Tess of the d'Urbervilles: Chapter 10 Summary & Analysis

The people of Trantridge love to drink, and go every Saturday to get drunk in nearby Chaseborough. Tess avoids going for a while, but she finally agrees and then has a good time, finding the other women comical and refreshing. She keeps going back, sometimes alone, but always returns in the safety of a group. One night she starts out later than usual and then encounters Alec at a street corner. Tess tells him she is just waiting to leave. He says they will meet again, and walks away.

Tess finds all the villagers at an eerie outdoor dance, lit by hazy candles in an outhouse. The atmosphere is smoky and the dancing figures appear unreal or mythical. When they leave the haze they seem to transform back into common village-folk. Tess asks if any are leaving and a bystander says the dance is almost over.

The dance keeps going for a while, and Tess is too afraid to walk home alone. A man asks her to dance but she refuses. People start pairing off and then falling together into the dirt. Tess hears a laugh behind her and meets Alec again. She explains her situation and he offers to take her home, but she still distrusts him and refuses. Alec's presence makes the dancers begin to recollect themselves and head home, however, so Tess starts to walk with them.

Tess observes that many of her companions are staggering drunkenly, and the experience reminds her unpleasantly of her father. She sees that one of the women is Car Darch, the “Queen of Spades,” who was recently a favorite of Alec's. They come to a gate and Car goes first with her heavy basket on her head. The rest of the group notices something dark trickling down her back, and they realize that it is treacle from a smashed jar in the basket. Everyone laughs as Car rolls around on the ground, trying to clean herself off.

Tess can't help joining in the laughter, and Car hears her and becomes enraged, as she was already jealous of Tess for Alec's attentions. Tess apologizes while Car strips off her bodice and prepares to attack. Tess magnanimously refuses to fight, but accidentally insults the whole group. All the other women start yelling at her as well, and Tess feels guilty and angry. She tries to escape the crowd, but at that moment Alec appears on his horse and demands to know what the trouble is, although he has already overheard enough. He offers Tess a ride home and a means of escaping the situation.

Tess feels so distressed that she accepts Alec's offer, although at almost any other moment she would have refused. The other women watch them ride off, laughing at the trouble Tess has now landed herself in. They start walking again, and the dew and their misty breath seems like halos around their heads.