take care of both Tess and her family. Tess again refuses his offers, and that night she writes a letter to Angel, finally confessing her loyalty and her love and asking for his help against the temptation presented by Alec. Chapter 49 Tess’s letter goes to Angel’s parents, who forward it to Angel in Brazil. Mrs. Clare reproaches her husband for keeping Angel from attending Cambridge, whereas Reverend Clare feels justified in his decision but regrets the misery his son has endured. For his part, Angel is ready to abandon his idea of farming in Brazil. The suffering he has endured there has softened his feelings toward Tess, and when a more experienced man tells him he was wrong to leave her, Angel feels a powerful regret. When the man dies a few days later, his words assume even more power in Angel’s mind. Back at the farm, Tess encounters her sister, Liza-Lu, who comes with sorrowful news: Tess’s mother is dying, and her father is also very ill and can do no work. Tess tells Izz and Marian what has happened and leaves for home the next morning. Chapter 50 Upon her arrival, Tess does what she can to make her mother comfortable and then begins working in the garden and on the family’s land. One night, she looks over and sees Alec working next to her. He again offers to help Tess and her family. She is sorely tempted but declines again. Enraged, Alec leaves. On the way home, Tess’s sister tells her that their father has died, which means that Tess’s family will lose their house. John Durbeyfield was the last person guaranteed a place in the terms of the lease, and the tenant farmer who owns the house wants to use it for his own workers. Chapter 51 Tess prepares to move her family to a set of rooms in Kingsbere. Alec arrives and tells Tess the legend of the ghostly d’Urberville Coach—the message of which is that the sound of an invisible coach is a bad omen. Alec tries to persuade Tess to move her family to his family’s garden home, allow him to send her brothers and sisters to school, and have Tess’s mother tend the fowls. Tess is again sorely tempted, but she once more declines Alec’s offer, and he rides away. As he leaves, Tess admits to herself that Angel has treated her badly, and she writes him a letter saying she will do all she can to forget him, since she will never be able to forgive him. Joan asks what Alec said to her, but Tess refuses to divulge the story, saying she will tell her mother when they are in their rooms at Kingsbere. Chapter 52 The next day, Tess and her family begin their journey. On the way, they meet Marian and Izz, who are moving on to new work at a new farm. When they reach Kingsbere, they learn that Joan’s letter was late, and the rooms have already been rented. They cannot find more lodging and end up sleeping in the churchyard, in a plot called d’Urberville Aisle. Tess finds Alec lying on a tomb, and he tells her he can do more for her than all her noble ancestors. Tess tells him to leave, and angrily he does, promising that Tess will learn to be civil. Tess leans down toward the funeral vault and asks why she is still alive. Marian and Izz do their part for their friend by writing a note to Angel asking him to go back to Tess.