Summary
Tess returns to her family home after Angel abandons her, only to discover her parents have been celebrating her 'successful' marriage throughout the village. Her father has been boasting about the family's rise in social status, while her mother has been singing at the local pub. When Tess arrives alone and explains that Angel left after she told him about her past, her mother explodes in anger, calling her a fool for being honest. The painful irony cuts deep: Tess chose honesty over deception with Angel, but now must deceive her family to protect their pride and her own dignity. Her father's reaction reveals how much his self-worth depends on others' opinions - he's more concerned about what the neighbors will think than his daughter's pain. Tess realizes she cannot stay home where even her own parents might doubt her word. She uses Angel's brief note about looking at farms as an excuse to leave again, giving her parents half of Angel's money to maintain the illusion that she's joining her prosperous husband. This chapter exposes how shame becomes a family inheritance, passed down through generations of people trying to maintain dignity in a world that offers them little. Tess finds herself caught between two impossible choices: live honestly and face judgment, or maintain lies to preserve everyone's illusions. Her decision to leave shows both her strength and her isolation - she chooses to bear her burden alone rather than destroy her family's hopes.
Coming Up in Chapter 39
With nowhere left to turn and her money running low, Tess must find work to survive. Her search for employment will test everything she's learned about independence and self-preservation.
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An excerpt from the original text.(~500 words)
As she drove on through Blackmoor Vale, and the landscape of her youth began to open around her, Tess aroused herself from her stupor. Her first thought was how would she be able to face her parents? She reached a turnpike-gate which stood upon the highway to the village. It was thrown open by a stranger, not by the old man who had kept it for many years, and to whom she had been known; he had probably left on New Year’s Day, the date when such changes were made. Having received no intelligence lately from her home, she asked the turnpike-keeper for news. “Oh—nothing, miss,” he answered. “Marlott is Marlott still. Folks have died and that. John Durbeyfield, too, hev had a daughter married this week to a gentleman-farmer; not from John’s own house, you know; they was married elsewhere; the gentleman being of that high standing that John’s own folk was not considered well-be-doing enough to have any part in it, the bridegroom seeming not to know how’t have been discovered that John is a old and ancient nobleman himself by blood, with family skillentons in their own vaults to this day, but done out of his property in the time o’ the Romans. However, Sir John, as we call ’n now, kept up the wedding-day as well as he could, and stood treat to everybody in the parish; and John’s wife sung songs at The Pure Drop till past eleven o’clock.” Hearing this, Tess felt so sick at heart that she could not decide to go home publicly in the fly with her luggage and belongings. She asked the turnpike-keeper if she might deposit her things at his house for a while, and, on his offering no objection, she dismissed her carriage, and went on to the village alone by a back lane. At sight of her father’s chimney she asked herself how she could possibly enter the house? Inside that cottage her relations were calmly supposing her far away on a wedding-tour with a comparatively rich man, who was to conduct her to bouncing prosperity; while here she was, friendless, creeping up to the old door quite by herself, with no better place to go to in the world. She did not reach the house unobserved. Just by the garden-hedge she was met by a girl who knew her—one of the two or three with whom she had been intimate at school. After making a few inquiries as to how Tess came there, her friend, unheeding her tragic look, interrupted with— “But where’s thy gentleman, Tess?” Tess hastily explained that he had been called away on business, and, leaving her interlocutor, clambered over the garden-hedge, and thus made her way to the house. As she went up the garden-path she heard her mother singing by the back door, coming in sight of which she perceived Mrs Durbeyfield on the doorstep in the act of wringing a sheet. Having performed this without observing Tess, she went indoors,...
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Intelligence Amplifier™ Analysis
The Road of Borrowed Pride
Building self-worth on others' achievements or external status, creating fragile identity that collapses when reality threatens the illusion.
Why This Matters
Connect literature to life
This chapter teaches how to recognize when others are building their self-worth on your achievements or status rather than genuinely supporting you.
Practice This Today
This week, notice when family or friends seem more invested in how your situation looks to others than in how it actually affects you—that's borrowed pride in action.
Now let's explore the literary elements.
Terms to Know
Turnpike-gate
A gate across a road where travelers had to pay a toll to pass through. The gatekeeper lived there and collected fees for road maintenance. This was how roads were funded before modern taxes.
Modern Usage:
Like paying tolls on highways today, or subscription fees to access services.
Gentleman-farmer
A wealthy landowner who farmed for profit but maintained social status above working farmers. They had money, education, and social connections that separated them from laborers.
Modern Usage:
Think of someone who owns multiple rental properties or franchise businesses - wealthy but not quite elite class.
Family skillentons
The gatekeeper's mispronunciation of 'family skeletons' - meaning ancestral tombs that prove noble bloodline. Physical proof of high-class heritage that commands respect.
Modern Usage:
Like having your family name on a building or being able to trace your ancestry to important historical figures.
Done out of property
Cheated or swindled out of rightful inheritance, usually through legal tricks or force. A common excuse for why noble families ended up poor.
Modern Usage:
When people claim their family 'used to have money' or were cheated out of inheritance by lawyers or relatives.
Stood treat
Paid for everyone's drinks at the pub as a celebration. A way to show prosperity and gain social respect through public generosity.
Modern Usage:
Like buying rounds for the whole bar, or picking up the tab at a group dinner to show you're doing well.
The Pure Drop
The local pub where villagers gathered to drink, gossip, and socialize. The center of community life and information exchange.
