riassunto dettagliato de "il ritratto di Dorian Gray", "tess dei D'Urbervilles" e "Oliver Twist", Sintesi del corso di Letteratura Inglese

Scarica riassunto dettagliato de "il ritratto di Dorian Gray", "tess dei D'Urbervilles" e "Oliver Twist" e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Letteratura Inglese solo su Docsity! The picture of Dorian Gray ✳ title the picture of Dorian Gray ✳ author Oscar Wilde Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854, from a wealthy and intellectual family, though not noble. Even as a boy stood out for his intelligence and for the brilliant spirit in society. From 1871 he studied at Trinity College, Dublin; in 1878 he graduated in Oxford, with honors, in humanities. Since 1879 he lived in London, but often traveled, lecturing in European and American cities and earning a reputation as a perfectionist. He often spoke of the newspapers and satirical pamphlets. In 1884 he married Constance Lloyd. But soon he began to have the first homosexual experiences. Wilde in 1888 published a book of fairy tales, The Happy Prince and Other Tales; in 1891 The Picture of Dorian Gray, which had a big success, even for the controversy about the immorality of the protagonist. The best-known critics outlawed the author, who vainly struggled to defend the work in long letters sent to various newspaper editors. At the end of 1891, Wilde was in Paris, where he wrote the drama Salomé in French. Since 1892 he composed several plays, including The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). In 1895 Wilde wove a scandalous affair with the young Lord Alfred Douglas Queensberry. After receiving a ticket insults the boy's father, Wilde, instead of silence, she denounced him for defamation. The process backfired: the writer was sentenced to two years in prison and also suffered other charges for bankruptcy. In prison he wrote De Profundis, in the form of a long letter addressed to Alfred. Released from prison in 1897, he is exiled in France, first in Nice and then Paris. At the end of the year, he left for a trip to Italy with the young Lord. Back in Paris, he published The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898). seriously ill, he died in the French capital, just 46 years, in November 1900. ✳ copyright date 1890 ✳ historical,cultural and social background The Victorian Age was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death, on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence for Britain. It was also characterized by a strict moral: Wilde's works were seen as revolutionary books, but Wilde thought that art possesses an intrinsic value: it is beautiful, so it's worthy, so it doesn't have to be morally or politically correct. In this book are also present the ideas of Aestheticism, a philosophical movement, which promoted the adoration for the ideas of beauty and plesure. ✳ Narration omniscient narrator - 3rd person ✳ setting London, XIX century (the narration takes 20 years) ✳ main characters “Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry is what the world thinks of me: Dorian is what I would like to be—in other ages, perhaps” ▲ Dorian gray he's the protagonist of the novel. He's described as a tall young man with a lean physique, delicate features and a mass of curl blonde hair. His character is the opposite of his beautiful body:he's petulant and egocentric,bu capable of “turning on” the passion in people's mind. He's a really vulnerable and insecure man, who thinks that his only safety is his beauty. He demonstrates, at the end of the novel, to be capable of saving his soul, destroying his portrait. ▲ Lord Henry Wotton he is a distinguish man with great manners and a witty intellect, estimated around 25-30 years old. He's a cynical person, very charming in his way of speaking, and poisonous for Dorian's soul with his theories. This character is the cause of Dorian's disgrace. He loves beauty and pleasure in all their forms and contents. ▲ Basil Hallward he's a young, talented painter. He's the author of Dorian's portrait, in fact Dorian is the greatest source of inspiration for Basil's art. He is the first link between Henry and Dorian, and he will never forgive himself for that, because he noticed that Henry's influence is leading Dorian astray. He loves Dorian and try to persuade him to repent for his actions, but he will be killed by Dorian himself in his study ▲ Sibyl Vane she's a young actress (she's only 17) with long brown hair and a delicate face. She performs for a low level company in a theatre in London. She falls in love with Dorian and this fact will change her way of acting and living, because through her love, she discovers the world around her. She commits suicide because of Dorian (he insults and leaves her after a performance). ✳ plot and subplot ▲ chapter 1 The story begins in the studio of the painter Basil Hallward, intent to converse with his friend Lord Henry Wotton. The two friends are intent to admire one of the painter's works: the portrait of a young man named Dorian Gray. Their conversation focuses mainly on Dorian Gray that the painter has known two months before at a party, and from which it was strongly and positively impressed enough to be influenced by the artistic point of view. In fact this guy has an extraordinary beauty and arouses in everybody great fascination and admiration. Basil claims that he has inspired him a new style and has led him to realize his best works, including the picture of Dorian Gray . Solicited by his friend to exhibit to the public the portrait, too good to be kept secret and sure that it might save him great fame, the painter refuses on the basis that the work because the picture talk too much about himself. Lord Wotton is increasingly intrigued and urging his friend to know Dorian Gray, but the artist does not want that to happen because he's afraid of the bad influence of the friend on the young man. The first chapter ends with the arrival of Dorian Gray in the painter's studio and the inevitable meeting with Lord Wotton. ▲ Chapter 2 theater and is an absolute flop. Dorian asks an explanation to Sibyl and she explains that before meeting him her only reality was the theater and she lived as if the characters who played were real but she can no longer act as before because through her feelings for him discovered that this world is all fake and that reality does not exist while she felt before the true reality is the love she feels for him. Hearing those words Dorian turns cold and distant and reproaches that in this way she killed his love, tells her not to try more feelings because it is not as wonderful as before, but frivolous and silly and leaves upset and crying. Dorian, back home watching the portrait realizes that his mouth has taken a cruel face and realizes that the cause is his insensibility and coldness with which he abandoned his girlfriend. He thinks back to the desire expressed by Basil home and remains terrified because he realizes that his wish was fulfilled. Since then the framework will bring the signs of old age, of his passions and his faults. Unable to bear the idea of seeing the horrible image of his conscience decides to apologize to Sibyl and would try to build a pure and happy life even at the cost of breaking his friendship with Lord Wotton. He places in front of the portrait a smokescreen so as not to see him. ▲ Chapter 8 Dorian when he wakes up is very late. He receives several letters (business cards, invitations, accounts, programs of exhibitions and concerts and usurers ads) among which there is one from Henry, which he puts aside. Thern he intends to ask for forgiveness from Sibyl and writes a love letter telling her of wanting to make up for his terrible behavior, marrying her. At that moment arrives Lord Wotton who speaks with Dorian and tries to comfort him convinced that he is familiar of the news (of which he had written the letter but Dorian had not yet opened) of the Sibyl's suicide (she ingested a dangerous cosmetic used in theater). Dorian initially remains transfixed and shocked but then, thanks to the suggestions of Lord Wotton, who convinces him that she was "less real than heroines", that it was all a dream that should be forgotten, accept the situation and indeed thinks it is "the wonderful conclusion to a wonderful drama and Sybil appears to him as a "wonderful tragic figure". Dorian decides that his life would be the research of eternal youth, passion without end, the subtle pleasures, of secrets, of unbridled sin and unbridled joys and the portrait would only suffered from the burden of sin and its shame. Dorian spends the same evening at the theater, with Lord Wotton, as if nothing had happened. ▲ Chapter 9 The next morning, Basil goes to see Dorian thinking to