On the other hand Angel Clare, the man Tess is fated to meet, fall in love with and eventually marry, is presented by Hardy to be the exact opposite of Alec. Tess had come across Angel at the start of the novel- even before her encounter with Alec, when she was dancing on the green in her home village of Marlott when she was 16 years old. When they meet again in chapter seventeen, both working in Talbothay’s dairy, she as a milkmaid and he as the dairyman’s pupil, two years had passed in which Tess had been seduced and raped by Alec when working for his family and subsequently bore a child which soon after died. From the moment Angel is reintroduced into Tess’s life, he is described by Hardy as not a realistic figure but again as more of an idealized, perfect ‘cardboard cut out’ hero. The name ‘Angel’, the description of his appearance- “...young mans shapely moustache and beard- the latter of the palest straw colour where it began on his cheeks and deepening to a warm brown farther out from its root.” His clothing and general attire; “He wore the ordinary white pinner and leather leggings of a dairy farmer when milking, and his boots were clogged with the mulch of the yard” unlike Alec, Angel is not fashionably dressed and carries no pretences of such. Hardy presents him to be a handsome, naturalistic, goodly young man, who we immediately link to Tess not only because of the past meeting, but because of the links to nature and purity which they both share. Angel even plays the harp- an instrument associated with heavenly beings- cherubs and angels. Angel’s description and affect upon the reader and Tess are intensified more then they would have been, due to having been subjected to Alec’s character and his actions towards Tess earlier in the novel.
From the first time Tess and Alec met, he took advantage of her. The first incident showing the sexual attitude toward Tess is when Alec forces the strawberry into Tess mouth: "...and in slight distress she parted her lips and took it in” Alec's sexual attraction toward Tess continued in the carriage towards Trantridge and he purposely went fast forcing her to "clutch d'Urberville's rein-arm." This affection by Tess was not enough for him and he told Tess to "Hold on around my waist, or we shall be thrown out." Tess is no match for Alec. Whereas she is naive, inexperienced and innocent, he is worldly, sophisticated and cunning. While she is burdened with the responsibility of providing for her family, he feels an obligation to no one but himself. Throughout her stay at Trantridge, Alec wears Tess down to take advantage of her, stalking her, trying to win over her trust- by offering her help and teaching her to whistle- yet his ulterior motives constantly come through, though Tess continued to try to rebuff his advances at every opportunity. It is not until he rescues her from a fight, in Chapter 10, with other Trantridge workers that her fate is sealed. Sensing a chance to finally have her in his power, Alec purposefully becomes lost in a trek through the woods. He rapes Tess while she sleeps awaiting his return.
"It was that upon this beautiful feminine tissue....there should have been traced such a coarse pattern as it was doomed to receive." Alec's intentions for the rape were all planned. His determination to master Tess was so great that at one point in the novel he even offers to marry Tess regardless of the restrictions of society.
Alec does not appear in Chapters 12–43. Nevertheless, we cannot say that he doesn’t impact the story during these chapters. First, his earlier actions (specifically the rape) impact everything that follows. But his impact is not simply confined to the readers’ understanding of the part he has played in Tess’ current situation. Hardy brings Alec back to the story through Reverend Clare, who shares with his son (who later shares with Tess) Alec’s conversion and ministry. Alec returns physically to the book in Chapter 44 as a street minister and by a twist of fate again meets Tess- married yet due to her confession, abandoned by Angel her husband and in bad straits.
Alec is a “sunshine convert,” renouncing his newfound faith almost as soon as he sees Tess again. Using twisted logic, Alec accuses Tess of causing him to stray from his ministry, “But you have been the means- the innocent means- of my backsliding, as they call it.” He soon cannot suppress his passion for Tess, calling her a “temptress.” Hardy notes that “The corpses of those old fitful passions which had lain inanimate amid the lines of his face ever since his reformation seemed to wake and come together as in a resurrection.” Tess feels guilty for Alec’s plight, and he uses the situation to his advantage again, making her swear to leave him alone at a place called “Cross-in-Hand,” the scene not of religious conversion, but of conversion to the ways of the dark side, with Satan. Cross-in-Hand is a symbol of evil, not good, ‘’Tis a thing of ill-omen,” Tess is warned.
