Tess phase 2 (Maiden no more) quotes+meanings

tess of the d'urberville phase 2 quotes and meanings

“she had learnt how the serpent hisses” chapter 12

+bibilcal reference as eve was blamed when the devil, disguised as a snake, lied to her so eve would’ve eaten the apple when it was the DEVIL’s fault.

“She had been totally changed by her lesson” + “terribly beautiful”- chapter 12

+she’s had a very sharp reality check highliting how quickly her life changed hence the oxymoron describing the place that while was a idyllic place to grow up in, was the root cause of her damage.

“the barrier to the vale wherein she had been a stranger” chapter 12

+Marlott left her overprotected and naive to the world.

“she had no fear of him now and in the cause of her condfince lay her sorrow” chapter 12

+Alec takes pleasure in taking vunerable, working class girl’s virginty knowing it’s their trump card. hence he’s destroyed her and raped away her virginity.

“She sat now, like a puppet” chapter 12

+Alec still manipulates and controls her highlighting her lack of agency/autonomy controlling her fate e.g. sorrow wrecks havoc later on for her life.

“see how you’ve mastered me” chapter 12

+motif of Alec controlling and abusing Tess in quite literally, every fucking way possible to exert as much power as he can over her.

“my eyes were dazed by you for a little” chapter 12

+she’s fincally dependent on him and the context of their relationship critizes society. it was never consensual and adds a new dimension to that agurment.

“that’s what every women says” chapter 12

+Alec has done this shit before highlighting how much of a irreddemadle little shit he is.

“imprinting” chapter 12

+Tess’s physcial fragility.

“suppose your sin was not of your own seeking?” chapter 12

+this begins her unfair commendation by society, God leaves her in rape then condemnd her for it. the painter doesn't know WHAT he’s writing thus hardy critzsing those who blindly follow faith.

“why didn't you think of doing something good for your own family” chapter 12

+family response to her rape and leaving Alec. She’s rejected and victimised furthur emphasig how vunerable and isolated she rly is.

“I was a child when I left this house”+ “why didn't you tell me there was danger in menfolk” chapter 12

+zero sex-ed. highlights how she was very vunerable and naive due to her mother’s inadequate parenting. women only learn from experince/trauma then don’t share their experiences contuing the cycle of trauma and expolitation.

“she had been made to break our accepted social law, but no law known to the enviroment.”

+the rules are man-made and enforce rules on women to ensure men can fuck around consequence free.

+reminds reader that tess is part of natutre and is damaged by man’s greed (very much like how the industrial revoltion worked)

“she looked upon herself as a figure of guilt” chapter 13

+self-blame cos of victim-blaming society.

“Rabbits, hares, snakes, rats, mice, retreated inwardness as into a fastened…..they were put to death by the sticks and stones of the harvesters” chapter 14

+the creatures compared to Tess (even the snake- Alec- dies so it’s foreshadowing) are killed by man and it’s greed and desire to become the bourgeoises.

“living as a stanger and a alien here, though it was no strange land” chapter 14

+tess is now alienated from her childhood home like how the rape bulldozed over her past self so now she has no choice but to re-build.

“the man and the ecclesiastic fought within him, and the victory fell to the man” chapter 14

+society brainwashed her into beleiving that baptism is essential and that he’ll go to hell. still believes in God as believes in hell but disconnect between men and religion.

“gift of shameless nature” chapter 14

+sorrow’s extremely innocent and this ctitiztes the deeply religious society who already shames him for shit he can’t control. she has to agure to get a grave for him and even then it’s in the suicide area.

“with a touch of dignity that was almost regal” chapter 14

+themes of relgion and power that can only be tapped into cos of trauma.

“immaculate beauty” chapter 14

+sementic field of religion/power as hardy describes tess’s resilience and how she claims back her autonomy.

“and some spirit within her rose automatically as the sap in the twigs” chapter 15

+she’s taking her power back linking herself to nature as she bounces back highlighting the crucial structure of women and nature.

“Almost at a leap Tess thus changed from simple girl to a complex women” chapter 15

+she’s out of the liminal phase she began the novel in, having now elvolved to being complex.

“The new air was clear, bracing, ethereal” chapter 16

+now there’s hope for her esp as the dairy is more open compared to marlott symbolisg how she has options plus marlott is full of memories and social judgement while dairy isn’t.

“women do as a rule live though such humiliation and regain their spirits, and again look about them with a interested eye” chapter 16

+the strength of women to get up and do it again similar to nature’s resislence refusing to give up and die.

“towards the dairy of her pilmigragie” chapter 16

+paganism

+a individual spiritual belief

“parish the bones of her ancestors-her useless ancestors- lay entombed”

+her ancestors didn't protect her and they helped her suffer, being just bones. nature decomposes but it’s a cycle and helps the next generations. Her ancestors didn’t.

“like a fly on a bollard-table of indefeintinte lengths” chapter 16

+in the grand scheme of things, she’s very unpoweful and her branch of suffering isn’t rare- it’s incredibly common.