His love for Tess may be abstract, as we guess when he calls her “Daughter of Nature” or “Demeter.” Like Tess, Angel has a past, when he was nearly lead into a relationship with a woman in London. When Tess relates her own tale, he seems to have forgotten his own lurid tale and denies Tess the forgiveness that she so willingly grants him.
intelligent
She possesses an education that her unschooled parents lack and has passed the Sixth Standard of the National Schools. She has curiosity that goes beyond her basic education, as demonstrated when she debates religious and moral issues with both Angel and Alec.
hardy and unselfish
She accepts blame for Prince's death; the death of her infant son, Sorrow; the loss of Angel and the destruction of her marriage. she suggests to the other milkmaids at Talbothays and Angel, that Izz, Retty, and Marian are all more acceptable for marriage to Angel than she is.
His gentlemanly ways also come to the fore when he offers to carry all four dairymaids over a swollen creek when the girls are on their way to church. It is a perfect excuse for all of the girls — Izz, Retty, Marian, and Tess — to get closer to their desire, Angel Clare himself.
Analysis of r characters
1 2
Tess Durbeyfield
Alec d’Urberville
3
Angel Clare
Tess Durbeyfield
Strikingly attractive and passionate hardy and unselfish intelligent innocent
innocent
she is unschooled "in the ways of the world" and therefore unable to protect herself. Tess chides her mother for not telling her full truth about a less-than-kind world: "Why didn't you tell me there was danger in men-folk?"
Freethinking Gentlemanly impractical, idealistic
A freethinking son born into the family of a provincial parson and determined to set himself up as a farmer instead of going to Cambridge like his conformist brothers, Angel represents a rebellious striving toward a personal vision of goodness. His love for Tess, a mere milkmaid and his social inferior, is one expression of his disdain for tradition.
rich Evil and wicked Worldly and Sophisticated Crazy in love with Tess
An insouciant twenty-four-year-old man, heir to a fortune, and bearer of a name that his father purchased, Alec is the downfall of Tess’s life. Alec woos Tess with his suave talk and conspicuous wealth.
Strikingly attractive and passionate Throughout the novel, Hardy develops Tess as a character and describes her simple beauty. She is attractive to all men, and even her attempts to change her appearance are not enough to hide her natural beauty. She strays from her marriage only when it appears that Angel may not return to her from South America and when there is no other way to . help her destitute family. She tries to kill herself to free Angel from their marriage and refuses to ask Angel's parents for any additional money during Angel's sojourn to Brazil.
Alec buys a horse for Tess’s family in order to take advantage of her, but Tess continues 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 have Tess, Alec purposefully becomes lost in a trek through the woods. He rapes Tess while she sleeps awaiting his return. It could be argued that even after seducing Tess, Alec does indeed fall in love with her and makes his plans to have her as his own a second time.