Tess of the d'Urbervilles: Similes 12 key examples

In the Catholic Church, Confirmation is a holy sacrament that takes place after a member of the church is baptized. During Confirmation, an individual receives the gifts of the holy spirit and is anointed with oil by a priest, bringing that person into further communion with the Church. In the above passage, a simile is used to compare Tess to a parson and Mrs. D'Urberville to a bishop, both of whom participate in the sacrament of Confirmation together. This simile is simply another means of reaffirming the hierarchy dividing Tess from her alleged blood relatives: her rank is lower within the Catholic Church's power structure than Mrs. D'Urberville's rank. Furthermore, the chickens Tess presents to Mrs. D'Urberville for examination are compared to people receiving confirmation. In all likelihood, Tess was herself once one of those "chickens," vulnerable to the whims of an all-powerful bishop.

Both simile and personification in this passage combine to imbue the villagers with greater human dignity than society typically affords them. Hardy dismantles class hierarchy by likening the villagers to "the moon and stars": though they may be lowly in the eyes of upper-class people, these villagers' souls far outstrip their earthly bodies as they ascend to the heavens. Similarly, the moon and stars are personified as ardent, not too haughty to share in the joy of the villagers. In a society stricken by socioeconomic inequality, these working class people share in a moment of happiness, unrestricted by the weight of oppression. That Hardy creates this moment for these characters in the narrative is deeply humanizing.

Likened to a woman turning her head "at the request of a sketcher or hairdresser,” Tess has lost her will to fight, having realized that Alec can exert power over her in more ways that one. He has a physical advantage over her, in that he is bigger and stronger, and he also has social power over her, since he is male, of a higher social class, and older. Finally, he has socioeconomic power over her, since she is reliant upon him to help raise her family out of assured destitution after their horse dies. For these reasons, among others, Tess does not have agency, and this is further underlined by the other simile in this passage, which compares Tess to a marble architectural structure—an image that underscores her inaction and passivity when it comes to her relationship with Alec. The similes used in this passage thus confirm her role in the novel not as an active subject but as (uncomfortably enough) an object of sorts.

In biblical scripture, the people of Babylon fell to ruin because they wanted to build a tower tall enough to reach the heavens. God punished them for their arrogance with a curse: suddenly, a group of people who had all been able to speak the same language spoke different languages. Communication broke down and construction on the tower ceased. Equating the fall of the House of D'Urberville to the fall of Babylon implies that the D'Urbervilles went extinct as a result of their own arrogance.

Tess takes this simile one step further, extending it to her own predicament. If both Babylon and the D'Urberville line can lapse into obscurity and cease to impact modern society, perhaps her own tragic situation will "lapse as silently." The decrepit D'Urberville estates give her hope that these problems, which so plague her present existence, may someday no longer affect her.

Like the fly, Tess feels inconsequential in the grander scheme of things—the society that surrounds her has done no more to support her than the "solitary heron" who simply looks at her. Like this bird, most of those around her simply stare, offering no help in Tess's time of suffering. She is an object of her natural surroundings: a simple country girl, who, like the fly, does not quite fit in. She appears out of place, too innocent and unworldly in an increasingly fast-paced, industrial society. This passage also emphasizes Tess's spiritual and romantic loneliness: because of what happened with Alec, she has sworn to never marry—a clearly isolating, lonely choice.

The imagery associated with Blackmoor Vale—turbid waters and a blue, melancholy atmosphere—mirrors Tess's tragic experiences there. By contrast, the imagery associated with the new Vale—clear, pure water and fresh air—establish this place as a land of new beginnings, where Tess can leave her old life and sorrows behind. This Vale is also the site of Tess's spiritual salvation, where she too may drink from the waters of the "River of Life," which is a biblical allusion that refers to salvation through Jesus Christ, preached and foretold by the "Evangelist" John the Baptist.

The simile in the above passage is of particular interest because Hardy evokes academia, comparing Angel's education to a "preface without a volume." Angel is held in thrall by the scholarly work of his intellectual predecessors, including Plato and Aristotle. He is well-read, having attended university, and he utilizes the language of secular academia in his everyday life. This education is invaluable to him, shaping his path through the world and his perception of those around him. To compare this education to a "preface without a volume" is to fail to see the value of education for education's sake. From the perspective of Angel's father, ordination is the logical next step following a university education. His narrow-minded view of the world accounts for nothing else.

