Thomas Hardy depicts Tess’s feelings through to the reader exceptionally well, we as the reader feel connected to Tess, as her emotions are well described with every event. As Tess’s emotions are made known a lot more than any other character in the book, it is acknowledged that there is a connection between the character Tess and the narrator, (Thomas Hardy).
‘Dead! Dead! Dead!’ are the words murmured by Angel Clare in tones of indescribable sadness. Within this chapter, Angel’ emotions have been put across a great deal more than they have been throughout the book. Within this chapter his sleepwalking expresses his state of mind. The words he spoke when he first entered the room, suggests that he feels the love between himself and Tess is now dead. This presumption is later confirmed, as he picks Tess up proclaiming ‘My wife – dead, dead!’ His heart refuses to believe that the girl he loved could cause him so much agony. As he doesn’t show affection towards Tess during the day ‘…to imprint a kiss upon her lips – lips in the daytime scorned’, in his subconscious mind it is clear to the reader that he still loves Tess, and he is torn between forgiving her and following the regulations of society. Yet even though Tess is scorned during the day, she still has complete trust in Angel ‘Her loyal confidence in him lay so deep down in her heart that, awake or asleep, he inspired her with no sort of personal fear’. The former danger that was apparent as Angel walked into the room, proclaiming that Tess was dead, passed once we realise Tess trusts him. The connection Hardy has with Tess is exposed to the reader, hence reducing the tension once we realise Tess feels safe.
As Angel carries Tess out of the bedroom, murmuring words of endearment, it is apparent when he stops at the banisters of the renewed danger that has appeared. Tess’ thoughts are made known to the reader ‘Was he going to throw her down?’ Reading on the reader finds out that Tess, instead of moving in terror at the possibility of a murder, lies in his arms in a precarious position with a sense rather of luxury than of terror, ‘If they could only fall together, and both be dashed to pieces, how fit, how desirable.’ Tess therefore makes manifest her promise to Angel in previous chapters by leaving her life in his hands. This statement is further established when Angel carries Tess outside, ‘So easefully had she delivered her whole being up to him that it pleased her to think he was regarding her as his absolute possession, to dispose of as he should choose.’
The danger now passed, as the reader realises that Angel merely went to the banister for the support of the handrail, the reader follows the character Tess in the third person, the revelation of her thoughts, depicted to the reader again by Hardy, leads to a reference of an earlier event within the book. Tess realises a memory Angel is reliving, when finding out that Angel is heading towards a nearby river. The memory is of a Sunday morning, when they were both back working at the Dairy farm for Mr. Crick. Angel had had to borne three dairymaids across a river, so that he could have the chance of carrying Tess. It was at this time that the passion between Tess and Angel began to develop.
As Angel carries Tess to the brink of the river, a diminutive amount of alliteration is used to describe the image of the river;
‘Its waters, in creeping down these miles of meadowland, frequently divided, serpenting in purposeless curves, looping themselves around little islands that had no name, returning and re-embodying themselves as a broad main stream further on.’
Angel starts to walk across a plank which was once a bridge, but with the autumn flood, the handrails had been washed away. The description of the river underneath them, symbolises Angel’s life; ‘The swift stream raced and gyrated under them, tossing, distorting, and splitting the moon’s reflected surface’. From this the reader has a representation of the symbolism connected with Angel’s feelings. The torrent of the river symbolises Angels’ life and mind at this exact point in his life. This suggests that Angel still loves Tess, yet with the new found information of Tess’s sin, he cannot except that Tess has slept with another man, therefore he feels that their relationship is dead. Yet the question the reader asks is; Angel didn’t follow what his father wished (becoming a priest) because he didn’t believe in God, therefore why can’t he forget the restrictions of society and continue loving Tess?
As they are crossing the perilous bridge, Hardy brings the reader into Tess’ thoughts again. With the renewed danger, Tess thinks that if Angel were to fall now with the both of them, she would not care, as ‘his last half-hour with her would have been a loving one, while if they lived till he awoke his daytime aversion would return.’ From this we know just how much Tess loves Angel. She loves him to the point where she can no longer bear to live, knowing that he doesn’t love her. Therefore if she were to die now, at least she would have her husband by her side, treating her lovingly, rather than having the constant tension between them, which tortures her throughout the day, and from the symbolism constantly referring to descriptions in the novel, we know that Angel feels the same, even though Tess doesn’t realise it. Tess decides to remain still, because even though she cannot stand to live without Angel loving her, it isn’t right for her to tamper with Angel’s life, and she doesn’t want to be responsible for killing him.
With Tess remaining still they safely crossed the dismantled bridge, and headed towards the ruined choir of the Abbey-church. ‘Against the north wall was the empty coffin of an abbot, in which every tourist with a turn for grim humour was accustomed to stretch himself. In this Clare carefully laid Tess.’
