AP Literature/Composition

Mrs. Franklin

Tess Discussion Questions

Chapters 1-15

  1. How does the news of his d’Urberville ancestry affect Jack Durbeyfield? What scheme does his wife Joan devise to make use of this ancestry?
  2. What is the difference between Tess’s and Alec’s ancestry? Between their economic and social situations?
  3. In Chapter 4, Tess tells her brother Abraham that the world is a “blighted” star. What does she mean by that? What events immediately occur that confirm her thinking?
  4. What are some differences between Tess and her parents? Hardy writes that Tess “spoke two languages.” What are they? Where does she speak each one?
  5. Why does Tess take the job on Alec’s estate? How does Tess feel about Alec’s attentions? What happens to her in the Chase?
  6. What is the connection between Tess’s d’Urberville ancestry and Tess’s baptizing her baby herself?
  7. In the last paragraph of Chapter 13, Hardy writes that Tess is “troubled by a cloud of moral hobglobins,” but it “was they that were out of harmony with the actual world, not she.” What do you think Hardy means by this?
  8. What important internal and external conflicts, or inner and outer struggles, does Tess experience?
  9. Irony, a contrast between appearance and reality, is an important element in this novel. How are the following events ironic?
  10. One theme of the novel is the fate controls much of human destiny. What events or statement in the novel so far illustrate this theme?

Chapters 16-34

  1. What is Tess’s work at Talbothays? Why is Angel there?
  2. When does Angel first notice Tess? Do they remember each other?
  3. Angel, despite his scholarly temperament, has not received a university education. Why not? What event shows Angel’s respect for his parents? What incident causes him to feel indignant on his father’s behalf? Why is this incident ironic?
  4. Why is Angel glad to learn that Tess is a d’Urberville? Why does he intend to surprise his parents with the news? What does Angel’s reaction to Tess’s ancestry suggest that he felt about her social status?
  5. How does fate inspire Tess’s final effort to tell Angel about her past before they are married? How does fate interfere with her effort?
  6. Tess feels great guilt both about her past and about her failure to reveal it to Angel before their wedding. Do you think Tess should have told him? Why or why not?
  7. Setting, which includes time as well as place, is important in Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Describe the setting of Talbothays and its effects on Tess and Angel.
  8. Hardy describes Angel’s love for Tess as “ethereal”. What makes Angel himself seem ethereal?
  9. Tess goes to Talbothays to find a place that holds no memories. Is she successful or does the past still “engridle” the present there?
  10. Hardy uses foreshadowing to suggest that the marriage of Tess and Angel will not be happy. What are some examples of this foreshadowing?

Chapters 35-59

  1. Why does Tess go to Flintcomb-Ash? What is her work there? Why does she leave/ Why do the Durbeyfields lose the lease on their cottage?
  2. How is Angel’s return to Britain related to Alec’s and Tess’s deaths?
  3. Why do the Durbeyfields spend the night in the old church at Kingsbere? Why is Alec there?
  4. Why does Tess return to Alec? How is her reason similar to her reason for first taking a job on his estate? What is the contrast between Tess when she first went to Alec’s estate and Tess when she stays with him at Sandbourne?
  5. In Chapter XLIX, Angel meets a man who tells him that “what Tess had been was of no importance beside what she could be...” How does this statement relate to the theme that individual action should not be judged solely by societal standards?
  6. Tess tells Alec, “Once victim, always victim- that’s the law!” Do you agree or disagree with Tess’s statement? Does it accurately describe Tess?
  7. How does the setting of Flintcomb-Ash reflect Tess’s state of mind?
  8. What elements of irony are present in Tess’s thwarted visit to the Clares?
  9. Briefly explain how each of the following themes is brought out in Tess of the D’Urbervilles.
  10. Rigid ways of thinking deny individuality.
  11. Industrialization brings an end to traditional rural life and values.