find him destroyed. However the young man is extraordinarily indifferent for the incidet. Basil justifies his behavior believing his indifference only a temporary reaction. The talk then moves on the portrait. Basil notices that is covered by a screen, and question why Dorian also informed him that he would like to exhibit the work in an exhibition. Dorian is terrified that they discover all the secrets of his spirit and his friend prohibits the chance to see the picture so as to be able to expose and to continue to pose for him. Basil dominated the beauty of Dorian and dominated by his personality confesses his love for Dorian and accept any decision, then leaves. Dorian decides to hide the painting so that prying eyes could no longer see it. ▲ Chapter 10 Dorian hides the picture in an old room, With the assistance of the framer and his worker, holding the painting covered with valuable paintings so that even them had to see it. In the library finds a note from Lord Wotton, a copy of the St. James's Gazette containing an article on the completion of the investigation for the death of Sybil and a book. He begins to read the book. It is a strange book and tells the story of a young Parisian who spent his life trying to do in the nineteenth century all the passions and ideas that belonged to every other century except his. Dorian lingers in reading and then went out to meet Henry at the Club. ▲ Chapter 11 For many years Dorian lives under the influence of that book doing all kinds of experiences in search of pure pleasure and surrounding himself with beautiful things, collecting jewelry, clothing, textiles and making homosexual experiences (even if not explicit). Meanwhile, in London, in the clubs, it begins to rumor about him. Dorian always keeps his wonderful and youthful appearance, making it difficult for others to believe that we were able to spot really that much negative behaviors. His appearance does not change, but his portrait instead become ever more monstrous and he is terrified to be discovered. About her keep on turning strange rumors about his involvement in fights, in contacts with forgers, so that, after a short time, his friends avoid him and women pale in shame at his sight. He feels he has tried all the experiences and passions of the world, just like the hero of the book that Henry gave him . ▲ Chapter 12 And 'the day of his thirty-eighth birthday and coming back from dinner meets Basil, that hasn't seen for many year, on the road. Initially he pretends not to recognize him, but Basil sees him and tells him she was looking for him, in fact had remained up to that hour in his house waiting for him but then resigned himself to leave. Entered the house Basil tells him that he heard various rumors about him and that he's worried about him. The painter wants Dorian tell him that's not true, that he is not an evil man who is painted by everyone and that leads to sin all his friends. Dorian decides to show him the portrait, revealing through this his soul and in this way give him the answer he wants. ▲ Chapter 13 The two friends climb to the room where the picture is preserved. And when Dorian takes away the cloth that covers the picture, Basil throws a cry of horror, seeing the hideous face that was grinning from the canvas and finds it hard to believe that it is exactly what he has painted. Dorian reminds him of the desire expressed by him when he saw the canvas for the first time and then Basil remembers and understands that his friend is even worse than people say. He asks him to pray for redemption, but Dorian blinded by hate, take a knife and kills him. To create an alibi, exit quietly from home and come back a little later, ringing the bell because the waiter is witness of the time at which he returned. ▲ Chapter 14 The next day, after a peaceful sleep Dorian is awakened by his servant. The memory of what happened becomes disturbing and he thinks that the offense committed is not one of those whose give to the intellect a sense of intoxicating joy. He begins to read a book of poems lying on the sofa to banish the thought of Basil, who every now and then comes to his mind. Dorian asks Alan Campbell, who was an old friend, to help him to make the corpse disappear, using its experience in science and chemistry, so it is not left any trace of the body. First he says that it was a suicide and then he assassinate him. At first he refuses but then threatened by Dorian accepts. Dorianand Campbell go to the room where there is the corpse of Basil and going to cover the portrait with his linen cloth, discovers to his horror that appeared a red stain on one hand. Towards evening Campbell, finished his work, takes his leave hoping to never have to see Dorian again. These rooms in the room where there is a strong smell of nitric acid, but from where the corpse has disappeared. ▲ Chapter 15 The same evening Dorian goes to a party. When Lord Wotton casually asks him what he did the night before, after they had left at eleven, Dorian gets nervous and feels overwhelmed by a sense of terror, then decides to take leave from the company. He realizes that, to erase all traces of his guilt, must absolutely get rid of the raincoat and the bag of Basil that he hid in a secret closet. Returned home burns the bag and overcoat of the painter and took a withdrawal symptoms from opium, dresses modestly and takes a carriage to take him on the banks of the Thames. ▲ Chapter 16 Dorian arrives in a bad place. Knock in a special way in and meet a friend, Adrian Singleton. He feels that he could not stay, because he wants to go to a place where no one knows him. Before going out they go together to the counter for a drink, here a woman calls him Prince Charming, as Sybil called him. At these words a sailor asleep gets up suddenly and goes out shortly after Dorian . Suddenly there is grasping him by the shoulders and feel the click of a revolver. Her attacker is the sailor who came out with him from the tavern, who reveals him to be James the brother of Sybil, who for years trying to kill him and so revenge his sister. He says he recognized him because he heard the woman calling him Prince Charming who was the nickname with which his sister knew him. Dorian is terrified, but it suddenly comes to his mind an escape and save himself by saying that he can not be the killer of his sister, who died eighteen years before, because it does not demonstrate forty years, but a lot less. James in front of the evidence that a boy like Dorian, that demonstrates twenty / twentyfive years can not be the same man that all those years ago knew the sister and apologizes, leaving him leave. At that time the pub woman reveals the rumors of Dorian and James swears that sooner or later he will be able to kill him. ▲ Chapter 17 A week later Dorian is in his countryside residence (Selby Royal) in conversation with its various guests. including Lord Wotton. At some point is moving away to go and pick flowers in the greenhouse, and little is found fainted in a greenhouse. It recovers soon and during dinner is cheerful and carefree, but sometimes it is the prey of a shiver of terror at • Copyright date 1838 • Genre coming-of-age-story • historical, cultural, social background The Victorian age became known for the use of children in factories, mines and as chimney sweeps. Child labor, often born as a result of economic hardship, played an important role from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The children of the poor had to help in the support of the family, often working many hours in dangerous jobs for low wages: they were employed as chimney sweeps, to slip under machinery to retrieve cotton reels, to work in the coalmines, crawling through tunnels too narrow and low for adults. Also they worked as bellhops, scavengers, Shoe Shine, Match Girls, Sellers of flowers or other economic goods too. They were sent to work at the age of three years. In coal mines children began work at five and generally died before the twenty-five. Many children (and adults) worked 16 hours a day. In 1802 and in 1819 for the laws of the factories the limit of working hours passed to 12 hours in the factory and in the cotton mills. These laws, however, were largely ineffective, as unheard. • narration 3rd person (omniscient narrator) with a lot of comments of the author himself • setting London, 1830 • main characters ▲ Oliver Twist is a 9/10 year old boy from the small and tender face, that orphan from birth, lives among thieves and among rich people who help him to escape from an evil fate, which would see it as the thief on the streets of città.Come says dickens he is a champion of humanity. ▲ Fagin is an old jew, Oliver leads in a matter of theft, he is the head of a gang of thieves. He's finally