'In her relations with both Alec and Angel, Tess is the victim of her own conscience rather than of male cruelty and censure.'

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‘In her relations with both Alec and Angel, Tess is the victim of her own conscience rather than of male cruelty and censure.’    

Thomas Hardy’s novel “Tess of the D’urbervilles” is about three characters. Tess, Alec and Angel. Tess is a young country girl and the novel follows stages of her life. When we first see Tess, she is wearing white dress that shows purity. She is also the only one of the girls to be wearing a red ribbon. Hardy uses this colour to make us take notice of her. He also means blood, danger and passion. She acts according to nature but is also very aware of what society demands.

The problems follow Tess when she meets Alec. Hardy spends a lot of time describing the nature. “The village of Marlott lay amid the north-eastern undulations of the beautiful Vale of Blakemore or Blackmoor aforesaid”. This sounds like a Travel Guide rather than the story. This makes the scene more real.

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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 ...

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