Modern Usage:
Like the neighborhood bar where everyone knows your business, or the break room where office gossip spreads.
Social performance
Acting out a role to maintain reputation and status, even when it doesn't match reality. Keeping up appearances for community approval.
Modern Usage:
Like posting perfect family photos on social media while your marriage is falling apart, or bragging about your kid's achievements to hide your own struggles.
Characters in This Chapter
Tess
Protagonist returning home
Returns to face her family after Angel's abandonment, only to discover they've been celebrating her 'successful' marriage. Must choose between destroying their illusions or living a lie.
Modern Equivalent:
The daughter who has to pretend her relationship is fine when she comes home for holidays
John Durbeyfield
Tess's father
Has been boasting about the family's rise in status through Tess's marriage, calling himself 'Sir John' and treating the whole village. His pride depends entirely on others' opinions.
Modern Equivalent:
The dad who brags about his kid's success to anyone who'll listen because it makes him feel important
Joan Durbeyfield
Tess's mother
Explodes in anger when she learns Tess told Angel the truth about her past. More concerned with maintaining the lie than her daughter's pain.
Modern Equivalent:
The mom who's more worried about what the neighbors think than actually helping her struggling child
The turnpike-keeper
Village gossip
Delivers news about the Durbeyfield family's celebrations, unknowingly twisting the knife of Tess's situation. Represents how quickly news spreads in small communities.
Modern Equivalent:
The chatty neighbor who knows everyone's business and loves sharing updates
Key Quotes & Analysis
"Her first thought was how would she be able to face her parents?"
Context: As Tess approaches her family home after Angel has left her
Shows how shame makes us fear the people who should comfort us most. Tess dreads facing those who love her because she feels she's failed them.
In Today's Words:
How am I going to explain this mess to my family?
"John's wife sung songs at The Pure Drop till past eleven o'clock"
Context: Describing how the Durbeyfields celebrated Tess's wedding
Reveals the painful irony - while Tess was suffering, her family was publicly celebrating what they thought was her success. Shows how little they knew of her reality.
In Today's Words:
Your mom was partying at the bar until late, celebrating your big news
"You little fool! How could you be so simple!"
Context: When Tess explains she told Angel about her past with Alec
Joan's reaction shows she values deception over honesty, strategy over integrity. She's angry that Tess chose truth when lies might have worked better.
In Today's Words:
You idiot! Why did you have to tell him the truth?
Thematic Threads
Class Anxiety
In This Chapter
Tess's parents celebrate her marriage as their escape from lower-class status, making her personal tragedy about their social standing
Development
Evolved from earlier focus on Tess's individual class confusion to family-wide class desperation
In Your Life:
You might see this when family members pressure you to take jobs or relationships that boost their reputation rather than your happiness
Truth vs. Deception
In This Chapter
Tess must choose between destroying her family's illusions with honesty or maintaining lies to preserve their dignity
Development
Deepened from Tess's earlier struggles with confession to Angel—now truth threatens multiple relationships
In Your Life:
You face this when being honest about your struggles might devastate people who've been bragging about your success
Isolation
In This Chapter
Tess realizes she cannot find support even at home, as her parents' needs conflict with her own healing
Development
Intensified from her earlier loneliness—now even family becomes another source of pressure rather than comfort
In Your Life:
You might experience this when the people closest to you can't handle your reality because it threatens their worldview
Shame Inheritance
In This Chapter
Tess's shame becomes her parents' shame, creating a cycle where everyone must maintain the same lie
Development
New development showing how individual shame spreads through family systems
In Your Life:
You see this when your family's reputation depends on hiding problems rather than addressing them
Economic Dependency
In This Chapter
Tess gives her parents Angel's money to maintain the marriage illusion, using financial support to enable deception
Development
Extended from earlier themes of money determining relationships—now money maintains false relationships
In Your Life:
You might encounter this when financial help comes with strings attached to maintaining certain appearances
You now have the context. Time to form your own thoughts.
Discussion Questions
- 1
Why do Tess's parents react with anger instead of concern when she tells them Angel left her?
analysis • surface - 2
How has Tess's father's identity become tied to her marriage, and what does this reveal about his own sense of self-worth?
analysis • medium - 3
Where do you see this pattern of 'borrowed pride' in modern families or workplaces - people building their identity around others' achievements?
application • medium - 4
When someone's self-worth depends on maintaining an illusion about your life, how do you balance honesty with protecting relationships?
application • deep - 5
What does this chapter teach us about the difference between authentic pride and borrowed pride, and why one is more fragile than the other?
reflection • deep
Critical Thinking Exercise
Map Your Pride Sources
Make two lists: things you're proud of that you directly control (your skills, choices, actions) versus things you're proud of that depend on others (your family's achievements, your company's reputation, your children's success). Look at the balance between these lists. Consider which sources of pride would survive if external circumstances changed tomorrow.
Consider:
- •Notice which list feels more solid and lasting when you imagine challenges
- •Consider how much energy you spend maintaining borrowed pride versus building authentic accomplishments
- •Think about times when borrowed pride created pressure or disappointment in your relationships
Journaling Prompt
Write about a time when you felt pressure to maintain an image or illusion for someone else's comfort. How did that affect your choices, and what would you do differently now?
Coming Up Next...
Chapter 39: The Weight of Deception
Moving forward, we'll examine guilt and shame can isolate us from the people who love us most, and understand the exhausting burden of maintaining lies to protect others' feelings. These insights bridge the gap between classic literature and modern experience.