Who Does More Harm to Tess, Alec D'Urberville or Angel Clare

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“Who hurts Tess more, Alec D’Urberville or Angel Clare?” Thomas Hardy was one of the finest writers of the Victorian age. Among countless poems and novels there is one that seems to stand alone, “Tess of the D’Urbervilles.”. Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles tells the story of a young Teresa Durbeyfield, a beautiful and ‘simple’ country girl. Tess Durbeyfield is a victim of both external and internal forces. Passive and fundamentally pure, she suffers a weakness of will and reason, struggling against a fate that is too strong for her to overcome. Tess becomes victim to her circumstances and male idealism at the hands of her two male lovers, Alec D’Urberville and Angel Clare. Tess is unable to overcome these apparent difficulties and thus is left distraught by her sense of guilt and the cruelty of the two men, eventually this means that Tess left traumatised by the cruelty exhibited upon her by Alec and Angel. By circumstance the death of the family horse, Prince, the Durbeyfields’ main source of livelihood, commences a series of events that leads Tess to Alec. Tess’ trusting nature betrays her as she is seduced by Alec D’Urberville; as a result her innocence is taken and replaced by a baby as she falls pregnant. The baby is suddenly snatched from Tess by a fatal illness, thus Tess’ is left saddened by Alec’s manipulation of her, this is further underlined as the baby is named ‘Sorrow’ which in turn clarifies how much pain Alec had brought upon her. Although Alec is the first culprit to cause Tess pain, I believe that Angel hurts Tess more as he furthers her pain and suffering when he separates from her shortly after their wedding, Angel takes our protagonist on an emotional journey from the summit of happiness at Talbothays to the depths of sadness at Flintcomb-Ash. She is pushed to the brink of depression by Clare’s prolonged visit to Brazil. Angel reveals
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