Plot hole? (chapter 51)

[kev67]

How is it Farmer Groby, who is so mean to Tess, recognises her in chapter 33 well enough to know she isn't a 'maid' but does not recognise Alec d'Urberville in chapter 41. In chap 33 it says:

"Two men came out and passed by her among the rest. One of them had stared her up and down in surprise, and she fancied he was a Trantridge man, though that village lay so many miles off that Trantridge folk were rarities here."

Trantridge/Pentridge seems about twenty miles from Buckland Newton, the nearest place I can find to Flintcombe Ash/Nettlecomb Tout, where Groby has his farm. The meeting in chap 33 is (I think) in Marlott/Marnhull which about eight miles from Flintcome Ash and twelve from Trantridge/Pentridge in another direction.

[kev67]

In the previous chapter that I read, fifty-something, Angel has come back home but is very unwell. I suspect this is significant. In a previous chapter it said Angel was lying on his back suffering from some Brazillian fever, but then only a couple of chapters back, he seemed to be ok. His friend died instead. Is this another plot inconsistency?

[kiki1982]

Hmm, that about Groby is a bit dodgy, but maybe it's because he didn't see Alec D'Urberville very often? Ir depends if he was his tenant or not. Otherwise, he would only have seen him now and then from far away... If he's changed and dressed differently, he wouldn't recognise him. Tess, on the other hand, is more accessible to Groby as she is of the same class and they would have seen each other or talked to each other.

That about Angel seems significant, yes. But diseases were still a bit 'magical' then. Although Wikipedia says that 'it was known' in the 19th cntury that many diseases were caused by bacteria (although they didn't know how to get rid of them), the obsession of Victorians with rooting out stink tells that many still believed that stink transmitted disease. Nonetheless, that daft idea had the London drains for its consequence (the big stink of 1838 [?] and cholera epidemic).

The disease Angel is suffering from is probably something along the lines of yellow fever or something which is a virus transmitted by mosquitoes. So it comes on suddenly and you either die from it or you come through it, but you can't do much to tackle it (as so many diseases back then anyway, apart from blisters and blood letting...). Even now, you would probably have to sit (or lie) through it and wait, like with flu, although you can aleviate the discomfort of the fever a little.

That disease seems significant, yes, but illness came on suddenly and people had to hope you came through it, so I don't know if it's a real plot whole, although I can imagine that if you were to go through a novel with the finest of combs, you would definitely find issues as there is no human brain that can remember absolutely everything ad certainly not if you as a writer do not limit the amout of characters. The more characters, the more room for small errors.

:)

[kev67]

Angel's illness seems a bit like yellow fever (http://www.infobrok.co.nz/), but apparently that either kills you or you get better. It doesn't normally leave you permanently sick. Angel's illness sounds bit like a cross between yellow fever and malaria.

[kev67]

I suppose Hardy had a similar problem to Dickens. Because he first published his stories weekly in magazines, if he made a mistake it was difficult to correct. I suppose Farmer Groby might have recognised Tess because she was a pretty girl, but I doubt if he would have had much opportunity because I don't suppose Tess went into town much. After she was taken advantage of, Tess seems to have gone straight home. So the only way I can think Groby might have known about Tess no longer being a maid was if he regularly went drinking in the pubs around Trantridge, in which case a drinking friend might have said something along the lines of, "You remember that stunning maid hanging around the barn dance last week? Well..."

[kev67]

I seemed to have missed a crucial point in that Tess does not go home until several weeks after her rape/seduction by Alec.

[kev67]

I suppose Farmer Groby recognising Tess and knowing she is not a maid may mean that she was pointed out to him when he was in Trantridge for business or other reasons. That suggests Tess was sleeping with Alec for a while after the initial rape/seduction and that the gossip had got around town. Could this be a reason Tess decided to leave Tantridge? The only thing is that Farmer Groby does not seem attracted to Tess's looks. He never tries it on with her, which is partly why she endures working at Flintcomb Ash.