Tess of the D'Urbervilles Parts 5 - 6
Angel is horrified at Tess’s confession, and Tess can’t quite understand why he can’t forgive her sin while she had forgiven his transgression. Angel refuses to be with her, claiming that he could not forgive her since she was a now different person. She offers to kill herself, but he tells her that it will do him no good, and he adds that he can’t divorce her either. Tess hadn’t been aware that the law would prevent him from divorcing her, and she is at a loss about what needed to be done. She wakes up one night to find Angel sleepwalking into her room. He carries her to the nearby abandoned church and lays her down in an open coffin while talking of her death. She gets out of the coffin and leads him back to the house. Angel decides that they should separate, and leads Tess back to her village. The villagers from her village tell her about how glad the Durbeyfields have been since the marriage of their eldest daughter.
She is received with much confusion at home, and she explains to her mother that Angel had left her because of her past. She chastises Tess for not following her advice, while Tess overhears her father wondering if Tess is married or if she has entered another adulterous relationship with a man. Tess becomes severely unhappy in her home, so when she receives a letter from Angel informing her that he is going to be searching for a farm in England, she decides to leave home. She travels around from farm to farm working as a labourer, and remains faithful to her husband. Meanwhile, Angel decides that he is going to find a farm in Brazil and relocate there. He comes across Izz one of the dairymaids from the dairy farm and offers to take her to Brazil as his mistress. She is willing but she tells him that she can’t quite love him the way Tess loved him. He almost decides to go back to her but proceeds to Brazil, where ill fortune and sickness await him.
Tess begins working at a farm with another of the dairy maids, and they are eventually joined by Izz. Tess refuses to talk of her husband, but she later learns through someone else that he had offered to take Izz to Brazil as his mistress. She attempts to go to his family to seek their aid, but she happens across his brothers while journeying there. She overhears them talking about Angel’s failed marriage, and berating the boots that Tess had removed from her feet. Tess decides to return to the farm, but she passes by a congregation that is being addressed by Alec D’Urberville, who is talking to them about how he found his way to religion. She is angry that the man who had wrought her destruction can now claim to be in God’s grace. She attempts to hurry away without talking to him, but he has already seen her. He chases after her and catches up to her. He tells her about how he has been converted to religion through the work of Angel’s father, and that he now preaches to convert others. Tess is angry at him and claims that he cannot be saved given the sins he has committed. She tells him about giving birth to his child, and this upsets Alec. He feels that she still holds a certain allure for him and has the power to tempt him out of his religion. He asks her to promise him that she will never try to seduce him and Tess readily agrees. She goes further and hopes that they will never speak to one another. They part ways.
A few weeks later, Alec shows up at Tess’s farm and confesses that he hasn’t been able to stop thinking about her and that he wishes to be with her again. Tess refuses him outright and informs him that she is already married to another man. Alec is extremely confused and he can’t figure out why her husband is providing for her or protecting her. Alec leaves but he assures her that he will not give up and that she is his true wife. He continues to visit Tess, she keeps refusing him and even speaks to him about the arguments that Angel had made against religious beliefs. Alec is extremely affected by these arguments, and he resumes his old careless and lavish way of living. He promises to provide for Tess, but this doesn’t tempt Tess. However, when he promises to provide for her family, she is sorely tempted. She writes a pleading letter to Angel, asking him to take her back. The letter is forwarded to Angel in Brazil by his family. He is deeply moved by the letter now that his experience has given him a better understanding of Tess’s character.
Tess receives a letter from her younger sister, Liza Lu, asking her to return home due to the ill health of both her parents. Tess returns home without completing her farm contract, and finds her mother in a severely ill condition, while her father’s sickness appears to be less severe. Her parents seem incapable of providing for their family and Tess sets to work as a farm laborer to provide for her family. Alec comes back to her while she is working in the fields, and renews his offers of financial security for her as well as her family. Tess refuses him with difficulty but she then learns that her father has passed away and she now stands to lose the lease on her cottage. Tess writes a wrathful letter to Angel, berating him for leaving her to fend for herself. The villagers who are aware of Tess’s past prevent the lease of their cottage from being renewed, and her family is forced to find another place of accommodation. Alec returns once again and proposes that her family be accommodated in his estate, yet again Tess refuses him. She begins the journey to the other accommodation that she had managed to find and encounters the dairy maids who had worked with her in the past. They pity her condition and write Angel a letter telling him of her plight and sorry state. Tess finds another disappointment at the end of her journey as the accommodation that she had been promised is no longer available. Tess is forced to find shelter in an old graveyard that has a monument dedicated to the D’Urbervilles. Tess loses all sense of hope and longs for her death.
Analysis
Angel’s duplicity and misogyny jump off the page in this section of the novel. His sense of entitlement does not let him see how hypocritical his actions are in asking Izz to travel to Brazil with him as his mistress. He punishes Tess by leaving her for being with another man out of wedlock and yet proposes to reduce another woman to that same status. Angel’s ability to relocate to another part of the world and set up a farm indicates his privilege, especially in comparison to the poverty-stricken Tess. Her resistance to Alec’s offers demonstrates the strength of her ethics which easily outstrips the male characters of the novel. The author intended to demonstrate the true extent of fate in Tess’s dishonor, which he achieves by erecting one hurdle after another in Tess’s life. Tess would have successfully shunned Alec for the rest of her life had it not been for the desolate condition of her family that brought about her father’s death.
Ultimately, Tess fails to remain unaffected by Alec’s offers, however, before that occurs Tess experiences a symbolic death in the graveyard. She ends up taking shelter in the ruined graveyard and wishing that she were on the other side of the vaults.
