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Allusions
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Durbeyfield's Dialect:
In Chapter 3, the narrator underscores the differences in dialect between Tess and her mother, Mrs. Durbeyfield. Note the narrator's observation in the passage below, enclosed by parentheses:
"You'll be fess enough, my poppet, when th'st know!" (Mrs. Durbeyfield still habitually spoke the dialect; her daughter, who had passed the Sixth Standard in the National School under a London-trained mistress, used it only when excited by joy, surprise, or grief.)
Related Themes:
Chapter 25
Explanation and Analysis—Pretty Tipple:
At the end of Chapter 25, while sitting down to dinner with his family, Angel says something in the regional dialect of the dairy farm, and this confuses his educated, somewhat elitist father and brothers:
Unlock with LitCharts A+"Ah — no; though that mead was a drop of pretty tipple."
"A what?" said Cuthbert and Felix both.
"Oh — 'tis an expression they use down at Talbothays," replied Angel, blushing. He felt that his parents were right in their practice if wrong in their want of sentiment, and said no more.
Related Themes:
