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Vignette of the Pheasants / A Pure Woman? - Coggle Diagram
Vignette of the Pheasants / A Pure Woman?
Pheasant Vignette
The auditory imagery of 'gasp' 'gurgle' ;fluttering' and 'palpitation' eerily depicting their struggle. Ultimately, her own execution is described as the ending of the 'sport' Fate and the gods had played on this tragic heroine
This episode enhances our sense of Tess as a victim it also foreshadows her role as a murderess. But Tess kills Alec in a more brutal, impulsive and vengeful way
The death of the pheasants by strangulation preludes Tess's own execution by hanging. For both it is a merciful release.
Hardy's use of paradox in describing how Tess 'killed the birds tenderly' makes it clear that her motive here is to help and as a country girl accustomed to handling fowl it shouldn't be surprising that she can break the neck of a bird.
Tess as 'hunted' and her shelter as a 'nest'. Hardy's portrayal of class difference is strong in this episode and the pheasants are victims of the 'strangely accoutred
upper class who hunt them dressed to kill
This episode is similar to that in the 4th part of Jude the Obscure when Jude and Sue both awaken intending to kill a rabbit caught in a steel trap- whatever their sexual sins, Hardy's hyper-sensitive characters feel compassion for wild creatures
Pure Woman
One early reviewer of the novel picked away at Tess's various failures and concluded that: 'through pure in instinct she was not faithful to her pure instinct'
He removed sentences form chapter 38 where Tess contemplates becoming Angel's mistress
In chapter 20 Angel Clare regards her as Eve before the Fall- The Eve complex- in Victorian society it was always seen as the woman's fault
"the resurrection hour" "he little thought that the Magdalen might be at his side"
She is often revered as the most beloved female saint after Mary the Mother of Jesus yet she is also identified as a fallen women and adulteress and/or a prostitute
The ref to Resurrection broadens the aura of religious purity from the Old to the NT. The ref to the 'Magdalen' is more equivocal: it must be presumed that for Angel, Mary Magdalene represents purity of love for Jesus
There's historical debate as to the nature of the real Mary Magdalene and Hardy could hardly have been unaware of the conflicting resonances he has built into to text by this reference.
Pheasant Vignette
Although pheasants preceded the arrival of her d'Urberville ancestors to England- the earliest record of them dates from 1059- the birds have long been appropriated by ruling classes
This chapter suggests Christianity fails to provide solace, help or guidance for Tess- Hardy's criticism of religion, shunned from the church, he uses death imagery and every thing against religion/10 commandments- go against Vic society ideals
This episode typifies Hardy's presentation of Tess not merely because of her death-drive her Thanatos, but her ability to 'rally'. Until the very end of the novel Hardy shows Tess to possess an elasticity of spirit that enables her to endure degradation shame and poverty.
Tess may be descended from knights but she is in the woodland as a trespasser. her anticipation will come to seek the fallen birds is proleptic of her pursuit and discovery at Stonehenge
The Normans passed draconian laws about poaching them; after a decline owing to a woodland clearance in the 1700s, and the Victorians then advanced breeding through artificial incubation
Hardy's depiction of the natural world was influenced by the Romantics but he was a realistic writing in a post-Darwinian era.