How old is supposed to be Tess at the beginning of the novel/movie?
15?16?
How do you call Rock Hudson in a wheelchair?... RollAIDS
She's sixteen at the beginning of the novel.
I don't think her age is given explicitly at the start of the book, but she's twenty when, in chapter sixteen, she goes to work at Talbothays "between two and three years" after her departure from Trantridge. Later, when Clare proposes to her, she laments that he hadn't stayed to dance with her on the green at Marlott, four years previously:
"Why didn't you stay and love me when I was sixteen; living with my little sisters and brothers, and you danced on the green? O, why didn't you, why didn't you!"
"I should have had four years more of your heart than I can ever have now. Then I should not have wasted my time as I have done - I should have had so much longer happiness!"
Thanks for the reply
How old is she at the end of the novel,though?
How do you call Rock Hudson in a wheelchair?... RollAIDS
> How old is she at the end of the novel, though?
You might read it for yourself!
Tess is 21 when she marries Angel on New Year's Eve. One year later she travels to Emminster planning to appeal to Angel's parents for help, and loses her boots. Early the following March she leaves Flintcomb Ash to return to Marlott. When her father dies suddenly (March 10th) she's forced to leave the cottage with her mother and siblings (April 6th). Angel returns from Brazil that same spring. They're on the run during May. Tess is executed in July.
By that reckoning, she's only 22 or possibly 23 at the end of the novel.
It's interesting that the latter part of the novel is so compressed. Eighteen of the last nineteen chapters (making up nearly a third of the novel) cover the period from October (Tess leaves Marlott for Flintcomb Ash) to May (Tess and Angel flee across country). That means that Tess has been living with Alec for only a month or so when Angel comes to find her at Sandbourne.