hanged. It is described as a hard man with red hair. ▲ Nancy is the Sykes' lover that proves affectionate with Oliver taking his parts during an argument. It is killed by Sikes in a moment of anger. ▲ Bill Sikes is the Fagin's shareholder. It is always in the company of a dog who mistreats often. Die hanged in an attempt to escape eil his dog die in the attempt to save him. ▲ Mr. Brownlow is an old gentleman who hosts Oliver for a few days at home when he was ill. It shows kind and considerate towards Oliver and helps him to unmask his enemies thieves. At the end he will adopt Oliver will understand the true meaning of family. • plot and subplot ▲ Chapter1 Oliver Twist was born in a workhouse. The mother is found dead on a road just after kissing the forehead of her child for the last time. The surgeon noted that she was not wearing a wedding ring. ▲ Chapter II The alternative for the children of the working house or die hungry or get out as soon as possible. The authorities of the workhouse send him into a satellite workhouse. Mrs. Mann, the supervisor receives a sum of money for each child received, money that she put in her pocket, letting children starve. At age nine Oliver becomes too big to remain in the building, and since no one has been able to come to know the identity of the father or mother, he must return to the workhouse. Mr. Bumble, the sacristan, is to take Oliver, but, at times when not watching, Mrs. Mann stretched hands on the poor child. Before departure Ms. Mann holds out the bread and butter Oliver so that does not seem to be hungry at the workhouse. In the workhouse children slowly die of hunger. At dinner a child informs the comrades that it will not have another bowl of gruel (a typical meal of the workhouse) will be forced to eat one of his companions. After randomly selected, the chosen one to ask for more food is Oliver. His silly request the authorities to the point that offer a reward of five pounds for those who want to take Oliver with them. ▲ Chapter III In the workhouse Oliver is whipped and locked in a dark room. A shady chimney sweeps, offers to take Oliver as an apprentice. Because many children have died working with him, the board considers that five pounds is too great as a reward and decided to lower the price of three. At the last moment the magistrate sees that Oliver is pale and terrified and asks the child what the problem is. Oliver kneels weeping saying it prefers made upon anything, but not be sent to do the apprentice by the man. The request is rejected and Oliver remains in the workhouse. ▲ Chapter IV Mr. Sowerberry, an undertaker, takes Oliver as an apprentice and considers it quite small. Mr. Bumble reassures him by saying that he will certainly grow, only if will eat their food. A Oliver are given leftovers that the dog refused to eat, food that Oliver devours as if it were a delicacy. At the end of the meal Mrs. Sowerberry takes him to his bed, worried that Oliver is too big to fit. ▲ Chapter V In the morning, another apprentice of Mr. Sowerberry named Noah Claypole Wake Oliver. During breakfast Noah and a girl named Charlotte take Oliver game. The child accompanies Sowerberry to prepare the cards for the funeral. Oliver, in return, is not at all happy with this situation. ▲ Chapter VI Oliver becomes increasingly good at his job of undertaker; We are given the proper clothing to participate in funeral processions. Noah is jealous of the progress of Oliver and one day angers his dead mother orphan. Oliver, blinded by rage, attacks him. Charlotte and Mrs. Sowerberry run to help Noah, beat Oliver and lock it in a closet. ▲ Chapter VII Noah informs Mr. Bumble of the incident so that what has happened proves even more serious. Bumble informs Mrs. Sowerberry that nourish Oliver with the meat gives it more force than necessary. Even Mr. Sowerberry beat Oliver after returning home. The following morning, Oliver escapes and passing in front of his old house of work sees an old friend, Dick, who promises not to tell anyone of his escape. ▲ Chapter VIII Oliver is headed to London. His escape is made difficult by hunger, cold and fatigue for more than 70 days. In a small town there are signs forbidding people to beg. Oliver eventually reaches a town on the outskirts of London and faints in front of an entrance. He's approached by a guy, Jack Dawnkins, which behaves like an adult. Jack offers lunch at Oliver and says he knows a "gentleman" in London that will offer a free accommodation in Oliver. Jack's nickname is "the clever trickster." The purpose of Oliver is making contacts with the gentleman and close relationship with Jack. In the night Jack Oliver door in a shabby slum in London. Once in a dilapidated house, Jack says a code that allows him to enter. Oliver arrived in a dark room makes the acquaintance of an old jew named Fagin and some guys who are having dinner, smoke a pipe and drink alcohol even though they are still small. Oliver dinner with them and falls asleep. ▲ Chapter IX The next morning Fagin takes out a box full of watches and jewelery while Oliver watches him. The jew grabs a kitchen knife asking if Oliver had already been awake for an hour and a hearing that the answer is no back to normal.Another guy shows up at the house accompanied by Jack., Charley Bates. The booty of their work are handkerchiefs and portfolios; They must teach Oliver to steal but he does not even have joined a gang of thieves and think they're just kidding.Two girls, Bet and Nancy, thave to drink something and Fagin hands them the money and throws them out of the house. Meanwhile Oliver learns to steal hadkerchiefs. ▲ Chapter X Oliver trains for days stealing and sees that Fagin beat Jack and Charley if they come back empty handed. Eventually Oliver goes to "work" with them. The two boys steal the handkerchief to a man who is reading quietly in a library. Oliver finally understands what is working. The man turns and sees that Oliver runs away and thinks that Oliver is the thief. A large crowd chases the "thief" who is captured by a police officer despite claims to be innocent. The man, however, asked not to harm the child and follows him to the police station. ▲ Chapter XI Oliver is locked in a cell waiting for the magistrate, Mr. Fang. Brownlow, the man robbed, swears that he recognized something special in Oliver's face but can not figure out what. Oliver faints and Fang sentenced him to three months of hard labor. The owner of the library comes in and says that they were the other two boys to commit the crime. Brownlow decides to take the boy with him. ▲ Capitolo XII Oliver has a very high fever. It is looked after by the housekeeper of Mr. Brownlow, Mrs. Bedwin and Oliver feels safe. The touching story of Oliver do move Mrs. Bedwin. Recovered Oliver gets up and his gaze is attracted by the portrait of a young woman. Brownlow also admits that Oliver looks a lot like the woman of the portrait and Oliver faints for the emotion. ▲ Chapter XIII Fagin is saddened seeing that Oliver did not come back with his mates. Fagin launches a pint of beer against Charley but hits Bill Sikes, a cruel man who makes his living by stealing the homes. Nancy is sent to the police station to find out what happened to Oliver. She dresses carefully and pretends to be the sister of Oliver. The say that staying at the man who had stolen his handkerchief as Oliver became ill during the process. ▲ Chapter XIV When Oliver goes into the housekeeper's room known that the portrait has disappeared since Mr. Brownlow believes that it has frightened Oliver. While Oliver begins to tell his story to the man arrives Mr. Grimwig. Man thinks that the child can have some bad habits. The boy library brings books to Brownlow but before he could pay him was gone. Grimwig suggests to send Oliver to pay but he believes that the child can steal money and books. Wanting to prove that you are wrong Grimwig Brownlow sends Oliver. It is evening but Oliver does not return. ▲ ChapterXV Oliver wrong way while going to the library; Nancy suddenly appears. He tells everyone that Oliver is his brother, escaped to become part of a gang of thieves and bringing him back home. Sikes and Nancy Oliver drag him away through dark streets. ▲ Chapter XVI Arrived in a dilapidated house, the audience laugh at the stately clothes Oliver wears. Oliver can not escape and is threatened to be torn apart from Sikes dog, Bull's-Eye.Nancy defends Oliver saying that they ruined his future and defended him when Fagin tries to beat the child. Fagin returns to destroy his love for Rose; Harry is at a crossroads: Rose or his career; He declares that his love for Rose is solid and durable. One day Oliver falls asleep and dreams Fagin and when he wakes up he sees Fagin and the man he had seen when he went