This scene has a very morbid and grotesque symbolism towards Angel’s thoughts on Tess. This horrific image symbolises the death of their relationship in Angel’s mind. He no longer believes Tess is alive for the love he had for her no longer remains, therefore in his sub-conscious mind he assumes her dead, hence burying her, and leaving the love he had for her in the coffin along with Tess. This scene is not too improbable to be effective. The symbolism is extremely important, adding to the novel at this stage. The reader’s view on Angel changes. If this scene were to be left out the reader would not have as much sympathy towards Angel. With the symbolism we can connect to how Angel is feeling, showing the reader his thoughts on the situation with Tess, which is important in the way we think of him.
Angel gives Tess a final kiss, and then proceeds to lie alongside her and fall into a deep sleep. As Angel lies alongside Tess, it symbolises that Angel feels that he is dead. This could be related to how Tess feels; she would rather die than live knowing that Angel doesn’t love her, and with Angel, as he lay next to Tess it can represent that he too feels like dying, knowing that he could never love Tess again.
Tess realises that if Angel stays there any longer in barely any clothes, he will surely die from the cold. Tess felt reluctant to wake him up and have Angel realise how he has deeply disrespected Tess and shown how he feels towards her, even if beforehand Angel was showing affection towards Tess, because he had placed her in a coffin, profoundly symbolises the death of their relationship. And from the readers’ point of view, it feels that Angel does not want his emotions to be shown, should it alter his decision of leaving Tess, as well as to know that he had instinctively manifested a fondness for her of which his common-sense did not approve, because he does not want to go against society and be disrespected in the eyes of others.
Tess decides to use persuasion to get Angel out of the cold; luckily Angel carries on with dream and returns to the house with Tess.
Their separation is of one of strangers. They show no affection towards each other, and from Tess’ interpretation of Angel’s words, ‘he could regard her in no other light than that of one who had practised gross deceit upon him’, the reader feels that they will not meet again after their separation, as Angel says I will come to you, but it will be better that you should not try to come to me.
Tess’ pride cost her the man she loved and the reader realises this when they read; ‘If Tess had been artful, had she made a scene, fainted, wept hysterically, in that lonely lane, notwithstanding the fury of fastidiousness with which he was possesses, he would probably not have withstood her.’ If Tess had only made an effeminate reaction to the loss of her loved one, then Angel would have stayed, but her pride pushed him away and therefore the remainder of their discourse was on practical matters only.
Again an opening came for Tess to keep Angel as she was driving away in the carriage, the reader reads; ‘Clare watched it go with an unpremeditated hope that Tess would look out of the window for one moment.’ But Tess remained in a half-dead faint within, feeling devastated and hopeless.
The last paragraph tells the reader that Angel does love Tess and with the statement of the unpremeditated hope of Tess looking out of the carriage window towards Angel, implies again that Angel loves Tess. The reader’s sympathy is replenished here for both Tess and Angel; for Tess, because she had just unwittingly lost the love of her life due to pride and naivety, and for Angel because he still loves Tess, but cannot except the situation for reasons unknown to the reader.
Hardy explores the depths to which Angel has been wounded by Tess's revelation in this chapter, in which Angel, while sleepwalking, reveals the great psychological torment that he feels. He so fervently believes that his wife is dead that he carries her to a coffin and lays her there. This is a departure from previous chapters in which Hardy has portrayed Angel as coldly observing his principles without any display of affection for his wife. Here the unconscious Angel shows that he still loves the previous conception he had of Tess, yet cannot reconcile it with this new information about her. His anguish is so great that it possesses him while asleep. However, that Angel cannot realize what he has done while sleepwalking demonstrates that he is unaware of the deep emotional vein of his torment; rather, he focuses on the intellectual disappointment.
If Hardy allows Angel greater sympathy in this chapter, he also shows the degree to which Tess will sacrifice herself for her husband. Tess remains completely submissive to her sleepwalking husband as he carries her across the river and to the cemetery. She remains open to the possibility that he may murder her or cause their mutual death, but remains still rather than disturb Angel. Tess therefore makes manifest her promise to Angel in previous chapters by leaving her life in his hands.
The final separation of Tess and Angel that ends this chapter leaves some degree of room for consideration. Angel remains calm, as always, yet realizes that it is he who must change before he can accept Tess again. He therefore places the burden of acceptance on himself rather than on Tess, while still allowing for her sustenance. Angel takes grudging steps toward admitting his own fallibility; his struggle to sacrifice his principles for greater ones and Tess's reaction to her new fate will provide a great deal of the narrative drive of the rest of the novel.
A lot of adjectives are used within this chapter, convincingly describing the setting, but Hardy does not use very much alliteration. I have found only one occasion where Hardy uses alliteration, which I have noted about earlier on. The use of metaphors and similes are very rare within this chapter, but from reading the rest of the novel, I know that Hardy does occasionally use these forms of description.
The symbolism is very melancholic and gruesome in this chapter, connecting to Angels mind and the torment he is in, due to the revelation of Tess’s past. Although the symbolism in this chapter refers to Angel’s emotions, this symbolism leads to Tess’ emotions as well, as Hardy cleverly links the two and gives the reader an insight to what the character, Tess is thinking, at moments of multifaceted symbolism, which then refers to the emptiness she has inside of her with the knowledge of Angel’s abhorrence towards her.