Alec further lures the unsuspecting Tess by talking her out of remaining true to her marriage to Angel. He will not accept her rejection of him. Alec, who has already been perceived as the social evil, literally haunts her until she agrees to live with him. Her seduction by Alec is slow and methodical, much like his seduction of her early in the novel. He used his profound art of psychological manipulation to persuade Tess that Angel has left her forever. He further enhanced the seduction by telling her that even if her husband returned, she should never look upon him as a husband. "Leave that mule you call husband for ever." Alec even threatens Tess by telling her that "I [Alec] was your master once! I will be your master again. If you are any man's wife you are mine." Finally he plays his trump card and as he had earlier in the novel, and he convinces her to live with him as a d’Urberville by aiding her family who had been kicked out of their home due to Jack Durbeyfield death. Thus, Alec persuaded Tess to live a life of sin. This deception results in his death when Angel appears back on the scene after finally accepting Tess for who she really is and returns to find her living with Alec. Tess reacts to Angel in a manner of anger and resentment. However knows in her heart of hearts that she is still in love with Angel and decides to confess her love for him to Alec. Needless to say, Alec does not take the news very well and proceeds to cast insults toward Tess and of Angel. Tess, in a fit of emotional passion kills him melodramatically with a knife and flees.
Angel and Alec have very different attitudes toward Tess. Angel first loved Tess for her innocence and purity: "What a fresh and virginal daughter of Nature that milkmaid is." As their relationship furthers, he begins to idealise Tess to such an extent that when Tess finally tells him of her past on their wedding night, he could not accept that the pure perfect Tess he had constructed in his mind did not exist. Angel referred to Tess as a Goddess. "A visionary essence of woman - a whole sex condensed into one typical form”. He called her Artemis, Demeter, Artemis was the virgin goddess of hunting, and Demeter was goddess of crops and vegetation. Figures that represent purity, virginity, fertility and beauty. Tess’s revelation that she was in actual fact not a ‘pure’ virginal innocent girl horrifies him. Hardy here shows off the double standards in Victorian society. Angel himself had been involved in a sexual relationship before Tess- and did not tell her until after their marriage for fear of losing her- the exact same reason which Tess had not told him her past. Tess completely forgave him, yet on hearing of her sins Angel feels utterly deceived and horrified. Nothing about Tess had changed except of his perception of her as pure but this is the foundation of his ideal Tess and the shattering of it made him believe that is was not the real Tess he loved.
Though Alec is undoubtedly the more obvious villain of the story, Hardy seems to blame Angel more for Tess’s downfall then the latter more obvious candidate. Yes Alec raped and seduced Tess, but he had been prepared to help Tess should ‘’circumstances arise’’ and did not shun away from his responsibility. He also had made it quite clear that he was not a ‘’good man’’ and of his sexual intentions towards her. Alec also helped Tess and her family- true for the wrong reasons (in order to weaken Tess’s resolve to reject him and make her feel obliged to him) but at least he took care of her. And whereas Alec is forcefully and physically destructive of Tess, Angel proves to be even more so for he betrays Tess in a way which is much more destructive then anything Alec could have conceived. With his double personality- the projection of himself he wanted to be, and his real self, Tess had been led to believe that his reaction to her past would have been less due to his supposedly loving and kind nature. She had not expected Angel to be so unforgiving and horrified by her past that he would seemingly cease to love her completely. Angels actions after he abandons her, vilifies him even more if possible. His actions alone towards her in person were bastardly enough, but Angel’s proposal to the dairy maid Izz, that she accompany him to Brazil with him as his mistress shows him to be thoroughly selfish and insensitive to not only Tess but Izz too- who is distraught at losing the man she loved for a second time. Hardy is unforgiving towards Angel for his cruelty. He is scathing of Angel’s actions and almost bitter. “But over them both there hung a deeper shade then the shade which Angel Clare perceived, namely the shade of his own limitations. With all his attempted independence of judgement this advanced and well meaning young man… was yet a slave to custom and conventionality when surprised back into his early teachings.”
Both Alec and Angel are aware of their social status and superiority to Tess but Hardy is much more damming of Angel because of his presentation of himself and belief that he is enlightened, modern minded and sensitive in his views- without prejudice. In reality however Angel is hypocritical, snobbish and self deceiving. “I do so hate the aristocratic principle of blood before everything, and do think that as reasoners the only pedigrees we ought to respect are those spiritual ones of the wise and virtuous. Without regard to corporeal paternity” so states the man who wishes to postpone taking Tess home to his parents until he has sufficiently trained and taught her society’s ways.