to call Losberne but fade away quickly as soon as Oliver calls for help. ▲ ChapterXXXV Harry and help Giles Oliver and Fagin and seek the man in the surrounding fields without result. Harry declares his love to Rose; although she also loves him can not be together, and this is due to the circumstances of his birth. He is much more well-off and she does not want to hinder his career. It'll take just one more time and if we were to refuse to put a lid on it. ▲ ChapterXXXVI Before the departure of Harry and Losberne, Harry secretly letters he asks Oliver to write him every other week telling him anything about him and about women. Rose in tears sees her beloved away in a carriage. ▲ ChapterXXXVII Bumble has married Ms Corney and became the director of the workhouse. After a morning of quarrels with his wife, he stops in a pub drinking. Next to him sat a man who asks for information on the woman who had received the gold medallion (old Sally) and Bumble says you know a person with whom he spoke on his deathbed. The woman must make her acquaintance the next night and said his name was Monks. ▲ Chapter XXXVIII During a storm, Mr. and Mrs. Bumble traveling to a squalid part of town near a flooded river to meet Monks in a decaying building. They agree on the price of £ 25 for its information. Mrs. Bumble tells how Old Sally robbed Oliver's mother. Mrs. Bumble says that he found a receipt of a holder of agency pawn in the hands of the Old Sally corpse and that she had kept in a gold medallion over since Monks; inside he finds an engagement ring with a space to enter the surname. Monks tied the locket to a weight and throws it into a river. ▲ Chapter XXXIX Bill Sikes is sick and has a fever. Nancy is treating him anxiously, despite his grumpy attitude; Fagin and his friends go to find him to bring wine and food. Sikes claims that Fagin give him money; Fagin look at his box with the money when it comes suddenly Monks and asks to speak alone with Fagin. So the two leave the room, but Nancy follows them and overhears them. Monks when he leaves, Fagin gives money to Nancy. Troubled by what he had heard, Nancy comes out on the road, away from the residence of Sikes before returning to deliver the money. Sikes did not notice his nervousness if not a bit 'of days later. Having hints of something in the air, Sikes asks her to sit beside him. When he fell asleep, Nancy hurries to go to a hotel in the city healthy. Once arrived, please servitude to grant it to speak to Miss Maylie; although they were not in agreement, the servants accompany upstairs. ▲ Chapter XL Nancy confesses to Rose that she is the one who kidnapped Oliver as he was going on an errand for Mr. Brownlow; He said he heard Monks say to Fagin to be the brother of Oliver. Monks wants the identity of Oliver remains unknown so that the same Monks can get from his family the entire inheritance. Monks arrive even to kill Oliver if he could do it without hurting himself; he also promised to pay Fagin if Oliver was captured. Rose offers to help Nancy to leave behind his life of crime, but Nancy knows that this can not happen because it is very close to Sikes despite his disrespectful behavior, so that even rejects the economic aid offered by Rose. Before leaving, Nancy informs Rose that can find it at the London Bridge between 11 and midnight every Sunday in case the necessity of more information. ▲ Chapter XLI Not long after the meeting between Rose and Nancy, Oliver tells Rose that he saw Mr. Brownlow in the street. Oliver and Giles have verified the address of Mr.Brownlow, so Rose immediately accompanies Oliver there. Rose tells Brownlow that Oliver wants to thank him. Once Brownlow and Rose are alone, she tells the story of Nancy. Brownlow and Rose tell the story to Miss Maylie and Losberne; Brownlow asks to include Grimwig in the affair but insists Losberne to include Harry. All together they agree and decide to keep everything hide from Oliver and decide to contact Nancy the following Sunday. ▲ Chapter XLII Noah Claypole and Charlotte go to London after robbing Mr. Sowerberry. They stop at the inn "Three Cripples", where they meet Fagin and Barney. Fagin invites Noah to join his gang, assigning him the task of thief. ▲ Chapter XLIII Noah meets Fagin to his house; l 'Skillful Trickster ("Artful Dodger") was arrested for being identified stealing a wallet. The first job assigned to Noah is to go to the police station to watch the process all'Artful Dodger. The "Dodger", joking all the time, is sentenced to deportation. Noah runs by Fagin to tell him what he saw. ▲ Chapter XLIV Fagin visits to Sikes, while Nancy tries to leave to go to London Bridge; Sikes drags her into another room and leave it there for over an hour. When he goes away, Fagin reveals that would help to leave the violent Sikes if she wanted. Fagin thinks that Nancy wanted to meet her new love that night; He tried to convince her to kill Sikes and to bring his new love in his gang. Fagin also plans to observe Nancy carefully in order to discover the identity of her new lover, hoping to be able to blackmail her with this information. ▲ Chapter XLV Fagin tells Noah that it he would have paid a pound to follow Nancy. The following Sunday, as Sikes is not home, Fagin takes Nancy to the residence of Sikes; at 11, Nancy leaves the apartment and Noah follows her keeping a discreet distance. ▲ Chapter XLVI Nancy meets Mr. Brownlow and Rose on London Bridge and leads them in an isolated point; Noah hear that Nancy begs them to make sure that none of them worry because of her choice to help Oliver. They agree and Nancy tells them to visit the public house if they wanted to see Monks; They hope to find Monks and force him to tell the truth about Oliver. Brownlow begs Nancy to accept their help, but she claims to be chained by his life and could not do anything. Brownlow and Rose leave, Nancy cries a lot and then heads home, secretly followed by Noah. ▲ Chapter XLVII When Sikes delivery Fagin stolen property, Fagin and Noah tells Nancy Sikes; Fagin tells Sikes that Nancy had not insisted that no-one worried about her. Seized by a rage, Sikes returns home and kills Nancy, as she begs for mercy. ▲ Chapter XLVIII In the morning, Sikes Leave London, he stops at an inn to eat. Seeing a blood stain on Sikes' hat, a sailor tries to show the quality of stain remover; Sikes leaves the inn and once out of the men who hear talk of a murder that took place in a post office. He walks down the street, haunted by the eyes of Nancy; He decided to return to London and to hide, but he feared that his dog, barking, could betray him. so he decided to drown him, but manages to escape and runs away. ▲ Chapter XLIX Mr. Brownlow has captured Monks and brought him to his house; real name is Edward Leeford Monks. Brownlow was a good friend of his father, Mr. Leeford; the latter was still young when his family forced him to marry a rich woman older than him. The couple separated but not divorced, and so Edward and his mother went to Paris. Meanwhile Mr. Leeford falls in love with Agnes Fleming, the daughter of a naval officer retired, who became pregnant with Oliver. One of his relatives, who had insisted in forcing Leeford marriage, repents and leaves a great heritage; Mr. Leeford left the portrait of his beloved Agnes in the hands of Brownlow because he had to go to Rome to take his inheritance. The wife of Mr. Leeford, having learned of his inheritance, traveled to Rome to meet him, but also in Rome, Leeford fell ill and died and his fortune went to his wife and his son, because his will was burned by Monks' mother. Brownlow, noting the similarity of Oliver to the woman in the portrait, went looking Monks after Oliver was kidnapped. The search for Sikes continued. ▲ ChapterL Fagin and Noah are caught by the authorities. Charlye Bates arrives at the murderer's house and called others to help him. A crowd of people coming to seek justice. Sikes climbs on the roof with a rope intending to flee; at one point he loses his balance, the rope is coiled around his neck and hang him. ▲ ChapterLI Oliver and his friends make their way to the city of his birth to meet Grimwig. Monks reveals that there he and his mother found a letter and a will after the death of his father, who were destroyed by them. The letter was addressed to the mother of Agnes Fleming and contained a confession of Leedford about their relationship. The will said that if he had an illegitimate daughter would inherit his estate at any price. If it was a boy, he would have inherited not only commit crimes of any kind. If not, it would go to Monks and mother. After knowing the Agnes affair with a married man, the father left his hometown and changed his last name. Agnes went away and his father died soon after of a broken