Summary:
Author Thomas Hardy introduces the character of Angel Clare in "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" and continues with the character develoment throughout the book. Hercharacter is developed further through the development of other characters and her relationship with them.
How does Hardy's presentation of Angel
Clare change as the novel progresses"
The character of Angel Clare is portrayed by Hardy as member of the middle class who does not agree with middle class ways. He is the "hero" in this novel, if it has one although he does not always make choices we would assume to be "right." This is a sign of Hardy's realistic writing which was popular during the era in which Tess of the D' Urbervilles was written. 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 shown in heroes of other Victorian novels.
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 closer to Tess, shown when he carries the milkmaids across the river-"Do you know I have undergone three quarters of this labours just for the sake of the fourth quarter"."
Angel goes against his parents' plans for him to attend Cambridge and become a minister like his father again showing he is not like the rest of his family or the middle class-"I shall do without Cambridge then." This averseness to his parents ideals prompts Dairyman Crick to describe him as "the most rebellious rozums you ever knowed, not a bit like the rest of the family."
Clare is not as open minded as he likes to think and has a dislike for "old families" ironically such as the D'Urbervilles, he almost despises anyone of noble blood "Retty Priddle here is one of the Paridelles, the old family that used to own lots o' the lands out by Kings-Hintock...Mr Clare found this out and spoke quite scornful to the poor girl for days." Retty Priddle is said to be equally pretty as Tess and perhaps one of the reasons Angel falls for Tess and not Retty is because he didn't know of her bloodline until after he fell in love with her.
During this stage of the book onwards Angel's relationship with Tess intensifies and he is portrayed as a more serious character than when he was first introduced at the start of the novel. Angel knows nothing of Tess' past, bloodline or background and has strong beliefs in purity. However the reader knows that Tess is not a virgin and this is another ironic point in the relationship between Angel and Tess. Angel's idea of Tess is a vision of his own perceptions; she never lies to him but does not tell him the truth, choosing to keep the details of her baby, rape and past to herself, therefore not letting Angel see the true Tess. He thinks that he has had a hard life but knows nothing of the poverty and personal heartache that Tess has had to endure.
He is however suspicious that Tess has a secret she wishes to hide and a dark past as he is unsure how someone so young can have such a melancholy view of the world and life. When Tess tells Angel that Izzy and Retty are also in love with him, expecting that he will turn his attentions to them he says " They are pretty girls, yes: but not better than you", this is not unlike Alec D'Urberville when he says " There are others I can have but I like you all the better." Both Alec and Angel personalities appear after a while after meeting Tess, another of the parallels drawn from the way Hardy portrays his "hero" and "villain."
After Angel tells Tess that he loves her he feels almost frightened by his outburst of emotion and tries to avoid her while he thinks how to deal with his feelings. Partially he wants to marry Tess and thinks she would be a good wife but also is concerned of what his family will say as he is meant to marry Mercy Chant, the daughter of a parson. When he returns to his family home in Emminster he feels more of a stranger to his family than before and finds his parents and brothers stagnant in their views on the matter- " if these two noticed Angel's social ineptness, he noticed their growing mental limitations." Angel has always been, to our knowledge, differing in opinion to his brothers but not to this extent before"
When Angel proposes to Tess after returning to the dairy she refuses, again which makes him think that she has a secret where really it is because she is torn between her friends, who love Angel also, and her heart. When she says that his parents would not approve he lies and says that they already have, this is a change from Angel who values openness and honesty, another point of the effects of Tess upon his personality. It is at this point that Angel tells Tess of his father's meeting with Alec D'Urberville although he does not mention the name, although Tess guesses who he means from the description. Although this was an attempt to change the subject by Angel, he does not know that it will make Tess want to refuse him more as he does not know of her history with Alec-""O' no, no!" replied she with grave hopelessness, as one who had heard anew the turmoil of her own past."