In spite of the fact that modernity draws nearer and nearer in this time period, religious tradition is still very important for many English citizens. The conflict between tradition and modernity is an important recurring theme in the novel.

Given Hardy's tendency towards biblical allusion in Tess of the D'Urbervilles, it is generally safe to assume that snake references can be connected directly back to Satan, who appeared in the form of a snake in the Garden of Eden to tempt Eve into sin. The red imagery of the snake's mouth further symbolizes desire in this passage, cementing Tess as an object of temptation from Angel's point of view.

The "coiled-up cable" of Tess's hair continues this snake imagery, evoking Medusa from Greek mythology. Originally a beautiful young woman, Medusa had sex with Poseidon in Athena's temple (in certain versions of the story, Medusa was raped). As punishment, Athena turned Medusa's hair into snakes and placed a curse upon her, making it so that no man could stare directly at her without turning to stone. Both the biblical tale and the myth evoked by this passage's snake imagery hint at Tess's secret about her rape.

This tidal wave of joy is forceful, swaying the “helpless weed" of social convention. In this passage, Hardy summarizes a key theme that permeates this novel: social convention, when it obstructs the personal freedom and happiness of many, must and will be resisted. Such persistence is noteworthy in the behavior of Tess, who resists her parents’ schemes to climb the social ladder from the beginning, only conceding out of guilt following the death of the family’s horse at her hands. The word “rubric” implies a strict set of regulations and procedures which, if not followed, result in strict censure of the violator. By refusing to place a high value on rank and social status throughout the novel, Tess becomes one such violator. She allows her “appetite for joy” to overcome certain social urges; as a result, she is punished harshly, eventually paying with her life.

Angel treats Tess poorly, refusing to forgive her past sexual transgressions as she forgives his. By likening Tess to a dog or a cat in this scenario, and Angel to her human master, Hardy further elucidates the unjust power imbalance inherent in their relationship—a power imbalance that characterizes many male-female interactions in the novel. This power imbalance becomes self-evident when Angel and Tess’s past sexual encounters are compared: Angel engaged in consensual sex with another woman, whereas Tess was raped by Alec D’Urberville. Angel had power and agency, both of which Tess was denied.

The narrator’s tone in this passage further emphasizes the male/female power hierarchy. Notably, Hardy does not utilize free indirect discourse, choosing to write the entire passage in the narrator’s voice instead of merging the narrator’s voice with Angel’s. Rather condescendingly, the narrator’s simile implies that Tess is naïve and uneducated. If one assumes that the narrator—like Hardy—is male, and that the condescending tone in this passage comes from the narrator and not Angel, one must scrutinize the narrator’s objectivity. He may be yet another contributor to the gendered hierarchy that appears throughout the novel.

This “imaginative ascendency” dominates Angel’s emotional impulses, sweeping them along like leaves in the wind. Higher mental faculties—including imagination, logical reasoning, and ethical sensibility—well befit a scholar; they do not, in Angel’s case, mold him into an empathetic lover. To Angel, Tess is an object: the image of womanly perfection, as opposed to a person in her own right. Though Angel does not physically assault Tess, his reaction to her sexual past reveals that he—like Alec D’Urberville—views Tess as a character in his own egocentric fantasy, subject to his whims. When Tess refuses to play this role, Angel’s fantasy shatters.

This metal at the core of Angel's soul "turns the edge" of anything that dares traverse the soil. Thus, any emotional argument or circumstance that attempts to penetrate the core of Angel's person will encounter hard, emotionless logic. One might argue that this logical core is not, in fact, logical at all—it is, rather, a lack of empathy merely masquerading as logic.

This "vein" of logic at Angel's core is tragic for Tess, but it's rather unsurprising that it exists within Angel, considering Angel's educational background. Brought up in the Church and highly educated in the various schools of philosophy and literature, Angel cares more for aesthetics than rampant, unbridled emotion. Tess, on the other hand, centers her emotions in the natural world, responding simply to the world around her rather than curating an image of what she wishes the world to be.