1. The Threshing Machine Extract Chapter 47 P284 -287
Tess
The Threshing Machine Extract
Chapter 47 P

2. What is Hardy showing the reader?
March time, dawn through to dinner time (lunch), Flintcomb-Ash
Threshing (when the seeds from the wheat or corn are removed from the stalks and the husks) – a difficult task
It is hard work and a new machine has arrived which is described in detail, as is the man who comes with it.
Tess is given one of the most difficult tasks by the cruel Farmer Groby. It is gruelling and physically exhausts her
The threshing takes place, unrelentlessly
Bystanders compare the machine with more traditional methods
An outsider enters the scene, at first unnoticed
It is Alec D’Urberville who has given up his faith

4. How is he showing it?
The description of the threshing machine has metaphorical significance:
Personification: “ the red tyrant” “despotic demand” - human qualities which are controlling – Tess is not in control of her destiny – external factors are
Unpleasant sounds -
Represents fate (which is a mechanistic, compelling and inescapable force): “kept up a despotic demand upon the endurance of their muscles and nerves”
Symbol of the agricultural revolution - the traditional, more farming methods are being replaced
Symbol of the societal changes taking place (the new rich – Alec- usurping the old aristocratic, powerbase which was perhaps more sympathetic to the way of lives of the agricultural workers: ( capitalism V feudalism)
It can be compared to the reaping machine of chapter 14 and the train in Chapter 30 – intruders into the traditional ways of agricultural Wessex – yet inevitable

5. Why does he show it?
It’s a catalyst – speeds and rhythms of rural life are changing, increasing pace as is the novel’s pace towards the tragic climax, underpinned by the arrival of Alec at the end, therefore connecting the two (tragic outcome)
Pathos for Tess – the gruelling work which isolates her from the environment of which she is so much a part prepares the reader for the way she succumbs to Alec (another difficulty – one of many in this phase and others )
Represents forces which are antagonistic to Tess – significantly leading up to the entrance of Alec

6. How could you use this extract?
To show Tess’s continued suffering
To show how she is alienated/isolated from her environment and family and Angel…
To show how Hardy explores the impact of modernity on rural life – seems critical of it. Is Alec a human representation of this? The traditional ways of the countryside are being ruined by modern technology just as a simple, innocent, rural girl was ruined by a member of the new, emerging middle class
As a Marxist interpretation – the workers are dehumanised by the threshing machine and alienated from their environment

7. Student notes:
Juxtaposition of the environment – Tess’s work is seen a s “ceaseless” whereas Marian can “drink ale” - all in same situation but Tess is the one suffering most
“the dawn of the March morning is singularly inexpressive” = personification – not a pleasant spring morning but rather unimpressive – spring not described in the conventional literary way
“red tyrant” – workers see it as a menace
“despotic demand…” = a harmful “slavedriver”/ putting too much pressure on the workers
It emits “hot blackness” and the engine driver is described as a dark silhouette, “…” . Tess is “quivering” – the machine is a metaphor for Tess’s oppression