feat_summary_path: finished_summaries/pinkmonkey/Tess of the D'Urbervilles/section_10_part_2.txt
feat_book_id: Tess of the D'Urbervilles.chapter 26
feat_summary_id: chapter 26
feat_summary: {"name": "CHAPTER 26", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20180820050202/http://www.pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/monkeynotes/pmTessD35.asp", "summary": "In the evening, Mr. Clare tells Angel that he has saved the money not spent on Angel's Cambridge education. He is willing to give it to his son so that he may purchase some land to farm. They then talk about a suitable wife for Angel. Mr. Clare suggests that his son marry Mercy Chant, a wonderful Christian girl who is the daughter of a neighbor. Angel admits that he has someone else in mind, a young woman who is familiar with farming. His mother quizzes him about her social background, but Angel says it makes no difference in a farmer's wife. Instead, he praises the other virtues of his beloved Tess. In the end, his parents judge Tess to be inferior to Mercy and her many accomplishments, and Angel is sad at their prejudices. At the end of the discussion, his parents advise Angel not to rush into anything and agree to meet Tess in the future. When it is time for Angel to return to the farm, his father accompanies him for awhile. As they walk, Mr. Clare speaks of his successes and his failures. He is particularly bothered by the fact that a young man from the D'Urberville family has been remiss in his spiritual duties. When Mr. Clare confronted him, they argued. Mr. Clare feels like he has failed to influence this young man and continues to pray for him. Angel is upset about the treatment his father has received from the D'Urbervilles, and his dislike for such unscrupulous, historical families increases. The irony is obvious.", "analysis": "Notes It is important to notice the difference between the attitudes of Mr. and Mrs. Clare towards Tess. She is concerned about Tess's social background, questioning if she is a lady. Mr. Clare is not worried about her wealth or social status; instead, he is totally concerned about her religious background. Angel tells his mother that social class is unimportant on a farm and assures his father of Tess's religious beliefs. Angel thinks to himself that he must work on Tess's religion and plans to give her appropriate reading material to enlighten her. Before she has ever agreed to marry Angel, he is already trying to change Tess, foreshadowing that there will be future problems in this relationship. It is obvious to the reader that the young D'Urberville whom Mr. Clare discusses is none other than Alec. It is ironic that Mr. Clare is praying for this young man and hopes that it will benefit Alec in the future. Angel's reaction to the discussion is also significant. He is disgusted over the young man's unscrupulous behavior and resents his wealthy family"}
text: 
  
  It was not till the evening, after family prayers, that Angel found
  opportunity of broaching to his father one or two subjects near his
  heart.  He had strung himself up to the purpose while kneeling behind
  his brothers on the carpet, studying the little nails in the heels of
  their walking boots.  When the service was over they went out of the
  room with their mother, and Mr Clare and himself were left alone.
  
  The young man first discussed with the elder his plans for the
  attainment of his position as a farmer on an extensive scale--either
  in England or in the Colonies.  His father then told him that, as he
  had not been put to the expense of sending Angel up to Cambridge, he
  had felt it his duty to set by a sum of money every year towards the
  purchase or lease of land for him some day, that he might not feel
  himself unduly slighted.
  
  "As far as worldly wealth goes," continued his father, "you will no
  doubt stand far superior to your brothers in a few years."
  
  This considerateness on old Mr Clare's part led Angel onward to the
  other and dearer subject.  He observed to his father that he was
  then six-and-twenty, and that when he should start in the farming
  business he would require eyes in the back of his head to see to all
  matters--some one would be necessary to superintend the domestic
  labours of his establishment whilst he was afield.  Would it not be
  well, therefore, for him to marry?
  
  His father seemed to think this idea not unreasonable; and then Angel
  put the question--
  
  "What kind of wife do you think would be best for me as a thrifty
  hard-working farmer?"
  
  "A truly Christian woman, who will be a help and a comfort to you in
  your goings-out and your comings-in.  Beyond that, it really matters
  little.  Such an one can be found; indeed, my earnest-minded friend
  and neighbour, Dr Chant--"
  
  "But ought she not primarily to be able to milk cows, churn good
  butter, make immense cheeses; know how to sit hens and turkeys and
  rear chickens, to direct a field of labourers in an emergency, and
  estimate the value of sheep and calves?"
  
