TESS
-Thomas Hardy
The poor peddler John
Durbeyfield is stunned to learn that he is the descendent of an ancient noble
family, the d’Urbervilles. Meanwhile, Tess, his eldest daughter, joins the
other village girls in the May Day dance, where Tess briefly exchanges glances
with a young man. Mr. Durbeyfield and his wife decide to send Tess to the
d’Urberville mansion, where they hope Mrs. d’Urberville will make Tess’s
fortune. In reality, Mrs. d’Urberville is no relation to Tess at all: her
husband, the merchant Simon Stokes, simply changed his name to d’Urberville
after he retired. But Tess does not know this fact, and when the lascivious
Alec d’Urberville, Mrs. d’Urberville’s son, procures Tess a job tending fowls on
the d’Urberville estate, Tess has no choice but to accept, since she blames
herself for an accident involving the family’s horse, its only means of income.
Tess spends several months at
this job, resisting Alec’s attempts to seduce her. Finally, Alec takes
advantage of her in the woods one night after a fair. Tess knows she does not
love Alec. She returns home to her family to give birth to Alec’s child, whom
she christens Sorrow. Sorrow dies soon after he is born, and Tess spends a
miserable year at home before deciding to seek work elsewhere. She finally
accepts a job as a milkmaid at the Talbothays Dairy.
At Talbothays, Tess enjoys a
period of contentment and happiness. She befriends three of her fellow
milkmaids—Izz, Retty, and Marian—and meets a man named Angel Clare, who turns
out to be the man from the May Day dance at the beginning of the novel. Tess
and Angel slowly fall in love. They grow closer throughout Tess’s time at
Talbothays, and she eventually accepts his proposal of marriage. Still, she is
troubled by pangs of conscience and feels she should tell Angel about her past.
She writes him a confessional note and slips it under his door, but it slides
under the carpet and Angel never sees it.
After their wedding, Angel and
Tess both confess indiscretions: Angel tells Tess about an affair he had with
an older woman in London, and Tess tells Angel about her history with Alec.
Tess forgives Angel, but Angel cannot forgive Tess. He gives her some money and
boards a ship bound for Brazil, where he thinks he might establish a farm. He
tells Tess he will try to accept her past but warns her not to try to join him
until he comes for her.
Tess struggles. She has a
difficult time finding work and is forced to take a job at an unpleasant and
unprosperous farm. She tries to visit Angel’s family but overhears his brothers
discussing Angel’s poor marriage, so she leaves. She hears a wandering preacher
speak and is stunned to discover that he is Alec d’Urberville,
who has been converted to Christianity by Angel’s father, the Reverend Clare.
Alec and Tess are each shaken by their encounter, and Alec appallingly begs
Tess never to tempt him again. Soon after, however, he again begs Tess to marry
him, having turned his back on his -religious ways.
Tess learns from her sister
Liza-Lu that her mother is near death, and Tess is forced to return home to
take care of her. Her mother recovers, but her father unexpectedly dies soon
after. When the family is evicted from their home, Alec offers help. But Tess
refuses to accept, knowing he only wants to obligate her to him again.
At last, Angel decides to
forgive his wife. He leaves Brazil, desperate to find her. Instead, he finds
her mother, who tells him Tess has gone to a village called Sandbourne. There,
he finds Tess in an expensive boardinghouse called The Herons, where he tells
her he has forgiven her and begs her to take him back. Tess tells him he has
come too late. She was unable to resist and went back to Alec d’Urberville.
Angel leaves in a daze, and, heartbroken to the point of madness, Tess goes
upstairs and stabs her lover to death. When the landlady finds Alec’s body, she
raises an alarm, but Tess has already fled to find Angel.
Angel agrees to help Tess,
though he cannot quite believe that she has actually murdered Alec. They hide
out in an empty mansion for a few days, then travel farther. When they come to
Stonehenge, Tess goes to sleep, but when morning breaks shortly thereafter, a
search party discovers them. Tess is arrested and sent to jail. Angel and Liza-Lu
watch as a black flag is raised over the prison, signaling Tess’s execution.
