Study Questions

1. How long will Angel remain at Talbothays?

2. What gifts from Mrs. Crick does Angel carry home to his ¬family at Emminster?

3. What changes does his family note in Angel?

4. What qualities are the Clares looking for in a future daughter-in-law?

5. Who is Mercy Chant?

6. How much forethought lies behind the timing of Angel’s first proposal to Tess?

7. What rationale does Tess use to explain this initial refusal?

8. What story about his father does Angel tell Tess?

9. How does Tess react to the story about the woeful rogue Jack Dollop?

10. On what errand does Tess accompany Clare?

Answers

1. Angel is planning to stay at Talbothays for about four more months before visiting another farm.

2. Angel carries home two gifts from Mrs. Crick to his family: black-pudding and mead (an alcoholic beverage made from fermented honey).

3. Angel seems more countrified, carrying himself more like a farmer and less like the scholar his family had hoped him to be.

4. The Clares want a God-fearing, Christian woman for their son. Mrs. Clare, additionally, is concerned that her son marry a “lady.”

5. Mercy Chant is the woman Clare’s parents hope and expect he will marry. She is a church-going, devout girl, the daughter of family friends.

6. Angel had not meant to propose so quickly. His proposal is rather impulsive.

7. Tess seizes on the idea (which is, unknown to her, more than partially true) that she is not upper-class or learned enough to fit in with Angel’s social circle and his family.

8. To bring the conversation to a more general and less stressful level, Angel tells of a young, dissolute squire named D’Urberville whom his father tried to convert to a more holy life.

9. Tess is horrified that everyone laughs at the story of Jack Dollop, whose future wife did not tell him all about her past history before they got married. Tess feels that the story, which echoes her own dilemma, is quite serious.

10. On a chilly September night, Angel and Tess ride some milk to the railway station, where it will be shipped to London.