Summary: Chapter XLIX
Tess’s letter goes to Angel’s parents, who forward it
to Angel in Brazil. Mrs. Clare reproaches her husband for keeping
Angel from attending Cambridge, whereas Reverend Clare feels justified
in his decision but regrets the misery his son has endured. For
his part, Angel is ready to abandon his idea of farming in Brazil.
The suffering he has endured there has softened his feelings toward
Tess, and when a more experienced man tells him he was wrong to
leave her, Angel feels a powerful regret. When the man dies a few
days later, his words assume even more power in Angel’s mind. Back
at the farm, Tess encounters her sister, Liza-Lu, who comes with
sorrowful news: Tess’s mother is dying, and her father is also very
ill and can do no work. Tess tells Izz and Marian what has happened
and leaves for home the next morning.
Summary: Chapter L
Upon her arrival, Tess does what she can to make her mother
comfortable and then begins working in the garden and on the family’s land.
One night, she looks over and sees Alec working next to her. He
again offers to help Tess and her family. She is sorely tempted
but declines again. Enraged, Alec leaves.
On the way home, Tess’s sister tells her that their father
has died, which means that Tess’s family will lose their house.
John Durbeyfield was the last person guaranteed a place in the terms
of the lease, and the tenant farmer who owns the house wants to
use it for his own workers.
Summary: Chapter LI
Tess prepares to move her family to a set of rooms in
Kingsbere. Alec arrives and tells Tess the legend of the ghostly
d’Urberville Coach—the message of which is that the sound of an
invisible coach is a bad omen. Alec tries to persuade Tess to move
her family to his family’s garden home, allow him to send her brothers
and sisters to school, and have Tess’s mother tend the fowls. Tess
is again sorely tempted, but she once more declines Alec’s offer,
and he rides away. As he leaves, Tess admits to herself that Angel
has treated her badly, and she writes him a letter saying she will
do all she can to forget him, since she will never be able to forgive
him. Joan asks what Alec said to her, but Tess refuses to divulge
the story, saying she will tell her mother when they are in their
rooms at Kingsbere.
Summary: Chapter LII
“The little finger of the sham d’Urberville
can do more for you than the whole dynasty of the real underneath.
. . . Now command me. What shall I do?”
(See Important Quotations Explained)
The next day, Tess and her family begin their journey.
On the way, they meet Marian and Izz, who are moving on to new work
at a new farm. When they reach Kingsbere, they learn that Joan’s
letter was late, and the rooms have already been rented. They cannot
find more lodging and end up sleeping in the churchyard, in a plot
called d’Urberville Aisle. Tess finds Alec lying on a tomb, and
he tells her he can do more for her than all her noble ancestors.
Tess tells him to leave, and angrily he does, promising that Tess
will learn to be civil. Tess leans down toward the funeral vault
and asks why she is still alive. Marian and Izz do their part for
their friend by writing a note to Angel asking him to go back to
Tess.
Analysis
Phase the Sixth tells the story of Tess’s struggle to
remain free from Alec despite her family’s increasingly desperate
plight, which Alec has the power to alleviate if Tess agrees to
love him. Though Alec overtly plays the part of a villain in this
section, the real conflict is within Tess, as two of her deepest
virtues, her integrity and her loyalty to her family, prompt her
in opposite directions. Her integrity demands that she stay away
from Alec, whom she does not love, but her duty to her family tempts
her to go with him to save her mother and her siblings. Integrity
wins out throughout the section, but we get the sense that it is
only a matter of time before Tess is forced to submit. As a result,
the story in this section and part of the next is propelled along
by a kind of race: Angel needs to forgive Tess and return to her
before she surrenders to Alec.
