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Explore Hardy’s presentation of Angel Clare in the novel
Throughout the novel Hardy’s presentation of Angel Clare is one of a middle class man who amidst his personal situation does not agree with the stereotypical values associated with the middle class. He is portrayed as the hero of the novel; although he does not always make choices we would assume to be the correct ones. This is a sign of Hardy's realistic writing rather than dressing up the truth with fiction. Clare is shown as being a man that thinks he is and appears to be open minded and thoughtful but really on the inside he isn't, he has faults and flaws like normal people which were not usually. Angel Clare is first introduced in chapter two, as he stops walking with his brothers to dance with several girls before he leaves to catch up with his brothers. The fact that he goes against what his brothers want to do-"I am inclined to go and have a fling with them. Why not all of us? It will not detain us long"-suggests that he is slightly more rebellious than his brothers with their clean cut ideals. However he does not dance with Tess and inadvertently causes her first pangs of heartache. He is described as a handsome man but also possesses a natural charisma-"the appearance of the third and youngest would not have been sufficient to characterize him." Clare's next appearance is at the dairy at Talbothays, where Tess goes to work after the death of her baby and the loss of her innocence and virginity. Both Tess and Angel are now shown as characters with more depth to them, Tess because she is no longer the pure young woman she was and Angel as he becomes a more major character. Angel's appearance makes him quickly desired by Tess and the other dairymaids and he falls in love with Tess, despite the proposed engagement by his parents to Mercy Chant, a young middle class woman from his own village. In one way he is not shown to be dissimilar to Alec D'Urberville in that he will do anything to get...