  "Yes; a farmer's wife; yes, certainly.  It would be desirable."  Mr
  Clare, the elder, had plainly never thought of these points before.
  "I was going to add," he said, "that for a pure and saintly woman you
  will not find one more to your true advantage, and certainly not more
  to your mother's mind and my own, than your friend Mercy, whom you
  used to show a certain interest in.  It is true that my neighbour
  Chant's daughter had lately caught up the fashion of the younger
  clergy round about us for decorating the Communion-table--altar, as I
  was shocked to hear her call it one day--with flowers and other stuff
  on festival occasions.  But her father, who is quite as opposed to
  such flummery as I, says that can be cured.  It is a mere girlish
  outbreak which, I am sure, will not be permanent."
  
  "Yes, yes; Mercy is good and devout, I know.  But, father, don't you
  think that a young woman equally pure and virtuous as Miss Chant,
  but one who, in place of that lady's ecclesiastical accomplishments,
  understands the duties of farm life as well as a farmer himself,
  would suit me infinitely better?"
  
  His father persisted in his conviction that a knowledge of a farmer's
  wife's duties came second to a Pauline view of humanity; and the
  impulsive Angel, wishing to honour his father's feelings and to
  advance the cause of his heart at the same time, grew specious.
  He said that fate or Providence had thrown in his way a woman who
  possessed every qualification to be the helpmate of an agriculturist,
  and was decidedly of a serious turn of mind.  He would not say
  whether or not she had attached herself to the sound Low Church
  School of his father; but she would probably be open to conviction
  on that point; she was a regular church-goer of simple faith;
  honest-hearted, receptive, intelligent, graceful to a degree, chaste
  as a vestal, and, in personal appearance, exceptionally beautiful.
  
  "Is she of a family such as you would care to marry into--a lady, in
  short?" asked his startled mother, who had come softly into the study
  during the conversation.
  
  "She is not what in common parlance is called a lady," said Angel,
  unflinchingly, "for she is a cottager's daughter, as I am proud to
  say.  But she IS a lady, nevertheless--in feeling and nature."
  
  "Mercy Chant is of a very good family."
  
  "Pooh!--what's the advantage of that, mother?" said Angel quickly.
  "How is family to avail the wife of a man who has to rough it as I
  have, and shall have to do?"
  
  "Mercy is accomplished.  And accomplishments have their charm,"
  returned his mother, looking at him through her silver spectacles.
  
  "As to external accomplishments, what will be the use of them in the
  life I am going to lead?--while as to her reading, I can take that
  in hand.  She'll be apt pupil enough, as you would say if you knew
  her. She's brim full of poetry--actualized poetry, if I may use the
  expression.  She LIVES what paper-poets only write...  And she is an
  unimpeachable Christian, I am sure; perhaps of the very tribe, genus,
  and species you desire to propagate."
  
  "O Angel, you are mocking!"
  
  "Mother, I beg pardon.  But as she really does attend Church almost
  every Sunday morning, and is a good Christian girl, I am sure you
  will tolerate any social shortcomings for the sake of that quality,
  and feel that I may do worse than choose her."  Angel waxed quite
  earnest on that rather automatic orthodoxy in his beloved Tess which
  (never dreaming that it might stand him in such good stead) he had
  been prone to slight when observing it practised by her and the other
  milkmaids, because of its obvious unreality amid beliefs essentially
  naturalistic.
  
  In their sad doubts as to whether their son had himself any right
  whatever to the title he claimed for the unknown young woman, Mr and
  Mrs Clare began to feel it as an advantage not to be overlooked that
  she at least was sound in her views; especially as the conjunction of
  the pair must have arisen by an act of Providence; for Angel never
  would have made orthodoxy a condition of his choice.  They said
  finally that it was better not to act in a hurry, but that they would
  not object to see her.
  
  Angel therefore refrained from declaring more particulars now.
  He felt that, single-minded and self-sacrificing as his parents
  were, there yet existed certain latent prejudices of theirs, as
  middle-class people, which it would require some tact to overcome.
  For though legally at liberty to do as he chose, and though their
  daughter-in-law's qualifications could make no practical difference
  to their lives, in the probability of her living far away from them,
  he wished for affection's sake not to wound their sentiment in the
  most important decision of his life.
  
