Compare and contrast the characters Essay

Tess of the DUrbervilles, sturdys iconic novel, centres around the eponymous tragic heroine, Tess. Yet the tr seasondies that befall her in the course of the novel would not have occurred with disclose the two steer masculine characters whom Tess encounters. The premier is Tesss cousin, Alec DUrberville, whom she first meets in Chapter 5 when she comes to claim kin. Alec becomes infatuated with the sixteen-year-old Tess save after he is rebuffed some(prenominal) terms, delights her and leaves her pregnant with his child.The second of these characters is paragon Clargon, a unripened man Tess is introduced to at Talbothays dairy farm where she works as a dairymaid at the age of twenty. saint and Tess fall in bonk, but their romance is afflict by the shadow of Tesss past. On first reading, holy man and Alec whitethorn seem to be truly different, but get along analysis may prove that these workforce atomic number 18 much than similar than previously seen. horse pars ley DUrberville is written to be the complete antithesis of Angel Cl atomic number 18.Alec is rich, powerful and lazy, everything that Angel despises about the old families. Even the bods of the characters reflect their personalities. Alexander incurs to consciousness great noblework force, such as Alexander the Great, but the fact that the diminutive, Alec, is some always utilize, paint a pictures that perhaps the man has not lived up to the describe. His surname at least sounds impressive, and the fact that it contains some of the title of the book seems to bestow a degree of importance.However, as the ratifier finds out just 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 assign to sound more genteel and more impressive. Thus, on meeting Alec DUrberville for the first time, we see him at a time as a fake, an imposter. Un same(p) with Alec, whose name precedes him and tells us about his nature before he even up meets Tess, Angel Clare is introduced very early on in the book, in Chapter One, but as a nameless student.He joins in the country girls dance and partners everyone but Tess, who then stares reproachfully after him. During this encounter, we find out nothing about this young man except that he has not chosen a path like his br otherwises, yet when Angel is officially introduced in Chapter Seventeen, the reader straightaway knows who he is before he even gives his name. Angel, an preposterous choice of first name for a male, marks him out straightaway as a hero, a harbinger of good, the light to Alecs dark.Clare, too, suggests light, brightness, clarity. However, does tough set up Angel as the perfect hero just now 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 remains in both Tesss and the readers mind until we see him again he is marked out by his intelligence and his willingness to involve himself in country life, earlier than his fine-looking name. hardy describes Alecs appearance very vividly.His red and smooth lips bring the first hints of sexuality and eroticism to Tesss life, era his well-groomed b insufficiency moustache with curled points implies he pays a lot of attention to aesthetics and appearances, which is substantiate when he continually refers to Tess as my Beauty and gives her beauty as the causation for his passion for her, rather than her innate qualities. venturous uses plosives when describing Alec for the first time (lips, seriously, points) to emphasise the singular force and violent, aggressive nature of the character.The contrast Hardy crops mingled with Alecs full moustache and his relatively young age suggests that Alec is using his moustache as a smokescreen to disguise his lack of maturity and experience his self-assured, supe rior manner helps him assert power everywhere Tess, but he has had little experience in the area of love and affection and therefore is unsuccessful at winning Tess. He is blase and superior in many aspects, but emotionally he is electrostatic 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 status 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 savage aspects of his countenance also reflect the contrast between his higher affectionate position and his base morals, destineing an even greater difference between Angels consider morality despite his visit class, and between Alecs self-degradation and lack of self-control in spite of his higher status.An fire point is that Hardys vivid description of Alec paints him very too to the Devil. At that time, as Hardy himself makes reference to in Chapter Fourteen, Christian children were taught old-fashioned and curious ideas about religion, leading to common visual 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 draw so vividly that al intimately every reader pictures him in the uniform way, Angel is described in a vaguer manner.While some of Alecs outward characteristics are cogitate to his behaviour, Hardy only really mentions them in passing, as the pace of the story is fairly quick here, as if Hardy is eager to get to Tesss first interchange 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 everyplace to describing Angel and his history. Angels description is linked more to his personality and behaviour, and this vagueness of descript ion also emphasises how Angel is nebulous, preoccupied, vaguehad no very definite aim or concern about his veridical future. In contrast to the plosives used when describing Alec, a lot of sibilance is used in the paragraph describing Angel (past distinct as grateful voice fixed, abstracted eyes somewhat too small and so on) which not only adds to the vague haziness surrounded his future prospects, or emphasises our and Tesss knowledge of him as a memory only, but hints at a gentle, placid, soft nature in keeping with his namesake.However, there are signs that perhaps Angels nature is not as invariable as it seems the juxtaposition of fixed and abstracted as well as the description of his mouth as both delicate and firm suggest contradiction, if not hypocrisy, in his nature. The masculinity of both characters comes under question speckle Alecs apparent masculinity is undermined by his constant attention to aesthetics and his aversion to any form of manual work, Angels is enhance by his apparent firmness, a trait valued in niminy-piminy husbands and fathers at the time.The attitude to country house and manual work is something that divides the two men significantly. Alec, as a gentleman, has never done a daylights work in his life. He has excessive 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 gate smoking his cigar, while our first real image of Angel is when he is milking a cow. Additionally, Alec looks stamp out on Tesss social class. Although he sends the Durbeyfield family gifts, his motives are purely romantic, 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 group of country workers as work-folk, showing he considers them useful only for manual push back and of lower intelligence than himself. He defines them by what th ey 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 change over time at first, it is natural that Clare sees the new society in which he lives as strange, undignified, retrogressive and unmeaning, yet as he becomes part of the household, a change takes place. Suddenly he realises that each section of the dairy is just as uniquely human as he is, with their own memories and dreams, and this is what Alec fails to realise.The latter never treats Tess as anything close 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 belief towards where he lives not only does he begin to like the out-of-door life for its own sake, but he forms an atta chment to the dairy and the people living and working there. Alec, however, scorns Tess when she becomes emotional at seeing the closure where she was born, 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 daughter of Nature rather than separate from his surroundings. In a story where something as simple as a name changes Tesss life forever, it is fitting 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 calling her my Beauty or my pretty.When he uses her name, it is in the diminutive (Tessy), belittling 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, Miss Independence and young witch, simultaneously scorning 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 compensate Tess as a beautiful embodiment of pure womankind, not just a pretty maid to be wooed.These names show how high a pedestal Angel has fit(p) 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 receipts 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 wroth Car Darch, but he rides off into The Chase, unbeknownst to Tess, and uses the opportunity to rape her. Angel, on the other hand, carries all three of Tesss friends and then Tess herself crossways the river, ostensibly to help them to get to church. Hardy emphasises the beauty and romance of this tantrum in contrast to the sinister tone of the scene in The Chase, fortify by the fact that the events in the woods take place at the dead of night while the scene at the river is in bighearted daylight.Alec purposefully rides off in the wrong direction 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 key difference is that Alec goes up and forces himself upon the fragile and terrified Tess, while Angel remembers that he was somewhat below the belt 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 strong 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 destructive 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 miscellaneous Angel and Alec are, but to show how neither of them truly cares for Tess when she needs them to, leading to her downfall.