Tess of the d'Urbervilles: Chapter 27 Summary & Analysis

Angel goes down into the damp, fertile Froom Valley, and feels like he is experiencing life more fully than he did at home. He loves his family but he feels freed from a burden in returning to Talbothays. Everyone is napping at the dairy, but then the bell rings and Tess appears first.

Tess does not know Angel is back, and he admires the exuberance of Nature within her unconscious self. She suddenly notices Angel and then remembers their new relationship. Angel puts his arm around her and her heart beats excitedly, but she has to go to work soon.

Angel offers to help her, so it only they two skimming the milk. Tess experiences the afternoon as a hazy, joyful dream. Angels at last asks her to marry him, but frames the question in logical terms as a farmer needing a farmer's wife.

Tess suddenly seems to grow old and tired, and she says she can never be Angel's wife. Her refusal breaks her own heart. Angel is amazed, and wants to know why she cannot marry him. She admits that she loves him, but gives the excuse that she is too low-born and his parents would disapprove. Even when Angel says he has already spoken to them she refuses, and he fears he has been too sudden in his proposal.

They go back to milk-skimming but Tess begins to cry. Angel tries to reassure her about his parents' compassion, and asks about Tess's religious beliefs. Her response is vague and sorrowful, but Angel thinks she is sincere enough that even his father could not disapprove.

Angel talks more about his visit, and then brings up his conversation with his father. He retells the story of the insulting young skeptic, and gives enough information that Tess can tell it is Alec. The reminder of her past hardens her in her refusal, but Angel does not notice her expression.

Tess runs back into the open field as if trying to escape her sadness. Now that Angel is back in the valley, marrying a dairymaid seems much more natural than marrying a woman like Mercy Chant.