Tess' refusal of Angel's proposal is the first time that Hardy makes the reader feel sorry for Angel, as he is madly in love with Tess but although she feels the same way she does not act with as much love as he does. She decides to tell Angel about Alec at the end of the week and he laughs at her for making him wait, this is more of a return to the jovial, good natured Angel of earlier. However, his mocking makes her think she should marry Angel and live happily until he finds out her past with D'Urberville.
After Tess still refuses to marry him he tells her that should she insist on refusing then he will leave Talbothay's dairy for good- "It is a fortnight since I spoke, and this won't do any longer. You must tell me what you mean, or I shall have to leave this house." This is very unlike the Angel we see earlier as he is giving Tess an ultimatum rather than talking to her like the thoughtful man he thinks he is and is portrayed to be.
When Angel and Tess get married and she tells him that she was seduced by Alec D'Urberville, although she does not mention the name, we see the biggest change in the character of Angel Clare. He feels that he does not love the real Tess because he did not know her secret and feels that the Tess he fell in love with does not exist at all. When she asks him what will make him love her he says-"You are good. But it strikes me that there is a want of harmony between your present mood of self-sacrifice and your past mood of self-preservation." Angel blames her apparent lack of morals on her upbringing in poverty and her bloodline of the D'Urbervilles, showing himself to have changed completely from the open minded man of earlier but retaining his dislike for "old families." Tess says she will be his slave forever if he forgives her but nothing can console him because he was in love with an image of Tess and her looks not her.
It is then that Tess and Angel decide to separate as they cannot divorce as they have made vows in the church, although Tess is surprised by the harshness of his actions she does not blame him as she feels that she is not worthy of his love anyhow. When they part the next morning a part of Angel stills loves Tess as he- "watched her go, with an unpremeditated hope that Tess would look out of the window for once moment."
After this separation Angel returns to his family home and tells his parents that the reason he has separated from Tess is because of his travelling to Brazil. Later he then curses Tess for making him lie to his parents which again is another change from when he did not care for what they thought, the influence of Tess is perhaps what made him become distanced from his family.
When Angel is in Brazil separated from Tess he has time to think about whether or not he still loves Tess and decides that he has been to harsh on her, this being another change in his character as he thought at the time that he wanted nothing to do with her, although it took him a year to realise this. Upon his return from Brazil his parents give him a letter from Tess and he then realises that he still loves her - " His had been a love "which alters when alteration finds"."
When he finds Tess living in Sandbourne married to Alec D'Urberville, she says she does not love him and he leaves devastated at the realization that "his original Tess had spiritually ceased to recognize the body before him as hers - allowing it to drift, like a corpse upon the current, in a direction disassociated from its living will." This is a reversal of roles with the two characters as earlier he did not want to see her. This is the second point in the book when the reader feels pity for Angel as Tess does not return his love.
Tess then kills Alec for lying to her and saying that Angel would not return and leaves Sandbourne with Angel where they stay in a vacant manor house. Angel does not talk about the time they have spent apart and instead wishes to concentrate on the present; this is again another change from when he wished to discuss everything with Tess in Sandbourne. When they leave the manor house Tess makes Angel promise that if something happens to her then he must marry Liza-Lu, who she considers to be a purer version of herself-"She has all the best of me, without the bad of me!."
When Tess is arrested and executed Angel does marry Liza-Lu, although I believe that he marries her as a substitute for Tess only transferring his affections onto her sister not actually loving her at all. This ironic from a man that is seen value honesty above anything else earlier in the book.
In conclusion the character of Angel Clare changes throughout "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" and only occasionally reverting to his starting characteristics. His hate of old families remains throughout the book but his honesty and his family values change with the influence and his relationship with Tess. I believe that as Hardy was amongst the growing population of realist writers during the Victorian era that he tried to show that the "hero" of the book could have flaws that were almost equal to the "villain" and therefore the change of characteristics of Angel and Alec D'Urberville change in parallel as their differing relationships go on with Tess throughout the book.
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