Impact of Tess' Journey to Trantridge

Hardy communicates the destructive and demoralising impact of Tess' journey to Trantridge through several language techniques.

The phase titles are the first indication before details within the text of the novel that expresses the impact of Tess' journey. Phase The First, titled "The Maiden", resolutely becomes "Maiden no More" in the second. Described through the use of 'maiden', a girl, usually unmarried, possesses the connotations of the qualities of purity, youthfulness, clarity and most importantly; virginity. This conversion of Tess is undermined by Alec's actions, stripping Tess of her virginity whilst she is on her journey to Trantridge. This loss of virginity does not only have an emotional impact on a person; but physically most often results in pregnancy as in Tess of the D'Urbervilles, which has a substantial and devastating impact and change to Tess' life from this point forward.

The omniscient narrator's final sentence within Phase the First metaphorically sums up powerfully and effectively the exact transformation Tess has undergone due to Alec. Hardy writes 'An immeasurable chasm was to divide our heroine's personality thereafter from that previous self o hers who stepped from her mother's door to try her fortune at Trantridge poultry-farm.' The chasm, representing the point of no return delving down 'immeasurably' deep, represents Tess' life-changing and permanent transformation from the young lady to the scarred woman she is after Chaseborough from the events with Alec.

Phase the Second begins with Tess making several glances and reflections among her home village of Marlott where the remainder of her family lay.

Hardy continues this feeling of isolation and segregation from Tess' old self from Marlott through use of special dimension to represent Tess' newfound division at Trantridge from her old, 'pure' life at Marlott. Even though the distance of the village of Marlott was only 20 miles away, "her native village seemed a far-away spot". Tess is experiencing the far-reaching impact of Alec's actions, now feeling her home village is a foreign place, containing her youthful personality which had been stripped away from her.

Hardy shows the devastating impact of isolation and seclusion from her past as a result of Alec when Tess is gazing at her village town of Marlott. Tess' newfound sense of alienation from her old self living with her parents and family is represented in "The yellow luminosity upon the horizon behind her back lighted the ridge towards where her face was set - the barrier of the vale wherein she had of late been a stranger." The scenery continues to play a role in symbolising the division between Marlott and Trantridge with the ridge representing the metaphorical wall,