What Are The Foil Characters In Tess Of The D Urbervilles

In Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy portrays Angel Clare and Alec D’Urberville as polar opposites of one another. These two foil characters are put in very similar situations, but they behave in very different manners. Alec simply wants to be with Tess because of physical desires, while Angel truly cares for Tess in the beginning of the story. Hardy juxtaposes these two characters and the way they act in order to show how different they are. During this time period, there would have been a set of moral guidelines that so-called “gentlemen” were supposed to follow based on the ideals of chivalry. Angel saw himself above this code, while Hardy portrays Alec beneath this code. These roles seem to reverse though, as Angel abandons Tess, …show more content…
When Alec first meets Tess he advances on her without her consent from the moment that they first meet, as he wants her to put her “arms round [his] waist” (55). He then wants to be able to “put a little kiss on [her] holmberry lips” (55). This initial tone sets the precedent for when he eventually rapes Tess. Alec’s sly and sinful actions show that Hardy is trying to depict Alec as someone who does not live up to the societal standards that gentlemen are supposed to follow. Alec views Tess as an object, and he doesn’t really love her for who she is as a …show more content…
This was the time of the onset of the Industrial revolution, and in this novel Hardy romanticizes peasantry and the days before the advent of machinery. By showing the changing morality of Alec and Angel throughout the story, Hardy is saying that societal values are changing as well in the real world. Alec loves Tess for her body and he objectifies her, though he makes an effort to become a better person by the end of the story. Angel, on the other hand, loves the idea of Tess and her purity more than he loves the person that she is. By showing this, Hardy is arguing that in the new society that is forming, the virtues of human relationship and connection are becoming weaker and less profound. He is saying that the world is changing into a place where individuality is becoming less commonplace and the human element is being lost. Tess of the D’Urbervilles is a cautionary tale in this sense, as it warns of a society where the moral rules are being rewritten in a way where the difference between good and evil are becoming much more nebulous, and where people are losing their ability to fully feel emotion and