Compare and contrast the characters Essay

Tess of the DUrbervilles, braves iconic novel, centres around the eponymous tragic heroine, Tess. hitherto the tragedies that befall her in the course of the novel would non have occur crimson with off the 2 leading male characters whom Tess encounters. The archetypical is Tesss cousin, Alec DUrberville, whom she low meets in Chapter Five when she adopts to claim kin. Alec becomes infatuated with the sixteen-year-old Tess hardly subsequently he is rebuffed several times, rapes her and leaves her pregnant with his child.The second of these characters is holy person Cl ar, a teenaged man Tess is introduced to at Tal twainays dairy farm where she works as a dairymaid at the age of twenty. nonpareil and Tess fall in distinguish, except their romance is b elucidationed by the shadow of Tesss past. On first off reading, nonsuch and Alec may commandm to be very different, save unless analysis may prove that these custody are more kindred than previously seen. Alexander DUrberville is written to be the complete antithesis of ideal Clare.Alec is rich, powerful and lazy, everything that nonesuch despises about the old families. Even the name of the characters echo their personalities. Alexander brings to mind great noblemen, such as Alexander the Great, but the fact that the diminutive, Alec, is almost always used, suggests that perhaps the man has non lived up to the name. His surname at least sounds impressive, and the fact that it contains some of the title of the loudness seems to bestow a degree of importance.However, as the subscriber finds out simply before Alec is introduced, the DUrberville family dont actually have a claim to their name it was an old ancestor who simply annexed the surname DUrberville in order to sound more genteel and more impressive. Thus, on meeting Alec DUrberville for the first time, we see him straightaway as a fake, an imposter. Unlike with Alec, whose name precedes him and tells us about his reputation befo re he so far meets Tess, saint Clare is introduced very early on in the book, in Chapter One, but as a nameless student.He joins in the orbit girls dance and partners everyone but Tess, who then stares reproachfully subsequently him. During this encounter, we find out nothing about this young man except that he has not chosen a path like his brothers, insofar when Angel is officially introduced in Chapter Seventeen, the reader straightaway knows who he is before he even gives his name. Angel, an unusual choice of first name for a male, tag him out straightaway as a hero, a harbinger of good, the light to Alecs dark.Clare, as well, suggests light, brightness, clarity. However, does Hardy set up Angel as the correct hero save to destroy this fai?? ade later on? Alec is preceded by his name as this brings an ominous shadow to his later dealings with Tess, but Angel is followed by his name. His nameless presence re importants in twain Tesss and the readers mind until we see him again he is marked out by his intelligence and his willingness to involve himself in rural area life, rather than his beautiful name. Hardy describes Alecs appearance very vividly.His red and smooth lips bring the first hints of sexuality and eroticism to Tesss life, eyepatch his well-groomed black moustache with curled engineers implies he pays a lot of management to aesthetics and appearances, which is confirmed when he continually refers to Tess as my Beauty and gives her dish antenna as the reason for his passion for her, rather than her innate qualities. Hardy uses plosives when describing Alec for the first time (lips, badly, points) to emphasise the singular force and violent, aggressive nature of the character.The contrast Hardy drops among Alecs full moustache and his comparatively young age suggests that Alec is using his moustache as a smokescreen to disguise his lack of maturity and experience his self-assured, superior manner helps him put up power over Tess, bu t he has had little experience in the area of love and affection and whence is unsuccessful at win Tess. He is worldly and superior in many aspects, but emotionally he is still immature. Hardy also makes reference to the touches of barbarism in Alecs face.Throughout Phase the First, we see how Alec falls from his aristocratic side in his efforts to make Tess love him he curses, swears, forces himself upon her, cries and begs, simply to try and make her feel for him. The barbaric aspects of his countenance also reflect the contrast amid his higher loving position and his base morals, showing an even great difference between Angels idealised morality notwithstanding his turn away class, and between Alecs self-degradation and lack of self-control in ill will of his higher status.An interesting point is that Hardys vivid comment of Alec paints him very similarly to the Devil. At that time, as Hardy himself makes reference to in Chapter Fourteen, Christian children were taught quaint and curious ideas about religion, leading to common optical stereotypes such as that of Satan with his horns and moustache. Even the colours used, such as red and black, are reminiscent of the Devil, drawing a not-too-subtle contrast between this and Angel. Unlike Alec, who has been described so vividly that almost every reader pictures him in the same way, Angel is described in a vaguer manner. turn some of Alecs outward characteristics are linked to his behaviour, Hardy only veryly mentions them in passing, as the pace of the story is fairly readily here, as if Hardy is eager to get to Tesss first supervene upon with Alec. At Chapter Eighteen, however, the pace has slowed considerably to make room for the new main character, and so most of this chapter is given over to describing Angel and his history. Angels description is linked more to his personality and behaviour, and this vagueness of description also emphasises how Angel is nebulous, preoccupied, vaguehad no very definite aim or touch about his material future. In contrast to the plosives used when describing Alec, a lot of sibilance is used in the paragraph describing Angel (past apparent as appreciative voice fixed, abstracted eyes somewhat too small and so on) which not only adds to the vague haziness surround his future prospects, or emphasises our and Tesss knowledge of him as a depot only, but hints at a gentle, placid, soft nature in tutelage with his namesake.However, there are signs that perhaps