Text A The Rally

—from Tess of the d’Urbervilles(Chapter 20)

Thomas Hardy

[1]The season developed and matured.Another year’s instalment of flowers, leaves, nightingales, thrushes, finches, and such ephemeral creatures, took up their positions where only a year ago others had stood in their place when these were nothing more than germs and inorganic particles.Rays from the sunrise drew forth the buds and stretched them into long stalks, lifted up sap in noiseless streams, opened petals, and sucked out scents in invisible jets and breathings.

[2]Dairyman Crick’s household of maids and men lived on comfortably, placidly, even merrily.Their position was perhaps the happiest of all positions in the social scale, being above the line at which neediness ends, and below the line at which the convenances begin to cramp natural feelings, and the stress of threadbare modishness makes too little of enough.

[3]Thus passed the leafy time when arborescence seems to be the one thing aimed at out of doors.Tess and Clare unconsciously studied each other, ever balanced on the edge of a passion, yet apparently keeping out of it.All the while they were converging, under an irresistible law, as surely as two streams in one vale.

[4]Tess had never in her recent life been so happy as she was now, possibly never would be so happy again.She was, for one thing, physically and mentally suited among these new surroundings.The sapling which had rooted down to a poisonous stratum on the spot of its sowing had been transplanted to a deeper soil.Moreover she, and Clare also, stood as yet on the debatable land between predilection and love; where no profundities have been reached; no reflections have set in, awkwardly inquiring, “Whither does this new current tend to carry me? What does it mean to my future? How does it stand towards my past?”

[5]Tess was the merest stray phenomenon to Angel Clare as yet—a rosy warming apparition which had only just acquired the attribute of persistence in his consciousness.So he allowed his mind to be occupied with her, deeming his preoccupation to be no more than a philosopher’s regard of an exceedingly novel, fresh, and interesting specimen of womankind.

[6]They met continually; they could not help it.They met daily in that strange and solemn interval, the twilight of the morning, in the violet or pink dawn; for it was necessary to rise early, so very early, here.Milking was done betimes; and before the milking came the skimming, which began at a little past three.It usually fell to the lot of some one or other of them to wake the rest, the first being aroused by an alarm-clock; and, as Tess was the latest arrival, and they soon discovered that she could be depended upon not to sleep through the alarm as others did, this task was thrust most frequently upon her.No sooner had the hour of three struck and whizzed, than she left her room and ran to the dairyman’s door; then up the ladder to Angel’s, calling him in a loud whisper; then woke her fellow-milkmaids.By the time that Tess was dressed Clare was downstairs and out in the humid air.The remaining maids and the dairyman usually gave themselves another turn on the pillow, and did not appear till a quarter of an hour later.

[7]The gray half-tones of daybreak are not the gray half-tones of the day’s close, though the degree of their shade may be the same.In the twilight of the morning light seems active, darkness passive; in the twilight of evening it is the darkness which is active and crescent, and the light which is the drowsy reverse.

[8]Being so often—possibly not always by chance—the first two persons to get up at the dairy-house, they seemed to themselves the first persons up of all the world.In these early days of her residence here Tess did not skim, but went out of doors at once after rising, where he was generally awaiting her.The spectral, half-compounded, aqueous light which pervaded the open mead, impressed them with a feeling of isolation, as if they were Adam and Eve.At this dim inceptive stage of the day Tess seemed to Clare to exhibit a dignified largeness both of disposition and physique, an almost regnant power, possibly because he knew that at that preternatural time hardly any woman so well endowed in person as she was likely to be walking in the open air within the boundaries of his horizon; very few in all England.Fair women are usually asleep at mid-summer dawns.She was close at hand, and the rest were nowhere.

[9]The mixed, singular,luminous gloom in which they walked along together to the spot where the cows lay, often made him think of the Resurrection hour.He little thought that the Magdalen might be at his side.Whilst all the landscape was in neutral shade his companion’s face, which was the focus of his eyes, rising above the mist stratum, seemed to have a sort of phosphorescence upon it.She looked ghostly, as if she were merely a soul at large.In reality her face, without appearing to do so, had caught the cold gleam of day from the north-east; his own face, though he did not think of it, wore the same aspect to her.

[10]It was then, as has been said, that she impressed him most deeply.She was no longer the milkmaid, but a visionary essence of woman—a whole sex condensed into one typical form.He called her Artemis, Demeter, and other fanciful names half teasingly, which she did not like because she did not understand them.

[11]“Call me Tess,”she would say askance; and he did.

[12]Then it would grow lighter, and her features would become simply feminine; they had changed from those of a divinity who could confer bliss to those of a being who cravedit .

[13]At these non-human hours they could get quite close to the waterfowl.Herons came, with a great bold noise as of opening doors and shutters, out of the boughs of a plantation which they frequented at the side of the mead; or, if already on the spot, hardily maintained their standing in the water as the pair walked by, watching them by moving their heads round in a slow, horizontal, passionless wheel, like the turn of puppets by clockwork.

