Tess of the d’Urbervilles · Chapter
Phase the Third: The Rally — Chapter XX explained
The season matures at Talbothays Dairy, where Tess Durbeyfield and Angel Clare grow increasingly close.
What happens
The season matures at Talbothays Dairy, where Tess Durbeyfield and Angel Clare grow increasingly close. They rise early each morning to milk, sharing intimate moments in the twilight that feel like a prelapsarian world. Angel idealizes Tess, calling her by mythological names, while Tess finds unprecedented happiness in her new surroundings. Their relationship deepens under an irresistible law, though neither has yet fully acknowledged their passion.
Themes in this chapter
Nature vs. Society
The chapter contrasts the natural, idyllic dawn world of Tess and Angel with the social conventions that later constrain them. Their early meetings feel prelapsarian, like Adam and Eve, before society's judgments intrude.
Love and Marriage
Tess and Angel's relationship develops under an 'irresistible law,' moving from predilection toward love. Their mutual study of each other foreshadows the deeper romantic entanglement to come.
Fate and Inevitability
The narrative emphasizes that Tess and Clare are 'converging, under an irresistible law, as surely as two streams in one vale,' suggesting fate is guiding their union.
Characters to notice
- Tess Durbeyfield
Tess is deeply happy at Talbothays, physically and mentally suited to her new life. She rises early to milk and shares private dawn walks with Angel, feeling like Eve in a new world.
- Angel Clare
Angel is increasingly preoccupied with Tess, viewing her as a philosophical specimen and idealizing her as Artemis or Demeter. He does not suspect her past, thinking of the Resurrection hour while unaware of the Magdalen beside him.
- Dairyman Crick
Dairyman Crick oversees the dairy, lecturing latecomers and scolding old Deborah Fyander for her slovenly ways.
- Mrs. Crick
Mrs. Crick prepares the breakfast table, dragging it out from the wall with a horrible scrape each morning.
- Old Deborah Fyander
Old Deborah is scolded by Dairyman Crick for not washing her hands before milking.
Key passages
“All the while they were converging, under an irresistible law, as surely as two streams in one vale.”
They were being drawn together by an unavoidable force, like two streams flowing into the same valley.
Highlights the theme of fate and inevitability in their growing relationship.
“The sapling which had rooted down to a poisonous stratum on the spot of its sowing had been transplanted to a deeper soil.”
Tess, like a young tree that had grown in toxic ground, had been moved to a healthier environment.
Metaphor for Tess's escape from her traumatic past at Talbothays.
“He little thought that the Magdalen might be at his side.”
Angel did not realize that a woman with a sinful past, like Mary Magdalene, was walking beside him.
Foreshadows Angel's later reaction to Tess's confession about Alec.