Unit 5 - Shakespeare and other pre-20th Century Texts
Essay
"Tess of the D'Urbervilles" Thomas Hardy - Essay on Tess and Angel's relationship: doomed from the start?
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Unit 5 - Shakespeare and other pre-20th Century Texts
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CIE
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Tess of the d\'Urbervilles
This essay is graded A* (96%, 24/25) A Level, scoring these marks by its insightful and advanced discussion of Tess and Angel's relationship. Covering a myriad of topics such as reality and the unreal, fate, social criticism and the setting, this essay covers the whole novel with in-depth analysis ...
A* essay on the presentation of happiness in Mrs Dalloway and Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Summary of 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' - A Level English Literature
Tess of the D'urbervilles revision booklet AQA A Level English Lit B
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Unit 5 - Shakespeare and other pre-20th Century Texts
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‘Tess and Angel’s relationship is doomed from the start.’ How far do you agree with this
statement?
Hardy introduces the idea of fate early on – Tess tells Aby they live on a “blighted” planet –
and continues with this idea in Tess’s relationship with Angel, never quite allowing Tess to
lose sight of the “gloomy spectres” taunting her fate even during the happiest period of her
life with Angel Clare at the dairy.
It can be argued Tess and Angel’s relationship is doomed from the start given society’s
input. Their relationship seems deemed to fail from the moment society steps in to play a
part in their relationship, which is right from the start: Tess willingly accepts Dairyman
Crick’s portrayal of Angel - “one thing he do hate more… ‘tis the notion of what’s called a’
old family.” Society almost acts as a third party to the relationship, as a filler of gaps in
communication between them and as a virus tearing them apart from the inside. This occurs
again (society forcefully putting forth its ideals) when the butter goes off - which can be seen
as symbolic of Tess and Angel’s budding relationship -, the workers are invited to “taste for
yourself”. By the way Victorian society functioned, everyone was automatically invited to
share their opinions on personal matters – “one or two of the milking men… Mrs Crick” –
and as Tess and Angel mix different classes together this causes the whole hierarchy to stir
the butter churning pot. Seeing that the butter included all those making it, Hardy may be
implying everyone is involved in Tess and Angel’s relationship given that combining the
classes that Victorians so vicariously fought to conserve as almost separate species was a
threat to all, and to what their social position and outcome would amount to in the end. The
conclusion is: “There certainly was a twang”, sentencing Tess and Angel’s relationship to fail,
as it is unapproved by Victorian society and its standards.
The events at Talbothay’s dairy, Angel and Tess’s original grounds of their relationship,
suggest their relationship was doomed from the start. From the moment the fruit of their
love starts sprouting Hardy makes this clear when the butter, growing from the same soil of
their relationship goes bad, poisoned by “garlic”. This particular plant Hardy selects may be
deliberate given its exotic and foreign properties to best depict Alec D’Urberville as the ruin
of the butter and therefore of Tess’s relationship with Angel. The fact the butter is already
finished and made when they discover the destructive ingredient can reflect the way Tess
does not reveal what will ruin the relationship until Angel is already bound to her in
matrimony. Moreover, the use of light imagery and of supernatural time clauses also works
to confirm their relationship is doomed from the start. This is because their relationship
blooms in the darkness, hidden from reality, safe from society locked in a liminal space, one
which cannot last forever; in the daytime Tess’s “strange and ethereal beauty” morphed
“from those of a divinity to those of a being who craved it”. This vividly illustrates Angel’s
change in his perception of her, blatantly stating Tess loses a part of her beauty and the
“ethereal” magic disappears when confronted by the real world. Another factor at
Talbothay’s dairy souring their destiny is the two women acting as a constant reminder of
the dire consequences which may arise from loving Angel: “Marian was soon snoring, but Izz
did not drop into forgetfulness for a long time. Retty Priddle cried herself to sleep.” These
three reactions foreshadow Tess’s doomed end, no matter which direction she takes,
indicating Tess and Angel’s fated end is already underway.
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