"Cliff Notes - Tess of the D'urbervilles" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

Huett, Retty Priddle, and Marian. Tess keeps trying to interest
Angel in the other girls whom she's sure are more worthy than
herself. Finally Tess gives in and agrees to marry Angel. Several
times before their wedding she tries to tell him about Alec and her
dead baby, but either Angel won't listen or something happens to
interrupt her confession. On their honeymoon night, the two lovers
trade confessions. When Angel tells Tess of a brief affair he had,
she forgives him. But when Tess tells of her affair with Alec, Angel
refuses to forgive her, even though Tess' affair was far less
deliberate than Angel's. Angel is a romantic idealist and is afraid
that the innocent woman he married isn't the real Tess at all.

Although Angel loves her, as evidenced in a sleepwalking scene in
which he kisses her passionately and carries her in his arms, he's
convinced that they must separate. Tess is heartbroken but bows to
her husband's will. She returns to her parents. Angel goes off to
Brazil, hoping that a foreign culture with different social mores
will change his rigid attitudes. He hopes that someday he and Tess
can live there together.

Tess can't stand living with her family--she feels like a failure and
a nuisance. Leaving them half the money Angel gave her, she sets off
to work on a miserable farm called Flintcomb-Ash, which is as
desolate and infertile as Talbothays was convivial and lush. Marian
works there and Izz joins them. Tess finds out that her beloved
Angel had propositioned Izz and nearly taken her to Brazil as his
mistress. Izz, though willing to go, reminded him that no one could
love him like Tess, and he retracted his offer. This knowledge
convinces Tess that she must approach Angel's parents to try to win
their moral support. She goes to visit them in Emminster but turns
back after overhearing Angel's brothers and Mercy Chant, with whom
Angel had his affair, gossiping about his unfortunate marriage to
Tess. The narrator tells us it's a shame that Tess didn't see
Angel's parents because they are good, compassionate people who would
have sympathized with her and taken her in. Tearfully, she makes her
way back to Flintcomb-Ash and meets Alec d'Urberville, now a
fire-and-brimstone preacher. (Angel's father has converted that
swaggering philanderer into a righteous man.) As soon as Alec sees
Tess he forgets his high ideals and wants her back. This time he
tries to combine duty and desire by asking her to marry him. Of
course Tess refuses--she's already married to Angel. In addition
she'd never consider marrying anyone she didn't love.

Alec becomes obsessed with mastering Tess. He loves her in a very
driven, sensual way that is very different from Angel's spiritual,
unphysical devotion. However, Alec is willing to help Tess and her
family, while Angel can't deal with such practical concerns.

When Tess' parents become ill and her father dies, the Durbeyfields
lose their lease and are out on the streets. Alec again tries to