However Alec and Angel are not the only ones blamed for Tess’s downfall. After Alec’s attack of her in The Chase, Tess blames her mother for her naivety regarding men's power and intentions. "How could I be expected to know?" "Why didn't you tell me there was danger in men-folk? Why didn't you warn me? Ladies know what to fend hands against, because they read novels that tell them of these tricks; but I never had the chance o' learning in that way, and you did not help me!" One could argue that were it not for Mrs. Derbeyfield’s selfishness and greed to put Tess in the way of a good marriage which would benefit the family in wealth and social standing, Tess would never have been made to claim kin with Alec D’Urberville and would have retained her purity and innocence. Tess tragic fate would have been averted. Indeed the influence of Tess’s family are undoubtedly a main factor in her descent for throughout the novel Hardy throws to light the great responsibility Tess is forced to bare for the wellbeing of her family and also the way she is used by them for their personal gain- by her mother especially. At the very start of the novel, we see Tess as being the backbone of the family. She chides her mother for letting her father go to the pub when he has a journey to undertake later that evening. She feels responsible for her father’s actions and makes up excuses for his drunken disorderly behaviour. She is more educated then her mother and therefore seems the wiser and most intelligent of the family.
Her mother is a central figure in Tess’s life and actions. It was her mother who pressurized and used the guilt and responsibility Tess felt over Prince’s death to the family’s advantage- putting her unwarned and naively in the path of Alec in the hopes of wealth. It is her mother also who forbids Tess to tell Angel of her past- the disastrous consequences we later see. Had Tess not taken notice of her mother’s advice and had told him, Angel may well have forgiven her and loved Tess for herself. In fact it is almost certain that he would have for he himself says “O Tess! If only you had told me sooner, I would have forgiven you!” Not only does her mother use Tess for her own schemes, but afterwards when her advice and schemes fail, blames Tess as being the one at fault and is unsupportive and disappointed with her daughter. As the novel continues Tess is further burdened with the responsibility of her family when her father dies and the family is evicted from their home. In order to save her family, she is forced to take up Alec’s offer and become once again his possession. Her own happiness is sacrificed for that of her family’s.
Another factor which Hardy definitely holds as being influential in Tess’s demise is Fate. Hardy's characters are greatly influenced by the religious and social environments in which they live. Religious and mythological allusions enable Hardy to convey these aspects of his society to his readers. In the opening of the novel, the first character the readers are introduced to is Parson Tringham. No physical description is given and his dialogue is limited, creating an alluding and mysterious figure. The parson represents the religiosity of Hardy's society and communicates to the readers that this is a religious society, whilst also setting the scene for Tess's introduction to the readers and for the events to come. At the start of the second phase of the novel "maiden no more", Tess is seen burdened with a heavy basket and a large bundle. This can be regarded as the metaphysical symbol of oppression and hardship. Some time later as Tess and Angel depart from the dairy after their wedding ceremony, a cock is heard crowing. Such is an omen of bad luck, and according to biblical references, the cock crowing three times as it had done intensifies the omen even more. This religious allusion represents the religious implications and consequences for Tess's decision not to inform Angel of her past, whilst also creating suspense for the reader as to the events to come.
The belief that the order of things is already decided and that people's lives are determined by this "greater power" is called fate. Many people believe in this and that they have no power in determining their futures and this is especially true of Hardy’s era and is heavily depicted within the novel with Tess as its scapegoat. Her life seems to be totally controlled by the whims and wishes of Fate. “Justice was done and the President of the immortals in AEshylean phrase had ended his sport with Tess”
When determining who is to blame for Tess’s downfall, one almost certainly ponders upon whether Tess herself is the one most responsible for her fall. Surely it was the choices she chose to make, the actions she chose to take which resulted in her tragedy. Her many flaws in character- her overwhelming self pity: “the image raised caused her to take pity upon herself as one who was ill used. Her eyes filled as she regarded her position further, she turned round and burst into a flood of sympathetic tears” Her great pride which hinders her so many times throughout her life- for example it was her pride which prevented her asking one of her partners from the dance in Marlott to drive her beehives to market in place of her father, had she done Prince would never have died and she would never have met Alec. Her pride also prevents her from asking her Angel’s parents for help when she most needed it. Ashamed to be forced to beg cap in hand, she instead suffers great hardships to survive and it is in that state which she again encounters Alec and is once again mastered by him. Her weakness in mind and body means she is easy prey to the insensitive, bullying and egotistical Alec, who again and again manages to break her weak resolve and take advantage of her. Similarly with Angel she eventually breaks down and consents to marry him, even though she knows it to be wrong yet could not help herself due to her love for him and her yearning to make him happy. Hardy however does not implicate Tess in the slightest for her own fall, and does a convincing job of exonerating her and her social sins. Hardy (if not Angel Clare), is convinced, not only of her purity but also of her capacity for ascendancy. Although her society chastised such behavior, Hardy bestows upon his protagonist the ability to overcome the moral and social stigma and thus Tess maintains her dignity and sense of self.
