TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES By Thomas Hardy - PHASE THE SECOND

Despite Phase the Second being the shortest of the seven sections of this book an awful lot happens to our protagonist. She returns home, we find out she's pregnant, she has the child, the child dies, she tries to find work, and she makes an attempt to try and fit back into society.

I think the reason that Hardy squishes all of this into four, relatively short chapters, is because he wants us to understand the way Tess is feeling. Tess doesn't want to dwell on this section of her life, and Hardy doesn't want us to either. He wants us to move on with Tess and realise that such a small section of her life, should not have such a massive impact on her future. This would have been particularly important to the audience Hardy was writing for, as he would have been writing for people who would have hated and loathed Tess for the situation she had supposedly gotten herself into. He wants them to move on as well and follow his and Tess's lead. I feel that Hardy is trying to convince us that purity (he describes Tess as: a pure woman) goes beyond the physical and is more importantly about the heart and the mind.

I found this section of the text rather difficult to plough through if I'm honest, but I feel this is because of the lack of speech and the greatness of all the details Hardy writes into the text. Both of these things, although making it a little hardy for the reader, play an important role in helping us to understand the character.

The lack of verbal communications with other characters helps us to begin to understand how lonely and isolated Tess is feeling. There is no one she feels she can talk to and no one seemingly willing to comfort her and treat her normally. This leads onto the effect of the masses of description. Because Tess is so lonely and isolated, she has more time to ponder on things and to pick at the fine detail in her life that she may not have noticed otherwise. We get to see deeper into Tess's perspective, while at the same time, getting a clear sense of setting and context.

I've found this phase and interesting one to read, if slightly slow. Nevertheless, I shall be looking forward to seeing what Phase the Third has to offer.