Tess Durbeyfield

Tess is smart and charming. She is famous for her profound moral sensitivity and strong enthusiasm. She is undoubtedly the central figure in the novel named after her. But she is not just a unique individual: Hardy makes her a bit like a mythical heroine. Her name, official Teresa, is reminiscent of Saint Teresa of Avila, another martyr. Her longing for a higher reality cost her life. Other characters often refer to Tess in mythical terms. For example, in Chapter 18, Angel calls her "the daughter of nature", or in Chapter 20, he refers to her with the Greek mythical names "Al themis" and "Demeter". The narrator herself sometimes describes Tess not only as an independent woman, but as a mythical incarnation of a woman. In chapter 14, he said that her eyes were "neither black nor blue nor gray nor purple; More precisely, all these tones together, "like" an almost standard woman. Therefore, Tess's story may be a "standard" story, representing a deeper and broader experience than a single person.

To some extent, Tess represents the change of the role of British agricultural workers in the late 19th century. Tess received the education that her parents who didn't go to school lacked, because she had passed the sixth grade standard of the national school, so she didn't adapt to her predecessor's folk culture, but financial difficulties prevented her from rising to a higher position in life. However, she belongs to that higher world. As we found on the first page of the novel, the Durbeyfield family is the surviving member of the ancient D 'Urberville family. Tess has a noble temperament in her blood, which is obvious in her elegant beauty-but she is forced to work as a farm worker and a milkmaid. At the beginning of the third part of the novel, when she tried to express her joy by singing the folk songs of the lower class, they didn't satisfy her-she didn't seem to adapt to those popular songs. However, on the other hand, her diction, though more elegant than her mother's, has not reached the level of Alec or Angel. She is in between socially and culturally. Therefore, in 19th century England, Tess symbolized the ambiguous and unstable class concept. There, the ancient family still maintains its early charm, but the cold economic reality makes pure wealth more important than inner nobility.

In addition to her social symbol, Tess also represents the degraded human beings in the religious sense, as the frequent biblical allusions in the novel remind us. Just as Tess's family used to be brilliant and powerful, but now it is sadly declining, so the early glory of the first human beings Adam and Eve faded with their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, making human beings their tragic shadow. Therefore, Tess represents the so-called original sin in Christian theology, that is, all people live in a degenerate state, even if they are not fully or directly responsible for their crimes, just like Tess herself after killing the prince or succumbing to Alec. This kind of torture represents the most common aspect of Tess: she is a myth of a person who suffers because of no crime of her own and lives a more depraved life than she deserves.

Alec d 'Urberville

A careless 24-year-old man, the heir to a fortune, and the holder of the name bought by his father, Alec is the nemesis and downfall in Tess's life. His name, Alexander, implies that conquerors-such as Alexander the Great-took what he wanted regardless of moral etiquette. However, he is more cunning than a great conqueror. His full name is Stoke D 'Urberville, which symbolizes the split character of his family. The origin of this family is much simpler than their pretensions to greatness. After all, Stokes is a blunt and indecent name. In fact, Alec's split and duplicity are obvious. At the end of the novel, when he quickly gave up his newly discovered Christian faith, he met Tess. It's hard to believe that Alec sincerely believes in his religion or anything else. His so-called transformation may be just a new role he plays.

This duplicity is so strong in Alec, and the consequences for Tess are so serious that he becomes evil. The first part of his surname is reminiscent of blazing energy, such as the burning of a stove or the flames of hell. In the early days of the novel, when he talks to Tess waving a pitchfork, and when he seduces her like a snake seduces Eve in Genesis, his evil association is obvious. Besides, like Milton's famous depiction of Satan in Paradise Lost, Alec did not try to hide his bad qualities. In fact, like Satan, he is intoxicated with it. In chapter 12, he tells Tess bluntly, "I think I'm a bad guy-a damn bad guy." I was born bad, I live bad, and I am likely to die bad. " There is frank acceptance in this recognition, and there is no shame. Some readers think Alec is too evil to be trusted, but, like Tess herself, he represents a bigger moral principle rather than a real individual. Like Satan, Alec symbolizes the basic life force that drives a person away from moral perfection and greatness.

Angel Clare

Angel is a free-thinking son, born in a family of rural priests, determined to become a farmer instead of going to Cambridge like his conservative brother. He represents a rebellious effort against his beautiful vision. He is a secularist, eager to work for "the honor and glory of mankind", as he told his father in Chapter 18, rather than for the honor and glory of God in a more distant world. As a typical19th century progressive youth, Angel believes that human society needs to be reformed and improved, and he firmly believes in the nobility of human beings. He refused the values given to him by others and began to look for his own values. His love for Tess is a manifestation of his contempt for tradition. Tess is just a milkmaid and her social status is lower than him. This independent spirit contributes to his charm and aura of overall attraction, making him the love object of all the milkmaids who work with him in Seth, Thepot.

As his name-in French, close to "bright angel"-implies, the angel does not belong to this world completely, but floats on his own transcendental field. The narrator says that the angel shines rather than burns, and he is closer to Shelley, a sensible and indifferent poet, than Byron, a physical and passionate poet. His love for Tess may be abstract, just as we guess he called her "the daughter of nature" or "Demeter". For him, Tess is not so much a woman with a complicated life as a prototype or ideal. Angel's ideal of human purity is too lofty to be applied to real life: Mrs Durbeyfield's easy-going moral beliefs are easier to adapt to real life, such as Tess. After Brazil's failure, Angel realized the actual complexity of real-world morality, and only then did he realize that he was unfair to Tess. When he returned to reality, his moral system was readjusted. Ironically, in this novel, it is not angels who guide human beings, but human beings who instruct angels, although at the cost of her own life.

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