# III explained — Tess of the d’Urbervilles > Chapter companion for Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. ## What happens Tess returns home from the dance to find her mother Joan rocking the cradle and singing. Joan reveals that her father John learned from Parson Tringham that they are descendants of the noble d'Urberville family. John, excited by the news, has gone to Rolliver's inn to celebrate, and Joan goes to fetch him. Tess, left in charge, eventually goes to the inn herself when no one returns. ## Themes in this chapter ### Social Class and Inequality The Durbeyfields' discovery of their noble lineage contrasts sharply with their current poverty, highlighting the gap between social status and reality. ### The Past and Ancestry The revelation of the d'Urberville ancestry drives the chapter, as John Durbeyfield's pride in his heritage leads him to celebrate at the inn, setting events in motion. ### Suffering and Resilience Tess's return to the dreary home and her mother's tireless labor at the wash-tub illustrate the family's daily struggles, while Tess's determination to fetch her father shows her resilience. ## Character check-ins ### Tess Durbeyfield Returns home from the dance, feels remorse for not helping her mother, learns of the family's noble ancestry, and goes to fetch her father from Rolliver's. ### Joan Durbeyfield Rocking the cradle and singing, she tells Tess about the d'Urberville lineage and goes to fetch John from the inn. ### Jack Durbeyfield Has gone to Rolliver's inn to celebrate the news of his noble ancestry, despite his poor health. ### Abraham Durbeyfield Sent by Tess to Rolliver's to check on his parents, but does not return. ### Liza-Lu Put to bed by Tess while she goes to the inn. ## Key lines > As for Tess Durbeyfield, she did not so easily dislodge the incident from her consideration. She had no spirit to dance again for a long time, though she might have had plenty of partners; but ah! they did not speak so nicely as the strange young man had done. Tess couldn't forget the encounter with the young stranger and lost interest in dancing, as no other partner compared to his charming conversation. _Tess's lingering thoughts of Angel Clare after the dance._ > There still faintly beamed from the woman’s features something of the freshness, and even the prettiness, of her youth; rendering it probable that the personal charms which Tess could boast of were in main part her mother’s gift, and therefore unknightly, unhistorical. Joan Durbeyfield still showed traces of her youthful beauty, suggesting that Tess inherited her looks from her mother rather than from any noble ancestry. _The narrator connects Tess's beauty to her mother's common lineage, not the d'Urberville blood._ > ‘At the present moment,’ he says to your father, ‘your heart is enclosed all round there, and all round there; this space is still open,’ ’a says. ‘As soon as it do meet, so,’ — Mrs. Durbeyfield closed her fingers into a circle complete — ‘off you will go like a shadder, Mr. Durbeyfield,’ ’a says. ‘You mid last ten years; you mid go off in ten months, or ten days.’ The doctor told John Durbeyfield that his heart is nearly closed off by fat, and when it fully closes, he will die suddenly—possibly within ten years, ten months, or ten days. _Joan relays the doctor's grim prognosis for John's health, contrasting with his celebration._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tess_of_the_d_urbervilles_se/chapters/iii - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tess_of_the_d_urbervilles_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tess_of_the_d_urbervilles_se/chapters