heart. His other daughter was adopted by a poor couple who died shortly after. Mrs. Maylie felt sorry for the little girl and took her with him. That little girl was Rose. Spouses Bumble confessed to having hidden the true story of Oliver. Harry gave up his career to become a wing of a poor shepherd and as a result Rose agreed to marry him because he was no longer an obstacle. ▲ ChapterLII Fagin is sentenced to the death penalty. During his last night Oliver and Brownlow go to visit him to verify the identity of the child. ▲ ChapterLIII Noah viene perdonato poiché ha testimoniato contro Fagin. Charley cambia vita e decide di diventare una persona onesta. Le proprietà di Monks vengono spartite tra lui e Oliver; egli viaggia verso il Nuovo Mondo, dove sperpera il suo patrimonio e muore in prigione. Brownlow adotta Oliver e va a vivere con Losberne e Grimwig vicino alla chiesa in cui Harry è parroco. • message of the book in my opinion the message is that everyone ends up paying for his sins, and that despite everything that can happen to you, you always have to have hope, because anything can straighten (perhaps unexpectedly) at the end. • critical sources English Dickens is not difficult to read and understand, but it does not make it free of "labor limae". The author uses irony to criticize the paradoxes that were typical of his time. • quotes "then spare my life for the love of Haven, as I spared yours [...] Bill, Bill for the dear God's sake, for your own, for mine, stop before you will spill my blood! I have been true to you, upon my guilty soul I have!" I chose this quote because the pleas of Nancy left me goose bumps. We understand that she is understanding just how the man you love is bestial. beginning does not realize that he's serious, but education that her unschooled parents lack, since she has passed the Sixth Standard of the National Schools, Tess does not quite fit into the folk culture of her predecessors, but financial constraints keep her from rising to a higher station in life. She belongs in that higher world, however, as we discover on the first page of the novel with the news that the Durbeyfields are the surviving members of the noble and ancient family of the d’Urbervilles. There is aristocracy in Tess’s blood, visible in her graceful beauty—yet she is forced to work as a farmhand and milkmaid. When she tries to express her joy by singing lower-class folk ballads at the beginning of the third part of the novel, they do not satisfy her—she seems not quite comfortable with those popular songs. But, on the other hand, her diction, while more polished than her mother’s, is not quite up to the level of Alec’s or Angel’s. She is in between, both socially and culturally. Thus, Tess is a symbol of unclear and unstable notions of class in nineteenth-century Britain, where old family lines retained their earlier glamour, but where cold economic realities made sheer wealth more important than inner nobility. Beyond her social symbolism, Tess represents fallen humanity in a religious sense, as the frequent biblical allusions in the novel remind us. Just as Tess’s clan was once glorious and powerful but is now sadly diminished, so too did the early glory of the first humans, Adam and Eve, fade with their expulsion from Eden, making humans sad shadows of what they once were. Tess thus represents what is known in Christian theology as original sin, the degraded state in which all humans live, even when—like Tess herself after killing Prince or succumbing to Alec—they are not wholly or directly responsible for the sins for which they are punished. This torment represents the most universal side of Tess: she is the myth of the human who suffers for crimes that are not her own and lives a life more degraded than she deserves. ▲ Angel A freethinking son born into the family of a provincial parson and determined to set himself up as a farmer instead of going to Cambridge like his conformist brothers, Angel represents a rebellious striving toward a personal vision of goodness. He is a secularist who yearns to work for the “honor and glory of man,” as he tells his father in Chapter XVIII, rather than for the honor and glory of God in a more distant world. A typical young nineteenth-century progressive, Angel sees human society as a thing to be remolded and improved, and he fervently believes in the nobility of man. He rejects the values handed to him, and sets off in search of his own. His love for Tess, a mere milkmaid and his social inferior, is one expression of his disdain for tradition. This independent spirit contributes to his aura of charisma and general attractiveness that makes him the love object of all the milkmaids with whom he works at Talbothays. As his name—in French, close to “Bright Angel”—suggests, Angel is not quite of this world, but floats above it in a transcendent sphere of his own. The narrator says that Angel shines rather than burns and that he is closer to the intellectually aloof poet Shelley than to the fleshly and passionate poet Byron. His love for Tess may be abstract, as we guess when he calls her “Daughter of Nature” or “Demeter.” Tess may be more an archetype or ideal to him than a flesh and blood woman with a complicated life. Angel’s ideals of human purity are too elevated to be applied to actual people: Mrs. Durbeyfield’s easygoing moral beliefs are much more easily accommodated to real lives such as Tess’s. Angel awakens to the actual complexities of real-world morality after his failure in Brazil, and only then he realizes he has been unfair to Tess. His moral system is readjusted as he is brought down to Earth. Ironically, it is not the angel who guides the human in this novel, but the human who instructs the angel, although at the cost of her own life. ▲ Alec An insouciant twenty-four-year-old man, heir to a fortune, and bearer of a name that his father purchased, Alec is the nemesis and downfall of Tess’s life. His first name, Alexander, suggests the conqueror —as in Alexander the Great—who seizes what he wants regardless of moral propriety. Yet he is more slippery than a grand conqueror. His full last name, Stoke-d’Urberville, symbolizes the split character of his family, whose origins are simpler than their pretensions to grandeur. After all, Stokes is a blunt and inelegant name. Indeed, the divided and duplicitous character of Alec is evident to the very end of the novel, when he quickly abandons his newfound Christian faith upon remeeting Tess. It is hard to believe Alec holds his religion, or anything else, sincerely. His supposed conversion may only be a new role he is playing. This duplicity of character is so intense in Alec, and its consequences for Tess so severe, that he becomes diabolical. The first part of his surname conjures associations with fiery energies, as in the stoking of a furnace or the flames of hell. His devilish associations are evident when he wields a pitchfork while addressing Tess early in the novel, and when he seduces her as the serpent in Genesis seduced Eve. Additionally, like the famous depiction of Satan in Milton’s Paradise Lost, Alec does not try to hide his bad qualities. In fact, like Satan, he revels in them. In Chapter XII, he bluntly tells Tess, “I suppose I am a bad fellow—a damn bad fellow. I was born bad, and I have lived bad, and I shall die bad, in all probability.” There is frank acceptance in this admission and no shame. Some readers feel Alec is too wicked to be believable, but, like Tess herself, he represents a larger moral principle rather than a real individual man. Like Satan, Alec symbolizes the base forces of life that drive a person away from moral perfection and greatness. • Plot and subplot ▲ Chapter 1 On his way home to the village of Marlott, a middle-aged peddler named John Durbeyfield encounters an old parson who surprises him by addressing him as “Sir John.” The old man, Parson Tringham, claims to be a student of history and says that he recently came across a record indicating that Durbeyfield descends from a noble family, the d’Urbervilles. Tringham says that Durbeyfield’s noble roots come from so far back in history that they are meaningless, but Durbeyfield becomes quite self-important following the discovery and sends for a horse and carriage to carry him home. ▲ Chapter 2 At the same moment, Durbeyfield’s daughter Tess enjoys the May Day festivities with the other women from her village. Durbeyfield rides by in the carriage, and though Tess is embarrassed at the spectacle, she defends her father from the mockery of the other girls. The group goes to the village green for dancing, where they meet three highborn brothers. Tess notices one of the brothers in particular, a young man named Angel Clare. While his two brothers want to keep