1. Tess of the d’Urbervilles
Phase the Second
Chapter Summaries
And
Key Aspects

2. Maiden No More
Discuss the significance of the title to this phase

3. Summary/Commentary
Tess flees Trantridge, angry at Alec suggesting that she feels she has some control over her destiny as she is trying to change what fate seems to have dealt her
Once home, her mother reveals her disappointment and she feels obliged to perform her duties for her family again.
She gives birth to her doomed son Sorrow and buries him, against the precepts of the church and proper society.
She is miserably unhappy throughout this period - just as sad as being treated as an outcast from society as she is from the death of her son
Tess ‘s character becomes more complex, even to herself torn apart by her hatred of Alec, her guilt toward her family, her shame within society, and her disappointment in herself.

4. Chapter 12 Tess journeys home
Alec catches her up and tries to persuade her to stay
The bible quotations in red paint
Mrs Durbeyfield’s misgivings

5. Significance
Narrative gap of a few weeks (now October)– lack of clarity about what happens in this time
Alec is still pursuing her – foreshadowing
Changes in Tess emphasised - linked to landscape (no comfort in her home surroundings)
Tess now a “fallen woman” (the bible quotes suggest how she will be viewed by society)
yet intrinsically linked to nature
There is no going back for Tess (peripeteia)
Conflict between NATURE and CONVENTION – natural for women to bear children YET society will condemn her

6. How? “it was a Sunday morning in late October…”
Narrative gap – few weeks since night in the woods - ambiguity, subject matter not acceptable in Victorian society? Reader left unsure as to relationship between T and Alec here – why? Retain sympathy for Tess even though it becomes clear that she has developed a relationship with him
“Sunday” – day everyone went to church – focus on religious conventionality prepares us for the red signs and idea of Tess as a “fallen woman”
“late October “- autumn – the fall – contrast with the May setting of the innocent, virginal Tess

7. “terribly beautiful”
Oxymoron – reflects her state (pregnant out of wedlock – natural and beautiful and yet society will condemn her)
“Beautiful” - place of childhood and innocence . “Terrible” because she has now lost that
Images of the garden of Eden again - a “beautiful idyll” until the “serpent hisses”
Reflects her emotional state - glad to be returning to this “beautiful” place yet the the reasons for her return are “terrible”

8. Key Features
Hardy presents Tess as a victim: innocent/ignorant about men when her mother could have told her
presents her as heroic and noble for refusing to marry Alec as she doesn’t love him when it could have had social and material benefits to her (her mother’s concerns)

9. To explore:
Why is there narrative gap about the weeks between the incident in the wood and Tess’s return to Trantridge? (Look at P67 -69)? What is the significance of the sign writings? P70 -71?
How does Hardy create pathos at the end of chapter 12?
Find textual details which convey Tess’s sense of misery and isolation in Chapter 13.
How does Hardy present the conflict between nature and convention in chapter 13?
How is this developed in chapter 14?
What is the significance of Sorrow’s baptism and burial?
How does Hardy present a sense of optimism in chapter15?
See annotations in my copy for feedback.

10. Overview:
“Maiden No More,” lays out the consequences of Tess’s fall in Phase the First. She views herself as a fallen woman (isolation/darkness/evening)
Primarily a transitional period, taking Tess from the scene of her disgrace to the promise of a new life at Talbothays
Phase First established Tess as fated to tragedy, here we see her opposing that: she seeks happiness, is courageous, has moral integrity, is determined and proactive. Reader response - sympathy/empathy.
Phase culminates her transition into womanhood: “from simple girl to complex woman”

11. Relevant contextual factors
the treatment of unmarried mothers: isolation, outcast from society (mainly religious cf; treatment of the other field workers)
social expectations to marry to save reputation - women trapped by social convention. Tess rejects it. Marriage would have been an escape from poverty and would have saved her reputation. Tess is noble!
girls kept ignorant of the dangers of menfolk
culture of blaming the victim: she “should “ have married, she is isolated/ostracised
realisation that Tess is one of many young women to whom this happened.
Conventional religion presented as judgemental and punitive in conflict to nature