[14]They could then see the faint summer fogs in layers, woolly, level, and apparently no thicker than counterpanes, spread about the meadows in detached remnants of small extent.On the gray moisture of the grass were marks where the cows had lain through the night—dark-green islands of dry herbage the size of their carcasses, in the general sea of dew.From each island proceeded a serpentine trail, by which the cow had rambled away to feed after getting up, at the end of which trail they found her; the snoring puff from her nostrils, when she recognized them, making an intenser little fog of her own amid the prevailing one.Then they drove the animals back to the barton, or sat down to milk them on the spot, as the case might require.

[15]Or perhaps the summer fog was more general, and the meadows lay like a white sea, out of which the scattered trees rose like dangerous rocks.Birds would soar through it into the upper radiance , and hang on the wing sunning themselves, or alight on the wet rails subdividing the mead, which now shone like glass rods. Minute diamonds of moisture from the mist hung, too, upon Tess’s eyelashes, and drops upon her hair, like seed pearls.When the day grew quite strong and commonplace these dried off her; moreover, Tess then lost her strange and ethereal beauty; her teeth, lips, and eyes scintillated in the sunbeams and she was again the dazzlingly fair dairymaid only, who had to hold her own against the other women of the world.

[16]About this time they would hear Dairyman Crick’s voice, lecturing the non-resident milkers for arriving late, and speaking sharply to old Deborah Fyander for not washing her hands.

[17]“For Heaven’s sake, pop thy hands under the pump, Deb! Upon my soul, if the London folk only knowed of thee and thy slovenly ways, they’d swaller their milk and butter more mincing than they do a’ready; and that’s saying a good deal.”

[18]The milking progressed, till towards the end Tess and Clare, in common with the rest, could hear the heavy breakfast table dragged out from the wall in the kitchen by Mrs Crick, this being the invariable preliminary to each meal; the same horrible scrape accompanying its return journey when the table had been cleared.

After You Read

Knowledge Focus

1.Pair work: Discuss the following questions with your partner.

1)What time of the year was it?

2)Why did the dairymaids and dairymen hold the happiest position in the social scale according to the writer?

3)Was the relation between Tess and Angel somewhat subtle?

4)Why did Tess have the happiest time of her life on the dairy farm?

5)How did Angel feel about Tess at that time?

6)Why was Tess often given the task of waking the rest in the early morning?

7)Why were Angel and Tess compared to Adam and Eve?

8)Did Tess like those fanciful names Angel called her? Why?

9)What did Tess and Angel do together in the early morning?

10)When would Tess lose her special charm and become an ordinary maid?

2.Solo work: Decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F) according to what you learned and tell why.

____ 1)As a new maid, Tess had to work harder than others.

____ 2)Angel was always the first to get up at the diary-house.

____ 3)Angel and Tess woke up early, before the others, and felt as if they are the only people on Earth.

____ 4)The dairy farm seems to be an Eden, where Angel is Adam and Tess is Eve.

____ 5)On the dairy farm, the summer was full of budding love between Tess and Angel.

3.Pair work: Complete the following passage about the novel by filling in the blanks with the proper forms of the words in the box and check the answers with your partner.

narrate　moral　struggle　relate　treat

sin

　betray　yield

date

real

A brilliant tale of seduction, love, 1) , and murder, Tess of the d’Urbervilles2) to narrative convention by punishing Tess’s 3) , but boldly exposes this standard denouement of unforgiving 4) as cruelly unjust.Throughout, Hardy’s most lyrical and atmospheric language frames his shattering 5).The novel centers around a young woman who 6) to find her place in society.When it is discovered that the low-class Durbeyfield family is in 7) the d’Urbervilles, the last of a famous bloodline that 8) back hundreds of years, the mother sends her eldest daughter, Tess, to beg money from 9) with the obvious desire that Tess wed the rich Mr.d’Urberville.Thus begins a tale of woe in which a wealthy man cruelly 10) a poor girl.

Language Focus

1.Fill in the blanks with the following words you have learned from the text.

ephemeral

cramp　deem　singular　physique

preliminary　confer　crave　remnant　ethereal

1)The honour was _____ upon him just after the war.

2)She composed music which had a spiritual, _____ quality.

3)He showed a _____ lack of sill in painting.

4)Fame in the world of rock and pop is largely _____.

5)The _____ of the city’s former glory overwhelmed the tourists.

6)Many young children _____ attention.

7)In _____ discussions, American officials rejected the requests.

8)Worry and lack of money _____ the lives of the unemployed.

9)We will provide help whenever you _____ it appropriate.

10)With natural ability allied to an ideal _____, he quickly developed into an outstanding climber.

