Tess of the D’urbervilles Paper

Love is a prevalent and pervasive theme in Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Many aspects of love are explored in the novel, and they show the complexity of Hardy’s attitude towards love. The intertwined stories of Tess, Angel and Alec explore the effect that events have on their feelings, and show, in time, the true qualities of their love. The other relationships of friends, parents, and family describe and contrast other aspects of love in the novel.

The main relationship in the novel is between Tess and Angel. At certain points in the novel, they do have true feelings of love for each other; however, their feelings are undermined by each of their pasts. Angel thinks Tess is a “fresh and virginal daughter of Nature.” (158) He then discovers about her relationship with Alec, and he rejects her. His rejection demonstrates his double standards, because he has just told Tess that he has had a relationship with a woman in London, which he believes is acceptable behavior. Tess does not reject him for this, but Angel, when told about Tess’s past, rejects her completely for many years. Angel’s choosing Tess to be his wife is a cruel irony, because he chooses her, based on a quality in her that he later believes she does not have. When he finds she is not the innocent girl he imagined, his love is not strong enough to overcome his judgment of her sin. “He could regard her in no other light than that of one who had practiced gross deceit upon him.” (297) In the end, after the passing of time, Angel finds he is able to forgive Tess because he does love her deeply. He says, when he hears she has killed Alec, “‘I will not desert you! I will protect you by every means in my power, dearest love; whatever you may have done or not have done!’” (437) But by then, it is too late to enjoy a life together, because Tess has already committed a real sin in murdering Alec and is condemned to hang.

The relationship between Tess and Alec is not “real love”, because they both have ulterior motives for “loving” each other. Alec’s initial lust for Tess later turns into obsession; he develops a possessive love for Tess; it is not a selfless love like the love Tess has for Angel. Alec does not want what is best for Tess; he just wants to possess her. Hardy states: “And as he asked the question a disappointment which was not entirely the disappointment of thwarted duty crossed d'Urberville's face. It was unmistakably a symptom that something of his old passion for her had been revived; duty and desire ran hand-in-hand.” (363) Alec still wants to possess Tess, even though he rationalizes his proposal to be his duty. Tess pretends to love Alec for security, because he is her knight in shining armor. He “rescues” her from Carr Darch, and she thinks he wants to protect her, because he says: “Having brought you here to this out-of-the-way place, I feel myself responsible for your safe-conduct home, whatever you may yourself feel about it.” (105) Later in the book, he also lets her stay with him at an expensive hotel after her family has been evicted from their house.

Familial love is another type of love explored in this novel. Tess loves her family immensely. For example, she sacrifices her happiness to support her family when she works for Mrs. Stokes D’Urberville. Even though she does not want to, she puts her own feelings aside to go to work there, because she feels guilty about the death of their horse, which was the family’s only source of income. “‘Well, as I killed the horse, mother,’she said, mournfully, ‘I suppose I ought to do something.’” (65) However, in contrast, Tess’s parents are not supportive of her at all. They do not support her when she has a child. When she comes home pregnant from Trantridge, her mother shouts cruelly, “‘You ought to have been more careful if you didn’t mean to get him to make you his wife!’”