Angels nature is not as consistent as it seems the juxtaposition of fixed and abstracted as well as the description of his mouth as both handsome and firm suggest contradiction, if not hypocrisy, in his nature. The masculinity of both characters comes low question while Alecs apparent masculinity is undermined by his unvaried attention to aesthetics and his aversion to any form of manual(a)(a) work, Angels is enhanced by his apparent firmness, a trait set in Victorian husbands and fathers at the time.The posture to country folk and manual work is something that divides the two men significantly. Alec, as a gentleman, has never through a days work in his life. He has immoderate free time to spend watching Tess attempting to whistle and looking after the birds. In fact, our first image of Alec is of him standing lazily at the admission smoking his cigar, while our first real image of Angel is when he is milking a cow. Additionally, Alec looks down on Tesss social class. Although he sends the Durbeyfield family gifts, his motives are purely romanticist, and he sees himself as a noble beneficiary, helping those lower than himself.His attitudes towards the country folk are shown perfectly when, in Chapter Ten, he addresses the assort of country workers as work-folk, showing he considers them useful only for manual labour and of lower intelligence than himself. He defines them by what they do, rather than what they are. Angel, on the other hand, steps down from his initial family pathway due to his beliefs, and does not consider himself above the workers at Talbothays who are of a lower social standing than him.Hardy deliberately describes how Angels mindset and attitude revision over time at first, it is natural that Clare sees the new union in which he lives as strange, undignified, retrogressive and unmeaning, yet as he becomes part of the household, a change put ins place. Suddenly he realises that each member of the dairy is just as uniquely gay as he is, with their own memories and dreams, and this is what Alec fails to realise.The latter never treats Tess as anything shut to his own intelligence, treating her like a child, while Angel learns to treat every man or woman as an equal, not an inferior. This is reflected in his change in sentiment towards where he lives not only does he cause to like the outdoor life for its own sake, but he forms an attachment to the dairy and the people living and working there. Alec, however, s corns Tess when she becomes emotional at seeing the village where she was innate(p), remarking unsympathetically that we must all be born somewhere.In keeping with Hardys Romantic leanings, Angel is portrayed as more feeling and more appreciative of his surroundings, which is exacerbated when he falls in love with Tess and starts to see her as a girlfriend of Nature rather than separate from his surroundings. In a story where something as simple as a name changes Tesss life forever, it is adequate that both mens attitudes and feelings towards Tess are shown perfectly through the names they use for her. As aforementioned, Alec focuses only on Tesss appearance, continually transaction her my Beauty or my graceful.When he uses her name, it is in the diminutive (Tessy), deprecating her even more than he normally does. However when his mood towards her changes, as it so often does, his names for her change to mere chit, fall back Independence and young witch, simultaneously scornin g and patronising her disobedience. Angel, on the other hand, calls Tess Artemis, Demeter, and other fanciful names half-teasingly. These names, stemming from classical mythology, show Angel to be more educated, imaginative and creative than Alec, and represent Tess as a beautiful embodiment of pure womankind, not just a pretty maid to be wooed.These names show how high a bag Angel has placed Tess upon, and how he associates her completely and fully with the natural world, as both these goddesses represent aspects of nature or hunting. It is important to note, though, that Tess implores him to use her real name, signifying that at this point, Angel does not know Tess for who she really is (or her full history) and therefore uses these names because of the idealised way in which he sees her. An interesting point is that both characters are required to save Tess at some point, and that both characters take advantage of Tesss vulnerability to fulfil their own romantic motives.At first , Alec appears to be Tesss knight in shining armour, come to rescue her from the angry Car Darch, but he rides off into The Chase, unknown to Tess, and uses the opportunity to rape her. Angel, on the other hand, carries all terzetto of Tesss friends and then Tess herself across the river, ostensibly to help them to get to church. Hardy emphasises the violator and romance of this guess in contrast to the sinister tone of the scene in The Chase, reinforced by the fact that the events in the woods take place at the dead of night while the scene at the river is in broad daylight.Alec purposefully rides off in the wrong anxiety while Tess believes he is taking her home, and Angel actually tells Tess that he has undergone three quarters of this labour entirely for the fourth quarter. Both men use Tesss predicament to be alone with her, but the chance on difference is that Alec goes ahead and forces himself upon the fragile and terrified Tess, while Angel remembers that he was somew hat unfairly taking advantage of an accidental position and he went no further with it. Angel treats Tess with reverence and respect, while Alec believes he has a right to Tesss maidenhood. Throughout the first part of the book, it is clear to see that Hardy makes very obvious differentiations between Alec and Angel. Both represent concentrated influences on Tess, even after they leave her life, but Alec corrupts and ruins her while Angel later on even takes the place of a deity in her eyes.However, both men are only human, and throughout the rest of the novel, Hardy goes on to show that despite their differences, both characters have an equally ruinous impact on Tesss life. Both offer to protect and love her, but in the end, both abandon her, believing themselves superior in intellect and character. It could be argued, therefore, that Hardys overall aim is not to show how dissimilar Angel and Alec are, but to show how neither of them rightfully cares for Tess when she needs them to, leading to her downfall.