This Litchatte is a writeup by Don Wilms (see photo below) from his March 2021 RVA Classic Bookclub discussion 0f Tess of d’Urbervilles*
Steeped in the traditions of centuries of writing, philosophy, and religion, Thomas Hardy displays for the reader a stark contrast between the two men who greatly influence the destiny of Tess Durbeyfield, the title character of his novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles. In Tess’s mind, both Alec d’Urberville and Angel Clare have a legitimate claim to her, the former because he has had sexual relations with her, the latter because he is legally her husband.
From insisting that she take a strawberry directly into her mouth from his hand on the occasion of their meeting, to extorting a kiss from her in exchange for slowing the wagon in which they ride on their second encounter, to the ultimate liberty he takes with her in the dark, deserted forest, Alec proves himself nothing short of an abject villain set on ruining Tess by wearing her down and being conveniently available when she needs help getting out of a scrape. In the latter half of the novel, he likens Tess to Eve in the Garden of Eden and himself to the devil: “You are Eve, and I am the old Other One come to tempt you in the disguise of an inferior animal.” Though he does at one point take all the blame for “foul[ing] that innocent life,” most of his other words to Tess blame her for tempting him.
Angel is the polar opposite of Alec. Angel takes his time in getting near to Tess, and when he is ready to declare his love and is about to kiss her, he stops and declares “Forgive me. . . . I ought to have asked. . . . I do not mean it as a liberty.” The narrator tells us that for Angel “Tess was no insignificant creature to toy with and dismiss.” And “how then should he look upon her . . . as a petty trifle to caress and grow weary of?” Yet as much as he loves her, when she confesses her past mishap, he refuses intimacy on their wedding night or indeed for the rest of their so-called honeymoon. Where with Alec, she had unwanted physical intimacy without the bonds of marriage, with Angel she has both the marriage and the desire but not the will of her husband.
Alec and Angel represent the two worlds of the active life and the contemplative life, respectively. Alec, associated with property and money inherited from his parents, is firmly rooted in the things of this world. Even his temporary conversion does not take root in his character, and on seeing Tess again, he quickly sheds his new-found religious zeal for the worldly pleasure he can get from her. One day we see him “strangely accoutred as the Methodist”; the next time we see him, he wears a “semi-clerical costume;” and the very next time he has an “indescribable quality of difference from his air when she last saw him.” He has quickly transformed back to his former self, bent on forcing a relationship with poor Tess that she has made clear she does not desire.
Angel, on the other hand, eschews formal religion as of this world, preferring philosophical teaching, equating pagan and Christian philosophy. He tells Tess “the only pedigrees we ought to respect are those spiritual ones of the wise and virtuous, without regard to corporeal paternity.” To symbolize this contemplative being, Hardy gives him the name Angel, with the last name Clare, from the French for clear. He even plays a harp. The narrator tells us “something nebulous, preoccupied, and vague, in his bearing and regard, marked him as one who probably had no very definite aim or concern about his material future.” His love for Tess “was doubtless ethereal to a fault.”
Yet, though he is clearly a better man than Alec, only Angel can do serious injury to Tess. After her ordeal with Alec and the death of their child, time passes, and Tess sets out to work at Talbothays “full of zest for life.” But after Angel leaves her, she gradually gets worn down to her very soul, that most contemplative of human possessions. She says of Alec, “He won’t hurt me. He’s not in love with me,” implicating Angel as the one who can hurt her. When she finally breaks, it is not for herself but for her brothers and sisters that she finally agrees to become Alec’s mistress.
Alec may have hurt her body, but she recovers and thrives. Angel, by leaving her unprotected for so long, wears down her spirit. Indeed, as Alec’s mistress, she seems to have buried her spirit, and it is only her body that she gives to Alec. Even her legal husband’s return cannot rescue her from the torment he, Angel, has forced her into. “It is too late,” she tells him. Ultimately, Tess is as self-reliant as ever, and through her own hands frees her physical self from Alec to restore her soul in time for her death.
* Donald Wilms teaches adult basic education for The READ Center. He is the Past President of the Chesterfield Education Association, a retired high school English teacher, and a member and facilitator of the RVA Classic Book Club.
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