  He observed his own inconsistencies in dwelling upon accidents in
  Tess's life as if they were vital features.  It was for herself that
  he loved Tess; her soul, her heart, her substance--not for her skill
  in the dairy, her aptness as his scholar, and certainly not for
  her simple formal faith-professions.  Her unsophisticated open-air
  existence required no varnish of conventionality to make it palatable
  to him.  He held that education had as yet but little affected the
  beats of emotion and impulse on which domestic happiness depends.  It
  was probable that, in the lapse of ages, improved systems of moral
  and intellectual training would appreciably, perhaps considerably,
  elevate the involuntary and even the unconscious instincts of human
  nature; but up to the present day, culture, as far as he could see,
  might be said to have affected only the mental epiderm of those
  lives which had been brought under its influence.  This belief was
  confirmed by his experience of women, which, having latterly been
  extended from the cultivated middle-class into the rural community,
  had taught him how much less was the intrinsic difference between the
  good and wise woman of one social stratum and the good and wise woman
  of another social stratum, than between the good and bad, the wise
  and the foolish, of the same stratum or class.
  
  It was the morning of his departure.  His brothers had already left
  the Vicarage to proceed on a walking tour in the north, whence one
  was to return to his college, and the other to his curacy.  Angel
  might have accompanied them, but preferred to rejoin his sweetheart
  at Talbothays.  He would have been an awkward member of the
  party; for, though the most appreciative humanist, the most ideal
  religionist, even the best-versed Christologist of the three, there
  was alienation in the standing consciousness that his squareness
  would not fit the round hole that had been prepared for him.  To
  neither Felix nor Cuthbert had he ventured to mention Tess.
  
  His mother made him sandwiches, and his father accompanied him,
  on his own mare, a little way along the road.  Having fairly well
  advanced his own affairs, Angel listened in a willing silence, as
  they jogged on together through the shady lanes, to his father's
  account of his parish difficulties, and the coldness of brother
  clergymen whom he loved, because of his strict interpretations of
  the New Testament by the light of what they deemed a pernicious
  Calvinistic doctrine.
  
  "Pernicious!" said Mr Clare, with genial scorn; and he proceeded to
  recount experiences which would show the absurdity of that idea.
  He told of wondrous conversions of evil livers of which he had been
  the instrument, not only amongst the poor, but amongst the rich and
  well-to-do; and he also candidly admitted many failures.
  
  As an instance of the latter, he mentioned the case of a young
  upstart squire named d'Urberville, living some forty miles off, in
  the neighbourhood of Trantridge.
  
  "Not one of the ancient d'Urbervilles of Kingsbere and other places?"
  asked his son.  "That curiously historic worn-out family with its
  ghostly legend of the coach-and-four?"
  
  "O no.  The original d'Urbervilles decayed and disappeared sixty
  or eighty years ago--at least, I believe so.  This seems to be a
  new family which had taken the name; for the credit of the former
  knightly line I hope they are spurious, I'm sure.  But it is odd
  to hear you express interest in old families.  I thought you set less
  store by them even than I."
  
  "You misapprehend me, father; you often do," said Angel with a
  little impatience.  "Politically I am sceptical as to the virtue of
  their being old.  Some of the wise even among themselves 'exclaim
  against their own succession,' as Hamlet puts it; but lyrically,
  dramatically, and even historically, I am tenderly attached to them."
  
  This distinction, though by no means a subtle one, was yet too
  subtle for Mr Clare the elder, and he went on with the story he had
  been about to relate; which was that after the death of the senior
  so-called d'Urberville, the young man developed the most culpable
  passions, though he had a blind mother, whose condition should have
  made him know better.  A knowledge of his career having come to
  the ears of Mr Clare, when he was in that part of the country
  preaching missionary sermons, he boldly took occasion to speak to
  the delinquent on his spiritual state.  Though he was a stranger,
  occupying another's pulpit, he had felt this to be his duty, and
  took for his text the words from St Luke: "Thou fool, this night thy
  soul shall be required of thee!"  The young man much resented this
  directness of attack, and in the war of words which followed when
  they met he did not scruple publicly to insult Mr Clare, without
  respect for his gray hairs.
  
