As we know, Tess of the D'Urbervilles is the most famous novel of Thomas Hardy. No doubt, Tess is the major character in this novel. But today I’d like to talk about one of the male characters, named Angel Clare.
He is a freethinking son born into the family of a provincial parson. This youngest of three brothers didn’t enter college as his siblings, but went to study agriculture so that he might become a farmer. He not only has superior intelligence, but also has liberal opinions which is beyond that society.In my opinion, Angel Clare is nevertheless equally dogmatic and obstinate. He has a deeply theoretical mindset, this is why he rejects Tess when he learns information about her past that contradicts his idealistic view of her.
You can see Angel Clare a
...s a hypocrite or as a man torn between moral conventions and his sensual attraction to the land and to a woman. So he chooses to make everything, from Talbothays to Tess, in a storybook dream so that he can avoid dealing with reality. He just lives in his world which is made up by himself.My first impression of Angel are very positive- he seems kind, honorable, bright, and open to new ideas.
Later, after he rejects Tess and tries to proposition Izz Huett, I just feel what a sucker! From now on, I find that this “good man” shares some traits with Alec d'Urberville. To some extent, they are the same. Both men are self- centered and unstable. Think of how swiftly they change from one position to another.
Angel goes from a loving husband to a man who criticizes an
rejects his wife. Alec goes from philanderer to fanatical preacher and back to woman chaser.I think Angel is responsible for death of Tess, to say it accurately, Angel is the chief offenders of this tragedy. Angel, messager of God, means to lead people to get out of suffering. At the beginning, Angel Clare just like an angel, bring sunlight to the Tess’s dark world.
It seems go very well, they get ready for marriage. I really feel happy for Tess, her calamity would end up. But how can you imagine this Angel just leave away, without a backward glance! It is another death-blow to Tess, and this one even stronger than the former. Maybe to Angel, Tess is an ideal, she just his fantasy.She is such a pure, innocent girl in his eyes, I remember he calls her “daughter of nature”. Angel’s ideals of human purity are too elevated to be applied to actual people.
So when he hear what Tess tell him, he just don’t know how to act. This angel awaken to the actual complexities of real world after he fail in Brazil, and he realizes what he did before is unfair to Tess. And finally he adjusts his moral criterion to the real, but at the cost of life of Tess. The real angel is Tess, she guides Angel Clare to live, to complete himself.
Also, she finds a way to set herself free.
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