However, in many ways Tess's downfall is not due to self-perception of her own beauty, but due to those of others. Tess of the D'Urbervilles is extremely voyeuristic, not just through Hardy's characters Angel and Alec, but also the narrator, who essentially makes everything about Tess available for looking at. This is seen after the rape and Tess's return to Marlott to work in the cornfields. Hardy's narrator states “... the eye returns involuntarily to the girl in the pink cotton jacket, she being the most flexuous and finely-drawn figure of them all.” In this way not only is Tess exploited by Angel and Alec, but by the narrator, because she exists merely as a spectacle for the masculine eye. We are not just invited to look at her, but notice her 'soft arm', its 'feminine smoothness' the taste of whey and the smell of butter and eggs on her breath.
Even her ordeal with Alec D'Urberville at The Chase is written from the point of view of the observer- her feelings are not narrated and she is silent in the months she lives with D'Urberville after this, up to the baby's death. In this way we are even more inclined to believe that this was 'rape', it is such a huge part of Tess's life yet her feelings are not even documented in this story of her life. Nor are her reasons for killing Alec D'Urberville evidenced and documented in her defence.
For Tess, her sexuality for others is the source of her guilt through her life, her 'tragic flaw'. Hardy the narrator objectifies Tess- as Irving Howe a critic said “He is as tender to Tess as Tess is to the world. Tender and helpless”, but Hardy also violates her at the hands of her two lovers, and this violent imagery is persistent throughout the novel. “A bit of her naked arm is visible and as the day wears on its feminine smoothness becomes sacrificed by the stubble and bleeds”. Tess’s purity and self are constantly marred by streaks of red- the colour of sin and danger. The red ribbon in her hair when dancing in Marlott, Prince's death- where his neck is pierced and Tess covers the wound with her hand only to be covered in his blood, the scratch she gains from the roses given to her by Alec. Signs and warnings of danger lurking around the corner- fore shadows of the ‘tragic mischief’ to come. Her plight is also symbolised by the death of the birds in chapter, freedom and flight are stolen from them and are shown mercy in Tess wringing their necks, just as Tess becomes free in killing Alec and in her own hanging.
Tess herself is almost less a personality than a beautiful portion of nature violated by human selfishness. In many senses the narrator puts this across “her breathing was now quick and small, like that of a lesser creature than a woman” at the scene at Stonehenge. Her unwillingness to live unmarried to Angel and Alec shows her innocence of morals and perhaps this is the reason for Hardy's afterthought of a sub-title for Tess of the D'Urbervilles, 'A Pure Woman'. Tess is like Hardy's moral argument that Tess is pure and good regardless of chastity and as Angel says to her. “I wish half the women in England were as respectable as you”. Tess is the idealised heroine, Hardy's attempt to voice his opinions of the value and dignity concerned in being female, in the setting of his fictional 'Wessex'. In this way Tess is not real, in the sense that she is the embodiment of Hardy's ideal woman, when in reality no one remains so selfless, so innocent as Tess in the consequences of her life, which ultimately plague her until her death. In the end Hardy does not ultimately blame Tess, nor Angel, Alec, her family or even fate for Tess’s downfall but the society itself.
In the murder of Alec, Hardy has Tess committing a deliberate act of social evil for the first time. She has taken a human life. But even now after Tess has committed murder the one cannot help but asking, was the murder not committed for the sake of love? Could it not be justified? The bewitching innocence and purity Tess displayed throughout the novel- the suffering and misery which was cruelly administered to her at the hands of Alec, Angel, fate- everyone and everything she encountered in someway. Surely love, innocence and purity would justify the taking of a human life. Hardy has exposed Tess to almost every evil of society and of mankind. He placed upon her every conceivable moral and social dilemma that mankind could experience and yet through all of her trials she remained a saint, a pillar of virtue, spirit and self-reliance. Tess is not evil, those around her were evil. By placing their moral and social evils upon her, her demise was the murder of a human being.
The novel reaches its climax when Tess and Angel reach the area known as Stonehenge, a heathen temple known for its immense healing powers. It is incredibly ironic that Hardy would have his heroin and heroines complete their life's social journey at such a mystical temple. For Tess, the site is a destination, a sanctuary, and the ancient court seems to pass judgment and absolve her, for she awakens completely at peace. Tess is peacefully and willingly apprehended by the local townspeople and subsequently executed for her act of murder.
In conclusion I believe that Hardy did not find Tess at all at fault in her story. Yes everything and everyone she encountered played their part in condemning her to her fate, but in Hardy’s eyes the main fault and blame lies in the constant moral and social demands placed upon her by his peripheral characters and their roles in society. Tess began the novel as a pure woman and in Hardy’s eyes that is also how she ended it.
