During this reading of Tess, I wanted to draw attention to the striking differences that Tess, Alec d’Urberville, and Angel Clare experience when thinking about their pasts and when performing or partaking in actions that go against societal norms of the time period. Tess has the most obvious struggle with her past, as would be expected as the result of the constant battering she gets for it from Angel. At one point, Angel says to her “how can we live together while that man lives? He being your husband in Nature, and not I” clearly referring to Alec d’Urberville having raped Tess and gotten her pregnant, causing her to lose her virginity before she married Angel Clare (245). This constantly weighs on Tess, and later in the reading she remarks that “a consciousness that in a physical sense this man alone was her husband seemed to weigh on her more and more,” which clearly stems from the guilt placed on her by her husband (349). Angel Clare, on the other hand, feels almost no remorse for asking Izz Huet to accompany him to Brazil, telling her that “I may not be able to love you” and that he has “been badly used enough to wish for relief,” not even thinking about the reverberations that would cause on Tess had someone found out that he had asked a woman who was not his wife to come to live with him (269). How unfair of Angel Clare to place all of this unwarranted blame and guilt on Tess, when she had no control over the events that happened to her, while here he is willingly wanting to engage with another woman outside of his marital status. Alec d’Urberville is a whole other story, and attempts to make things right by turning to religion. Tess calls Alec out for this exclaiming that “you, and those like you, take your fill of pleasure on earthy by making the life of such as me bitter and black with sorrow; and then it is a fine thing, when you have had enough of that, to think of securing your pleasure in heaven by becoming converted!” (303). Alec, however, feels as though he has justified his previous wrongdoings by converting to religion UNTIL he claims that religion can no longer fix the temptation and desire he has for Tess. Alec blames Tess for his fallout, telling her that “you have the means – the innocent means – of my backsliding…. ‘Tess, my girl, I was on the way to, at least, social salvation till I saw you again!’” which again places all the blame on poor Tess (316). To bring this entry to a summary, Tess switches between blaming herself and Alec for what happened to her, but ultimately feels as though she is unworthy enough for Angel to forgive her. Angel Clare feels as though he is justified in trying to find comfort through Izz and other worldly things because he was “wronged” by his wife, but eventually ends up forgiving her and realizing that he might have overreacted. Finally, Alec d’Urberville turns towards religion to try and distract himself from Tess, but ends up ditching his teachings to follow Tess and blame her for enticing him, once again. I learned from this reading that the men in Tess’s life and society have a much easier time placing blame on someone else for their own troubles/problems rather than coming to terms with the fact that maybe they were the ones who messed up in the first place. However, I am very glad that Tess took matters into her own hands at last by killing Alec d’Urberville and finally putting that chapter of her life to rest.
Hi Autumn!
What a wonderful blog post! I really enjoyed reading your thoughts on the characters of Alec, Angel and Tess and the differences in the way they look at their pasts. When finishing this book, I felt the same way as you did; I was so happy Tess finally took charge of her life and killed Alec (even though I think it should have been done early on in the book!). I also felt sorry for Tess throughout the book because she did not deserve the horrible events in her life and should not blame herself for anything that happened. Both men never took responsibility for their actions, but rather put all of the blame on Tess. Even when Alec claimed he was a converted man, he still blamed Tess for the way he acted. It was quite frustrating! It was even more frustrating when Angel could not decide whether he should forgive Tess or not. Ultimately, none of this was Tess’s fault, but because of Alec and Angel she could not see that.
I thought it was very interesting how you looked at the past of each of these characters and contrasted them to each other. Overall, it was a very good blog post and I thought you brought up some very interesting thoughts!
-Monica
This is wonderful–I can hear feminism ringing loudly within every word. I totally agree, especially with your observation that the men of the book seem to justify their actions by placing direct and explicit blame on Tess. In agreeing with this, I seem to think that this is an exaggeration of what truly happened in British society at the time. By “exaggeration” I mean that such injustices happened frequently, but not quite at the intense and–again–explicit frequency in which they happened to Tess. Therefore, I make the claim that Hardy is drawing for his readers a direct social commentary, where he is calling attention to the absurdity of this patriarchal system of blame by exaggerating it. The reader hence sees Tess as truly a victim, while characters like Angel and Alec are cowardly and antagonistic. This allows for Hardy’s case to be made: that the unfair blame of women for all things is skewed and wrongly utilized to justify unjustifiable male actions.
Hey Autumn,
I really loved your blog post and your perspective on the reading. I completely agree with your take on the way that both Angel and Alec are quick to outwardly place the blame from their own actions rather than looking at themselves and their own faults. It really illuminates the fact that Tess’ first reaction as a result of her troubles is to blame herself without even looking outward until she has exhausted her self-blame with no real answers. Tess is constantly a victim, yet it takes her so long to truly realize that she cannot blame herself for the trouble that Alec and Angel have inflicted on her. I also agree with your praise of her finally taking action in her life and killing Alec (I was silently cheering in the library when I reached that part). It seems like that is when she finally able to fully accept that she cannot blame herself for her past. I also love Meg’s above comment on how Hardy is drawing attention to the “absurdity of this patriarchal system of blame by exaggerating it”– very well said and I completely agree!