  Angel flushed with distress.
  
  "Dear father," he said sadly, "I wish you would not expose yourself
  to such gratuitous pain from scoundrels!"
  
  "Pain?" said his father, his rugged face shining in the ardour of
  self-abnegation.  "The only pain to me was pain on his account, poor,
  foolish young man.  Do you suppose his incensed words could give
  me any pain, or even his blows?  'Being reviled we bless; being
  persecuted we suffer it; being defamed we entreat; we are made as the
  filth of the world, and as the offscouring of all things unto this
  day.'  Those ancient and noble words to the Corinthians are strictly
  true at this present hour."
  
  "Not blows, father?  He did not proceed to blows?"
  
  "No, he did not.  Though I have borne blows from men in a mad state
  of intoxication."
  
  "No!"
  
  "A dozen times, my boy.  What then?  I have saved them from the guilt
  of murdering their own flesh and blood thereby; and they have lived
  to thank me, and praise God."
  
  "May this young man do the same!" said Angel fervently.  "But I fear
  otherwise, from what you say."
  
  "We'll hope, nevertheless," said Mr Clare.  "And I continue to pray
  for him, though on this side of the grave we shall probably never
  meet again.  But, after all, one of those poor words of mine may
  spring up in his heart as a good seed some day."
  
  Now, as always, Clare's father was sanguine as a child; and though
  the younger could not accept his parent's narrow dogma, he revered
  his practice and recognized the hero under the pietist.  Perhaps he
  revered his father's practice even more now than ever, seeing that,
  in the question of making Tessy his wife, his father had not once
  thought of inquiring whether she were well provided or penniless.
  The same unworldliness was what had necessitated Angel's getting
  a living as a farmer, and would probably keep his brothers in the
  position of poor parsons for the term of their activities; yet Angel
  admired it none the less.  Indeed, despite his own heterodoxy, Angel
  often felt that he was nearer to his father on the human side than
  was either of his brethren.
  
  
  
feat_summary_name: CHAPTER 26
target: In the evening, Mr. Clare tells Angel that he has saved the money not spent on Angel's Cambridge education. He is willing to give it to his son so that he may purchase some land to farm. They then talk about a suitable wife for Angel. Mr. Clare suggests that his son marry Mercy Chant, a wonderful Christian girl who is the daughter of a neighbor. Angel admits that he has someone else in mind, a young woman who is familiar with farming. His mother quizzes him about her social background, but Angel says it makes no difference in a farmer's wife. Instead, he praises the other virtues of his beloved Tess. In the end, his parents judge Tess to be inferior to Mercy and her many accomplishments, and Angel is sad at their prejudices. At the end of the discussion, his parents advise Angel not to rush into anything and agree to meet Tess in the future. When it is time for Angel to return to the farm, his father accompanies him for awhile. As they walk, Mr. Clare speaks of his successes and his failures. He is particularly bothered by the fact that a young man from the D'Urberville family has been remiss in his spiritual duties. When Mr. Clare confronted him, they argued. Mr. Clare feels like he has failed to influence this young man and continues to pray for him. Angel is upset about the treatment his father has received from the D'Urbervilles, and his dislike for such unscrupulous, historical families increases. The irony is obvious.
feat_summary_analysis: Notes It is important to notice the difference between the attitudes of Mr. and Mrs. Clare towards Tess. She is concerned about Tess's social background, questioning if she is a lady. Mr. Clare is not worried about her wealth or social status; instead, he is totally concerned about her religious background. Angel tells his mother that social class is unimportant on a farm and assures his father of Tess's religious beliefs. Angel thinks to himself that he must work on Tess's religion and plans to give her appropriate reading material to enlighten her. Before she has ever agreed to marry Angel, he is already trying to change Tess, foreshadowing that there will be future problems in this relationship. It is obvious to the reader that the young D'Urberville whom Mr. Clare discusses is none other than Alec. It is ironic that Mr. Clare is praying for this young man and hopes that it will benefit Alec in the future. Angel's reaction to the discussion is also significant. He is disgusted over the young man's unscrupulous behavior and resents his wealthy family