Tess first meets Alec in chapter 5. She feels guilty about the horse, which dies. It’s her feeling that makes her go to Alec ‘s house. Tess thinks that they are related to each other because of their family name.
Hardy describes Alec in a bad way; this suggests that Alec ‘s not going to be a good person. “He had an almost swarthy complexion, with full lips, badly moulded, though red and smooth, above which was a well groomed black mostache with curled points…. Despite the touches of barbarism in his contours, there was a singular force in the gentleman ‘s face, and in his bold rolling eye.” This is the first time we see him, we already know that he is not going to be good for Tess.
Alec is attracted to Tess because she is “handsome” although not beautiful. Tess is not attracted to Alec and she doesn’t love him. She looks more mature than her age. Alec can’t be blamed for finding her attractive but he can be blamed for having sex with Tess. After this Tess leaves Alec ‘s house because she does not love Alec.
When Tess returns home Hardy describe the world as fertile and beautiful. She “gazed over the familiar green world beyond, now half- veiled in mist. It was always beautiful from here, it was terribly beautiful to Tess to-day.” Hardy shows Tess ‘s link with nature and she is also fertile.
Tess ‘s child dies and she goes off to work again. She meets Angel. He loves Tess and she loves him but he feels she cannot marry him due to what happened with Alec. Tess ‘s mum writes to Tess “on no account do you say a word of your bygone trouble to him.” She is trying to tell Tess not to tell Angel about Alec. It ’s her honesty that punished her because of this Angel leaves her.
She starts work again to feed her family. Tess ‘s beauty temps Alec. He comes back to take her to his house and wants to marry her. He says to Tess that Angel will never come back, she agrees with Alec and decides to live with him. Tess cannot reject Alec because she needs money for feeding the family.
Angel comes back and he realise that he loves Tess and he wants her back. He eventually sees Tess. When she sees Angel she gets surprised and very shocked. She goes home and kills Alec because he lied to her. Angel and Tess convince each other and they keep it as a secret. She lives with Angel for a week, the society founds out that she killed Alec and the society arrests her. Tess gives sacrifice for the society, so the society doesn’t see her as a bad woman.
I think Tess is really the victim of her own conscience than the other two men, Alec and Angel. At the beginning of the novel she controls her self and is responsible for what happens to her but in the middle of the novel she loose her control. Alec and Angel are wilful, controlling and guilty of harming Tess. The over-spiritualised Angel is more developed than rather too devilish Alec, but neither is easily read as convincing or credible. They in contrast to Tess are more dimensional characters.