2.Complete the following sentences with the proper forms of the given words.

1)Lately, his _____ (preoccupy) with football had caused his marks at school to slip.

2)He described the _____ (vision) experiences that he had had on LSD.

3)The government’s reforms are being undermined by the _____ (pervade) corruption in the country.

4)The hands on my alarm clock are _____ (luminate), so that I can see what time it is in the dark.

5)We get a lot of _____ (condense) on the walls in the winter.

6)Keep the patient _____ (horizon) with the feet slightly raised.

7)All the cooking’s caused so much _____ (moist) that it’s misting up the windows.

8)Under _____ (prevail) law, the government cannot annul such marriages.

9)We basked in the _____ (radiant) of the African sun.

10)The report shows that drugs have penetrated every _____ (stratify) of American society.

3.Matching exercise: Please figure out the meaning of the italicized words in the following questions and then match their meanings with a or b.

1)...acquired the attribute of persistence...(Para.5)

a.a quality or featureb.ascribe

2)...an exceedingly novel, fresh, and interesting specimen.(Para.5)

a.new and originalb.a long printed story

3) It usually fell to the lot of some one or other of them...(Para.6)

a.a large number ofb.a group of people

4) The gray half- tones of daybreak...(Para.7)

a.the general mood or main qualities of something

b.a variety or degree of color

5) Minute diamonds of moisture...(Para.15)

a.extremely smallb.an official message or memo

4.Find the appropriate prepositions or adverbs that collocate with the neighbouring words.

1)Rays from the sunrise drew _____ the buds and stretched them _____ long stalks, lifted up sap in noiseless streams, opened petals, and sucked _____ scents in invisible jets and breathings.

2)The sapling which had rooted _____ to a poisonous stratum on the spot of its sowing had been transplanted _____ a deeper soil.

3)So he allowed his mind to be occupied ______ her, deeming his preoccupation to be no more _____ a philosopher’s regard of an exceedingly novel, fresh, and interesting specimen of womankind.

4)No sooner had the hour of three struck and whizzed, _____ she left her room and ran to the dairyman’s door; then _____ the ladder to Angel’s, calling him _____ a loud whisper; then woke her fellow-milkmaids.

5)The spectral, half-compounded, aqueous light which pervaded the open mead, impressed them _____ a feeling of isolation, as if they were Adam and Eve.

6)He knew that at that preternatural time hardly any woman so well endowed ______ person as she was likely to be walking _____ the open air _____ the boundaries of his horizon.

7)Whilst all the landscape was _____ neutral shade his companion’s face, which was the focus of his eyes, rising _____ the mist stratum, seemed to have a sort of phosphorescence _____ it.

8)She looked ghostly, as if she were merely a soul _____ large.

9)Birds would soar _____ it into the upper radiance, and hang _____ the wing sunning themselves, or alight _____ the wet rails subdividing the mead, which now shone like glass rods.

10)She was again the dazzlingly fair dairymaid only, who had to hold her own _____ the other women of the world.

5.Translate the following sentences.

1)Tess and Clare unconsciously studied each other, ever balanced on the edge of a passion, yet apparently keeping out of it.All the while they were converging, under an irresistible law, as surely as two streams in one vale.

2)Their position was perhaps the happiest of all positions in the social scale, being above the line at which neediness ends, and below the line at which the convenances begin to cramp natural feelings, and the stress of threadbare modishness makes too little of enough.

3)In the twilight of the morning light seems active, darkness passive; in the twilight of evening it is the darkness which is active and crescent, and the light which is the drowsy reverse.

4)She was no longer the milkmaid, but a visionary essence of woman – a whole sex condensed into one typical form.

5)They could then see the faint summer fogs in layers, woolly, level, and apparently no thicker than counterpanes, spread about the meadows in detached remnants of small extent.

Comprehensive Work

1.Pair work: Read the following passage and then discuss Thomas Hardy’s view of life with your partner.

Hardy was pessimistic in his view of life.His philosophy was that everything in the universe is determined by the Immanent Will, which is present in all parts of the universe and is impartially hostile towards human beings’desire for joy and happiness.The dominant theme of his novels is the futility of man’s effort to struggle against cruel and unintelligible Fate, Chance and Circumstances, which are all predestined by the Immanent Will.Although there is a humourous and attractive side to life, the prevailing mood in his novels is tragic.Since love is the most intense expression of human’s desire for happiness, it is in love that the conflict between the efforts of human beings and the relentless force of the Immanent Will is most acute.

2.Group work: Discuss the following quotes on love in a group and write a sentence or two to articulate your understanding of love.

1)The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being.His heart withers if it does not answer another heart.His mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration.

—Pearl S.Buck

2)Love does not die easily.

It is a living thing.

It thrives in the face

of all life’s hazards,

save one—neglect.

—James D.Bryden

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