traveling, Angel cannot pass up the opportunity to dance with these women. The girls ask him to choose his partner, and he chooses a girl other than Tess. They dance for a short time, and then Angel leaves, realizing he must catch up with his determined brothers. Upon leaving, Angel notices Tess and regrets his decision to dance with someone else. ▲ Chapter 3 When Tess returns home, she receives a twofold alarm from her mother, Joan, who tells her that her father comes from noble lineage and also that he has been diagnosed with a serious heart condition. Mrs. Durbeyfield has consulted the Compleat Fortune-Teller, a large, old book, for guidance. A believer in such astrology, she keeps the book hidden in the outhouse out of an irrational fear of keeping it indoors. Mr. Durbeyfield is not home, but is instead at Rolliver’s, the local inn and drinking establishment, probably taking the opportunity to celebrate his newly discovered heritage. Tess and the family are not surprised to hear of his whereabouts. Tess’s mother goes to fetch her husband from the inn but does not return. The narrator explains that her failure to return may result from Mrs. Durbeyfield’s enjoyment in sitting at Rolliver’s with her husband, since it is time that they can share alone. Tess becomes worried and asks her little brother Abraham to go to Rolliver’s and see what is taking their mother and father so long to return. Sometime later, when still no one has returned home, Tess goes after them herself. ▲ Chapter 4 At the inn, Tess’s young brother Abraham overhears Mr. and Mrs. Durbeyfield discussing their plans for Tess to take the news of her ancestry to the wealthy Mrs. d’Urberville in the hopes that she will make Tess’s fortune. When Tess arrives, she realizes her father will probably be too tired and drunk to take his load of beehives to the market in a few hours. Her prediction comes true, so she and her brother Abraham deliver them instead. On the way, Abraham tells Tess of their parents’ plans, and then the conversation veers onto the topic of astronomy. Knowing that stars contain clusters of worlds like their own, Abraham asks Tess if those worlds are better or worse than the world in which they live. Tess boldly answers that other stars are better and that their star is a “blighted one.” Tess explains that this shortcoming is the reason for all of her and her family’s misfortunes. Abraham falls asleep, leaving Tess to contemplate. She too eventually falls asleep and dreams about a “gentlemanly suitor” who grimaces and laughs at her. Suddenly, Tess and Abraham are awakened by a calamity. Their carriage has collided with the local mail cart, and the collision has killed Prince, their old horse. Realizing that the loss of their horse will be economically devastating for her family, Tess is overcome with guilt. The surrounding foliage seems to turn pale and white as Tess does. The carriage is hitched up to the wagon of a local farmer, who helps them bring the beehives toward the market in Casterbridge. Later, Tess returns home ashamed, but no one blames Tess more than she does herself. Tess remains the only one who recognizes the impact that the loss of the horse will have. The farmer helps them return Prince’s body back to the Durbeyfield’s home. Refusing to scrap or sell the body, Mr. Durbeyfield labors harder than he has in an entire month to bury his beloved horse. ▲ Chapter 5 In part because of her guilt over the horse, Tess agrees with her mother’s plan to send her to Mrs. d’Urberville. When she arrives, she does not find the crumbling old mansion she expects, but rather a new and fashionable home. She meets Mrs. d’Urberville’s son Alec, who, captivated by Tess’s beauty, agrees to try to help her. Alec says that his mother is unwell, but he says he will see what he can do for Tess. ▲ Chapter 6 When Tess returns home, she finds a letter. It is from Mrs. d’Urberville, offering her a job tending the d’Urbervilles’ fowls. Tess looks for other jobs closer to home, but she cannot find anything. Hoping to earn enough money to buy a new horse for her family, Tess accepts the d’Urbervilles’ job and decides to go back to Trantridge. ▲ Chapter 7 On the day Tess is scheduled to leave for the d’Urbervilles’ home, Mrs. Durbeyfield cajoles her into wearing her best clothes. Mrs. Durbeyfield dresses Tess up and is pleased by her own efforts, as is Mr. Durbeyfield, who begins speculating about a price at which he will sell their family title. When Alec arrives to retrieve Tess, they become uncertain that she is doing the right thing. The children cry, as does Mrs. Durbeyfield, who worries that Alec might try to take advantage of her daughter. ▲ Chapter 8 On the way to the d’Urberville estate, Alec drives recklessly, and Tess pleads with him to stop. He continues at a fast pace and tells her to hold on to his waist. She complies only out of fear for her safety. When traveling down the next steep hill, he urges her to hold on to him again, but she refuses and pleads with him to slow down. He agrees to drive more slowly, but only if she will allow him to kiss her. Tess allows him to kiss her on the cheek, but when she unthinkingly wipes the kiss off with her handkerchief, he becomes angry and outraged at her unwillingness to submit to his advances. They argue, and Tess finishes the journey on foot. ▲ Chapter 9 The next morning Tess meets Mrs. d’Urberville for the first time and discovers that the old woman is blind. Tess is surprised by Mrs. d’Urberville’s lack of appreciation for Tess’s coming to work for her. Mrs. d’Urberville asks Tess to place each of the fowls on her lap so she can examine and pet them. She tells Tess to whistle to her bullfinches every discuss Angel’s noticeable love for Tess and imagine what the future will hold for them. Tess does not want to marry, though, because she is still ashamed of her past. After some further churning, the butter begins to set and everyone’s fears melt away—except for Tess’s. ▲ Chapter 22 Life on the dairy begins to change. There is worry about the butter, which is not churning properly. Mrs. Crick jokes that this sort of thing happens only when someone on the farm falls in love. Indeed, there are two people who are in love, and the milkmaids often discuss Angel’s noticeable love for Tess and imagine what the future will hold for them. Tess does not want to marry, though, because she is still ashamed of her past. After some further churning, the butter begins to set and everyone’s fears melt away—except for Tess’s. ▲ Chapter 23 Two months after her arrival at the dairy, Tess sets out with her friends to attend the Mellstock Church. There has been a torrential downpour the day before, and the girls come to a long stretch of flooded road. Angel offers to carry them across, and they agree. All the girls notice that Angel takes the longest with Tess, and they each realize that he prefers her. Tess begins to avoid Angel, but she notices from afar his grace and self-discipline in the company of the girls who dote on him. One night, Marian, Izz, and Retty each confess to feeling love for Angel, and Tess feels guilty, since she too loves Angel but has already decided never to marry. She wonders if she is wrong to take so much of his time. ▲ Chapter 24 Later that summer, Angel and Tess are milking cows, and Angel is overcome with his feeling for Tess. He embraces her, and she gives way to her feelings for a moment before trying to pull away. Angel tells Tess he loves her and is surprised to hear the words come out of his mouth. No one has noticed their encounter, and the two return to their milking, shaken. ▲ Chapter 25 Angel feels that he needs time to understand the nature of his relationship with Tess, so he decides to spend a few days away from the dairy visiting his family. At his father’s house in Emminster, he finds his parents breakfasting with his brothers: the Reverend Felix, a town curate, and the Reverend Cuthbert, a college dean at Cambridge. Angel’s family notices that his manners have worsened somewhat during his time with common farm folk, while Angel thinks that his brothers have become mentally limited and bogged down by their comfortable situation ▲ Chapter 26 After prayers that evening, Angel and his father discuss Angel’s marriage prospects. The Clares hope Angel will marry Mercy Chant, a pious neighbor girl, and they admonish their son about the importance of Christian piety in a wife. Angel contends that a wife who understands farm life would also be an asset, and he tells them about Tess, emphasizing her religious sincerity. The family agrees to meet her. Angel’s father also tells Angel that he has saved the money he would have needed for his college education, and, since Angel did not go to college, he is willing to give it to