Tess phase 6 (the convert) quotes+meanings

“staring with seduction”

+Alec is a wolf in sheep’s clothing and while his exterior is better, his insides are still rotten and no amount of bible study and preaching can fix that.

“He was had brought her undoing was now on the side of the spirit, while she remained regenerate” chapter 45

+big ol’ ao3 context. fallen women- the men get away scot fucking free while the women got the blame and were defined by their tragedy, hindering their life forever.

“since you wear a veil to hide your good looks, why don’t you keep it down” chapter 45

+Alec still a dick refusing to take any accountability for his actions and the role he played in her downfall. has the aduciadtay to tell her to cover her face.

“who has taught you such good English?” chapter 45

+she’s been fundamentally shaped and changed by the men she’s been with (consenting or not) and angel improves her English to the standard of middle class victorian society- by losing her diaclet so herself. like how nature was forever changed by the industrial revolution.

+dialect links back to her childhood/marlott so with that gone the old tess is dead.

“your scheme of religion” chapter 46

+Alec’s intention behind his relgious conversion was not to atone but to make himself feel better- and atoning is the bread and butter of christiany.

“I have learnt things in my troubles” chapter 46

+tess’s development and breaking out of the protective marlott wasn't optional.

“you damned witch of Babylon” chapter 46

+Alec’s religion is very fickle so he’s converting to Gain social legitimacy, not out of genuine intreset.

“duty and desire go hand in hand” chapter 46

+he doesn't consider tess’s feelings at all

“bygones would never be complete bygones till she was a bygone herself” chapter 46

+tess is suicidal with a rapidly declining mental health.

“openly and palpably a converted man who was sorrowing for his past irregularities” chapter 46

+hardy is critiquing the religious society as by converting Alec gets a way-out that’s not afforded to his only confirmed victim (tess). they’ve missed the whole point of christiany.

“was the red tyrant that the women had come to serve” chapter 47

+the patrichary and religion interact and support each other so they doublely exploit women. plus capitalism so triple expoltian.

+red tryant- devil- so allusions to witch hunts and how women were persecuted (90% women).

“Kept up a despotic demand upon the endurance of their muscles and nerves” chapter 47

+the dictator (male) is oppressive

+links to train in chapter 30 and the red-reaping machine in chapter 14

“he was in the agricultural world but not off it” chapter 47

+the Industrial Revolution and captialsim weren't in tune with nature and effected the rural working class disportiantly.

“which rejoiced the hearts of those who hated machinery” chapter 47

+ao3- luddites

“she could hardly walk” chapter 47

+she’s being ground down by the industiral revolution as the rep of the old way of life.

“I was your master once! I will be your master again. If you are any man’s wife you are mine!” chapter 47

+alec’s possessive nature but also how he’s absorbed relgious teachings that society prompted about the importance of a women’s virginity.

“You don’t know me yet! But I know you!” chapter 47

+undertone of sexualtion and how men ‘own’ the women they sleep with but also Alec trying to manipulate Tess.

“his inconsistenys rushed upon like a flood” chapter 48

+relgious imagery

+depressed English dude tells him and it snaps him into reality.

“a mother would pause to dig in the loose earth with her bare hands herself, would bury the babe therein with the same natural grave tools, and again trudge on” chapter 48

+angel realises how bad tess is damaged and this causes him to realise how deep his indocination is and to symphtaize with tess.

“he was touching her in a weak place. He had divined her chief anxiety.” chapter 49

+tess’s weak place is her tendency to priotoze others over herself and her deep love for her siblings mean that she will out her own needs on the back burner.

“You are Eve, and I am the other old one come to tempt you” chapter 49

+a direct comparison to the devil with Alec comparing them.

“The effect of the whale being a wedding and a funeral seen all in one” chapter 49

+tess dies with this marriage and this foreshadows that

“her thin legs, visible beneath her once long gown, now short by her growing” chapter 49

+ao3: econmic hardship. this is the push for tess to marry Alec as economic incentives for her siblings will be the only motivation.

“struggle he killed her- or she killed him- I forget which” chapter 49

+foreshadowing. Alec ruined tess’s life and killed both her spirits and proscpets so the murder is justifed by hardy (to some extent).