Getting started

Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Teaching notes

Pre-reading research

Students could start with some background research on the Victorian era, while starting
to read the novel in private study time. Either display the list on the student sheet on
an IWB and let pairs of students choose different topics, or cut these out and give them
out to students as slips. It’s up to you how you would like them to present their
information: as display materials, information sheets or for students’ files.

Before starting reading, students could discuss the implications of:

1. The subtitle ‘A Pure Woman’. In his preface to the 1912 edition, Hardy said he
considered this to be ‘the estimate left in a candid mind of the heroine’s character’.
How far does it start to show us where Hardy’s sympathies will lie?

2. The number of phases and their titles – might they provide a map of Tess’s life?
Again, how far do these titles show us where Hardy’s sympathies lie?

3. If your edition of the text uses Roman numerals, a quick lesson on how they work will
help students.

4. Either before reading, at intervals during reading or after reading, students could
watch a film version of the novel, e.g. Tess, 1979 directed by Roman Polanski (three
hours); Tess of the d’Urbervilles (adapted by David Nicholls for the BBC) 2008 in four
one-hour parts; and to aid discussion of modern interpretations Trishna, 2011,
directed by Michael Winterbottom and set in modern day India. NB The first half hour
of Trishna would be enough; after that, there is a significant amount of explicit
content.

Chapter 1

Students could:

1. Keep a reading log of the novel, containing a short summary of each chapter, page
references for information on characters, ideas on themes, imagery, style and
vocabulary. They could use their answers to the questions on chapters one and two
on the student worksheets to start them off.

2. Look up unfamiliar words and references (classical, West Country dialect e.g. ‘vamp
on’) and note their meanings.

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Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

3. Return to their background research and discuss Victorian ideas about men’s and
women’s spheres of life, starting with the quotes ‘send a horse and carriage to me
immed’ately, to carry me hwome’ and ‘tell my wife to put away that washing’.

4. Rewrite the events of the chapter from a first person point of view, e.g. John
Durbeyfield, Parson Tringham, the local youth Fred. How does each interpret what
happens? Who thinks it’s funny, who takes it too seriously, who regrets it happened?

Chapter 2

Students could:

1. Draw a map, or a picture, of the Vale of Blakemoor using the information in the first
four paragraphs.

2. Find a map of Hardy’s Wessex on the internet, print it out and use it to plot Tess’s
journey through the novel. By the end they will see how places and landscapes
reflect the different events in her life. Hardy’s January 1895 addition to the novel’s
preface (in most editions) lists the names of the places he uses and identifies the
real places they are based on.

3. Produce a poster on the Pagan rituals they have researched (May Day, Cerealia) and
discuss how fertility links these to the land in a rural community and to the young
women who are walking.

4. Research colour symbolism further, for a discussion of Victorian views on women’s

role in the family. The title of Coventry Patmore’s sequence of poems: ‘The Angel in
the Home’ coined the phrase that was applied to an idealised view of wives, as
chaste, submissive and loyal etc. The text is available on the British Library website:
www.bl.uk/collection-items/coventry-patmores-poem-the-angel-in-the-house.

This will prepare students for discussions that will emerge later in the novel (e.g.
Angel’s desertion of Tess on their wedding night). Discussion of Tess’s red sash can link
to ideas of fertility, but also of danger, death and blood imagery (especially Prince’s in
Chapter 4, Alec’s in Chapter 56) and passion, also ideas of ‘the scarlet woman’, which
will prepare students for Alec’s treatment of Tess.

NB All quotations are taken from the Wordsworth Classics (2000) edition.

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 Getting started
Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Pre-reading research
Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles was published as a novel in 1891. How much
do you know about the Victorian era? Your teacher will help you organise into pairs and
research relevant topics.

These activities will help with your understanding of the context of the novel, including
when the novel was written compared to when it is read. Some critics considered the
novel immoral when it was first published! As you read the novel, you can compare this
to your own reactions now.

A useful starting point for your research could be the BBC Bitesize pages on the Victorian
era: www.bbc.co.uk/education/topics/zjd82hv .

Education: Free elementary education was introduced – for what ages? What was
taught and how?

Women: Find out what the attitudes to women were, e.g. marriage and divorce laws,
women and property.

Politics: Research the democracy of the time. Who could vote? Who else wanted to
vote?

Everyday life: Research aspects of everyday life, e.g. What were sanitary conditions
like? Was clean water universal?

Health: Find out what illnesses were prevalent – among men/women? What was the
child mortality rate?

The Industrial Revolution: Find evidence that the Industrial Revolution was changing
farm and factory work, and explain what it was.

Transport: Find out more about developments in transport, e.g. the first underground
railway in London opened in 1890.

Thomas Hardy: Create a short biography of Thomas Hardy and brief guide to his
novels, short stories and poems.

Literature: Who were the other writers at this time and what did they write about?
Look particularly at writers such as Oscar Wilde, who published The Picture of Dorian
Gray in 1891; Rudyard Kipling, H G Wells, Edith Wharton and George Eliot.

Publishing: What were the Graphic, Fortnightly Review and National Observer, which
first published Tess in episodic sketch form? What else was published in these and
other Victorian publications, e.g. earlier, Charles Dickens in Household Words?

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Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Read chapters one and two, and as you go along, answer the following questions. At the end of
each chapter, review your answers and add extra information you’ve noticed later, any
connections you’ve made and final thoughts on the chapters.

Chapter 1

1. Write a character profile of John Durbeyfield, e.g. his appearance, age, actions and
speech.

2. What can we deduce about his social class, personality and occupation?

3. Why does the parson address him as ‘Sir John’?

4. John Durbeyfield wants to have a quart of beer with the parson. How much is a
quart? What are we learning about Durbeyfield?

5. Write a character profile of Parson Tringham.

6. As well as being a parson, he is an antiquary and a genealogist. What are these?

7. Why does Parson Tringham have ‘doubts as to his discretion in retailing this curious
bit of lore’?

8. Make notes on any possible themes that are introduced, e.g. social status, history,
family, religion versus paganism.

9. Hardy has chosen a third person omniscient narrative. Make a note of its features.

10. Note examples of other aspects of style that illustrate character and develop the
plot and narrative, e.g. comedy: use of dialogue.

Chapter 2

1. Find examples of vocabulary that presents the Vale of Blakemore as isolated and out
of touch with modern (Victorian) life. NB Queen Victoria reigned from 1837-1901.

2. Find out the meaning of ‘club-walking’ and other May Day traditions, as well as the
significance of ‘a peeled willow wand’.

3. Research the ancient Roman ritual ‘Cerealia’.

4. Write a character profile of Tess Durbeyfield.

5. What part of Tess’s appearance marks her out from the other girls?

6. How does Tess’s speech mark her out from the other girls, and from her father?

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Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

7. How does Tess’s father embarrass her?

8. Describe the youngest of the three outsiders watching the dance. What is his link
with Tess in this chapter?

9. How do his two brothers develop the social class and the religion versus pagan
themes? What is Agnosticism?

10. Find evidence for the emergence of some new themes in the text, including:
education, appearance (especially the effect of beauty) and any others you notice.

11. Examine the imagery introduced in this chapter: colours (white, red) and Nature
(What is a peony?).

12. What authorial attitude develops in this chapter?

13. Tess is the novel’s protagonist. Choose three short quotes that help sum her up as a
more complex character than she at first appears:

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