Angel to buy land. Before Angel leaves, his father tells him about his efforts to convert the local populace, and mentions his failed efforts to tame a young miscreant named Alec d’Urberville. Angel’s dislike for old families increases. ▲ Chapter 27 Angel returns to the dairy, where he finds Tess just awakening from her afternoon nap. He takes her in his arms and asks her to marry him. Tess replies that she loves him but that she cannot marry. Angel replies that he will give her time to think it over, but she replies again that the marriage is impossible. Nevertheless, in the coming days Angel continues to try to persuade her, and Tess quickly realizes that she loves him too strongly to keep up her refusal. ▲ Chapter 28 In the early fall, Angel again asks Tess to marry him. Tess hesitates, saying that one of the other girls might make a better wife than she. Tess still feels that she cannot marry Angel because of the implications of her past indiscretions. But Angel still believes that Tess is objecting only because of her low social status, and he thinks that she will accept soon enough. Tess believes that she must tell Angel about her lineage and her dark past, but hesitates and resolves to tell him later. ▲ Chapter 29 The farm floods with gossip about a failed marriage. A man named Jack Dollop married a widow, expecting to partake of her substantial dowry, only to discover that her financial stability and income vanishes as a result of the marriage. Most people at the dairy think the widow was wrong to deceive Jack Dollop of this fact and that she should have been completely truthful with him before marrying. This widespread opinion makes Tess nervous again about her past. She wonders whether she should reveal this past to Angel. ▲ Chapter 30 As they are taking care of some chores, Angel mentions offhandedly to Tess that they are near the ancestral territory of the ancient d’Urbervilles. She takes the opportunity to tell Angel that she descends from the d’Urbervilles, and he is pleased, realizing that her descent from noble blood will make her a better match in the eyes of his family. At last Tess agrees to marry him, and she begins to weep. Tess asks if she may write to her mother, and when Angel learns she is from Marlott, he remembers where he has seen her before—on May Day, when they did not dance. ▲ Chapter 31 When Mrs. Durbeyfield receives Tess’s letter, she immediately writes back advising her daughter not to tell Angel about her past. Tess luxuriates throughout October, and, when Angel asks her to finalize the date of their wedding, she again appears reticent, saying she is reluctant to change things. When Angel announces their engagement to Mr. Crick in front of the dairymaids, Tess is impressed by their joyous reaction. She feels that she can finally express her happiness, but she soon feels unworthy of Angel. Tess decides that she will finally tell him about her past. ▲ Chapter 32 Tess agrees to leave the dairy with Angel around Christmas, and their wedding date is set for December 31. Angel hopes to spend that time visiting a flour mill and staying in a home that belonged to the d’Urbervilles. Angel buys Tess clothes for their wedding and, to her relief, quietly takes out a marriage license rather than publicizing his intent to marry Tess. ▲ Chapter 33 While out shopping, Angel and Tess encounter a man from Alec d’Urberville’s village, who disparages Tess and denies her virginity. Angel strikes the man, but when the man apologizes, Angel gives him some money. Tess is wracked with guilt, and that night she writes a confession and slips it under Angel’s door. Strangely, in the morning, Angel’s behavior toward her has not changed, and he does not mention the letter. Tess ascertains that it slipped under the carpet and that Angel never saw it. On the morning of the wedding, Tess again tries to tell Angel about her past, but he cuts her off, saying that there will be time for such revelations after they are married. The dairyman and his wife accompany them to church, and they are married. As they are leaving for the ceremony, however, a rooster crows in the mid-afternoon. ▲ Chapter 34 After the wedding, the couple travels to the old d’Urberville mansion, where they will have a few days to themselves before the farmer returns. Tess receives a package from Angel’s father, containing some jewelry that Angel’s godmother bequeathed to his future wife some years ago. The newlyweds enjoy a happy moment, which is broken when the man arrives from the dairy with their luggage, bringing bad news about Tess’s friends. After the wedding, Retty attempted suicide and Marian became an alcoholic. After this disclosure, Angel asks Tess for forgiveness, telling her of his past indiscretion with an older woman in London. Tess says that she, too, has a confession and tells him of her past with Alec. ▲ Chapter 35 Angel is distraught by Tess’s confession. He begs her to deny it, but she cannot. He flees the house, and Tess follows after him. For hours, they walk the grounds of the mansion. Tess tells her husband that she will do anything he asks and even offers to drown herself. Angel orders her to go back to the house. When he returns, Tess is asleep. After an uncomfortable moment looking at the d’Urberville ladies’ portraits, Angel goes to sleep in a different room. ▲ Chapter 36 Three miserable days go by, during which Angel spends his time at the mill or with his studies. Tess wonders if they should get a divorce, but she learns that the law does not allow divorces. Finally, Tess offers to go home, and Angel tells her she should go. ▲ Chapter 37 That night, Tess wakes up and discovers that Angel is sleepwalking. He stumbles into Tess’s room and seizes her in his arms. Moaning that his wife is dead, he carries her over a narrow bridge and into the churchyard, where he lays her in a coffin. Tess carefully leads Angel back into the house, and in the morning he shows no recollection of the event. The couple makes a brief stop at the dairy on their way to Marlott. They behave awkwardly together in public. Angel leaves Tess near her village, telling her that he will try to accept her past, but that she should not try to come to him until he comes for her. ▲ Chapter 38 Tess returns home dolefully and confesses to her mother what has happened. Mrs. Durbeyfield calls her a fool, and Mr. Durbeyfield finds it hard to believe Tess is even married. Tess is miserable at home, and when a letter arrives from Angel informing Tess that he has begun looking for a farm in the north, Tess seizes the excuse to leave and tells her family that she is going to join her husband. She gives them half of the fifty pounds Angel gave her and leaves her home. ▲ Chapter 39 Three weeks after their marriage, Angel visits his parents and tells them he is traveling to Brazil and not taking Tess. His parents are alarmed and disappointed, but Angel tells them they will meet Tess in a year, when he returns. ▲ Chapter 40 Angel puts the jewelry in the bank and arranges to have some additional money sent to Tess, then travels to the Wellbridge Farm to finish some business there. He encounters Izz and impetuously invites her to go to Brazil with him. Izz agrees, and says that she loves him. He asks if she loves him more than Tess, and Izz replies that no one could love him as much as Tess did. Angel sadly takes Izz to her home and leaves for Brazil alone a few days later. ▲ Chapter 41 Tess finds sporadic work at different dairies and manages to conceal from her family that she is separated from her husband. When her money begins to run low, she is forced to dip into the money Angel left for her. Her parents write to her asking for money to help repair the cottage roof, and she sends them nearly everything she has. In the meantime, Angel is ill and struggling in Brazil as part of a desperate and failing community of British farmers. Even though she is short on money, Tess is too ashamed to ask the Clares for money. Tess has heard from Marian of a farm where she might find work, and although it is purportedly a difficult place in which to get by, Tess decides to travel there. She encounters the man from Alec d’Urberville’s village who accused her of promiscuity in front of Angel and is forced to run and hide from him. She feels as if Alec is hunting her. Continuing on her mother haughtily declares that he should not worry about the opinions of a poor commoner, and Angel reveals to her Tess’s exalted lineage. Angel spends a few days at home regaining his strength. He writes a letter to Tess addressed to Marlott, and finally receives a reply from Tess’s mother informing him that they have left Marlott and that Tess is no longer with the family. After a short time spent waiting, Angel decides that he must not delay his reunion with Tess. He is encouraged in this feeling by the revelation that Tess has not used any of the money Angel left with his father. Angel realizes that Tess must have suffered great poverty while he was abroad, and he is overcome with pity and guilt. Angel’s parents finally guess the secret cause of their son’s estrangement from Tess, and find that the knowledge disposes them to feel more kindly toward their daughter-in-law. Just before Angel leaves, he receives the letter from Marian and Izz. ▲ Chapter 54 Angel sets out to find his wife, traveling through the farm at Flintcomb-Ash and through Marlott, where he learns of the death of Tess’s father. He finds the elaborate gravestone of John Durbeyfield, and when he learns that it is unpaid for, he settles the bill. When he meets Joan, he finds his mother-in-law uncomfortable and hesitant to tell him where Tess has gone. At last she takes pity on him and reveals that Tess is in Sandbourne. ▲ Chapter 55 In Sandbourne, Angel is unable to find a Mrs. Clare or a Miss Durbeyfield, but he does learn that a d’Urberville is staying at an expensive lodging called The Herons. Angel hurries to The Herons and is impressed by its grandeur. He wonders how Tess could possibly afford it and thinks she must have sold his godmother’s diamonds. When Tess appears, she is dressed in expensive clothing. Angel pleads for her forgiveness and tells her that he has learned to accept her as she is and desperately wants her to come back to him. Brokenhearted, Tess replies that it is too late—thinking Angel would never come back for her, she gave in to Alec d’Urberville’s desires and is now under his protection. Tess leaves the room, and Angel rushes out of the house. ▲ Chapter 56 Mrs. Brooks, the landlady at The Herons, follows Tess upstairs and spies on her through the keyhole. She sees Tess holding her head in her hands, accusing Alec of deceiving her into thinking that Angel would never come back for her. Alec replies angrily, and Mrs. Brooks, startled, flees the scene. Back in her own room, she sees Tess go through the front gate, where she disappears onto the street. A short while later, Mrs. Brooks notices a dark red spot spreading on the ceiling. Terrified, Mrs. Brooks has a workman open the door of the d’Urberville rooms, where they discover Alec lying on the bed, stabbed to death. The landlady gives the alarm, and the news of Alec’s murder quickly spreads through the town. ▲ Chapter 57 Angel decides to leave on the first train. At his hotel, he finds a telegraph from his mother informing him that Cuthbert is going to marry Mercy Chant. Rather than waiting for the train, Angel decides to walk to the next station and meet it there. As he hikes out of the valley, he sees Tess running after him. He draws her off the main road, and she tells him that she has killed Alec. Tess says she had to kill Alec because he wronged Angel, but that she also had to return to Alec because Angel abandoned her. She begs Angel’s forgiveness, and he, thinking she is delirious, tells her he loves her. At last he realizes she is serious, though he still does not believe she has actually killed Alec. He agrees to protect her. They walk toward the interior of the country, waiting for the search for Tess to be called off so they can escape overseas. That evening, they find an old mansion and slip in through the windows. After a woman comes to close up the house, Angel opens the shutters, and they are alone for the night. ▲ Chapter 58 Five days pass, and Angel and Tess slowly lapse back into their original love. They make little mention of their estrangement. One day the woman who airs the house discovers their hiding place, and they decide it is time to leave. After a day of travel, they arrive in the evening at Stonehenge, where Tess feels quite at home. As she rests by a pillar, she says that she feels as if there are no people in the world but them. Tess becomes distraught, and asks Angel to look after Liza-Lu when Tess is dead. She says she hopes Angel will marry Liza-Lu, then asks her husband if he believes they will meet again after death. Angel does not answer, and Tess, upset, drifts into sleep. At dawn, Angel realizes that they are surrounded. Men are moving in from all sides, and Angel realizes Tess must truly have killed Alec. Angel asks the men not to take Tess until she wakes. When she sees them, she feels strangely relieved. Tess is glad she will not live, because she feels unworthy of Angel’s love. ▲ Chapter 59 Sometime later, from a hillside outside Wintoncester, Angel and Liza-Lu watch as a black flag is raised above the tower. Tess has been put to death. Angel and Liza-Lu are motionless for a time, and then they join hands and go on • Message of the book It might be: money does not bring happiness, in fact, until his family was satisfied the little he had the life of Tess had a normal course, mantras when his family decided to try to be accepted as a branch of D'Urberville the problems began. Tess also chooses love Angel, rather than the premium Alec (and when she is forced to live with Alec, Angel continues to love and to be unhappy) • Critical sources Hardy gives us a way to get into the psychology and in the heart of so much of Tess, as of Angel, in order to understand the ways of thinking of the two lovers not only in relation to what they individually think, but also in relation to the context, the mentality then. Emerges all the sensitivity and purity of mind of a girl who is honest and upright in spite of prejudice and a morality that points to Jesus as "dirty", sinful, ignoring the pain and shame of who knows he is in a position "without honor" despite being morally blameless. • Quotes As soon as she drew close to it she discovered all in a moment that the figure was a living person; and the shock to her sense of not having been alone was so violent that she was quite overcome, and sank down nigh to fainting, not however till she had recognized Alec d’Urberville in the form. He leapt off the slab and supported her. “I saw you come in,” he said smiling, “and got up there not to interrupt your meditations. A family gathering, is it not, with these old fellows under us here? Listen.” He stamped with his heel heavily on the floor; whereupon there arose a hollow echo from below. “That shook them a bit, I’ll warrant,” he continued. “And you thought I was the mere stone reproduction of one of them. But no. The old order changeth. 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?” Having sought shelter for her family in the ancient clan’s church in Chapter LII, Tess has gone out walking at night and has come upon her family vault and Alec d’Urberville. Hardy’s irony is deep here: originally, the knowledge that Tess belongs to the d’Urberville line brings her into tragic conflict with Alec, and here those ancestors and Alec are united before her dazed eyes. The two main factors in her sad fate are brought together for her viewing. Moreover, it is ironic that Alec is at first mistaken for one of the sculpted ancestors, as if the distinction between the truly noble d’Urbervilles and the “sham” ones—to use Alec’s own word—is not as important as it first seemed. They are all part of the same display. Whether true or fake, the d’Urbervilles have brought Tess only grief. When Alec stomps on the floor of the crypt and a “hollow echo from below” is heard, we feel that those ancestors may indeed be nothing more than an empty void, a meaningless nothingness. Alec believes he is different from them, since he has power over her while they do not, but in fact he is just like them, using his power like a grand lord although he is quite hollow. He promises empty advantages to her, like the wealth she eventually receives from him, that can never be more important than love. This scene in the corpse-ridden vault shows how dead all thoughts of personal grandeur are next to the life of true feeling, like that of Tess’s feelings for Angel. • Opinion on the cover do not particularly like the graphics choice made for the cover, as it not only has nothing to do with the book, but it is not a salient scene. • Personal opinion I do not particularly loved this book: the reading was made heavier by the plot, full of misfortunes, all directed to the same person. After a series that seemed endless, the misfortunes of the protagonist is hanged when attempting to react to his doom, and to take a well- deserved happiness by force. This is not to justify the murder, but that man had taken away any hope of future happiness profiting of her (only because it refused) and then acts as if nothing had happened. In any other novel, after eliminating the source of injustice, he would have a happy ending, but here no, is hanged for having avenged of all wrongs.