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Introduction
Angel Clare is the hero of Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Our first interest in the novel is the tender love between Tess and Clare. He is out of the ordinary run of human nature. He seems to be a bloodless figure or a different proposition when he is compared with Tess Durbeyfield. This is so, because he is a bundle of contrasting opposites or contradictions. In spite of all these things he is often credited to have considerable reality about his character. This is because of the fact that Thomas Hardy has put into Angel Clare a certain amount of himself also. Like Thomas Hardy, he has no very definite aim or concern about his material future. Like his own creator, Angel Clare has broken away from the simple Christianity under the influence of modern skepticism. He owes his pagan outlook on life due to Hardy’s study of the ancient writers like Sophocles and Aeschylus. He holds unorthodox views even when he is a product of conventional morality. With all his independent judgment this advanced young man is yet the slave to custom and conventionality. When we analyse his character with considerable care, we find that he has a double standard of morality also.
Angel is an intruder into the Essex country life and is presented as a human being set apart from those around him. He is no longer comfortable with his clerical family because his semi-emancipated thinking has alienated him from their single-minded approach to life. He joins the agricultural community to prepare for his future life as a farmer, but he is treated as a temporary visitor who will soon be going on to a grander life.
In this novel, he is second to none save Tess so far as importance in the novel is concerned. He is the most impressive male character in the novel. After his brief appearance in the first phase of the novel, when he did not dance with Tess, he reappears in the third phase at the Talbothays dairy-farm. From now onwards the main interest of the novel is the tender love between Tess and Angel Clare. The love gradually develops between them. The other women working at Talbothays had lost their heart for Angel. Marian loved Angel, Retty loved him; Izz Huett loved him. This gave greater sharpness to the love affair between Tess and Angel. Hardy describes this situation in the following words: “Tess’s heart ached. There was no concealing from herself the fact that she loved Angel Clare, perhaps all the more passionately from knowing that the others have also lost their hearts to him. There is a contagion in this sentiment, especially among women.” Like Hardy, Angel Clare has broken away from the simple Christianity under the influence of Modern skepticism. He owes his pagan outlook on life due to Hardy’s study of the ancient writers like Sophocles and Aeschylus. He holds unorthodox views even when he is a product of conventional morality. With all his independent judgment. This advanced young man is yet the slave to custom and conventionality. When we analyse his character with considerable care, we find that he has a double standard of morality also.
His Personality and Tastes
Angel Clare is a promising young man with a distinct personality. He is refined in his manners, graceful in his behavior and frank in his utterances. Tess thinks that “every line in the contour of his person” is “the perfection of masculine beauty, his soul the soul of a saint, his intellect that of a seer.” He is more spiritual than animal and is singularly free from grossness. His spirituality eclipses his humanity also. But he is a man with conscience even when he is not free from faults and weaknesses. He has a taste for music. He appreciates Tess’s tender and fluty voice. His eyes shine with the light of intelligence, he is an idealist in theory. He lives in the world of his own fancies and visions. He is an egoist, for he stands firmly on and gives, supreme importance to his own opinions, thoughts and principles—A principle is a principle. He sticks to it without caring for the woe or weal of others. Indeed Angle Clare is an embodiment of nobility, goodness, idealism, brilliance and aesthetic sensibility.
We get a quick glance at Angel Clare quite early in the novel. He is the youngest of all the three brothers who has inscribed and uncombined aspect in their eyes and attire. The second time we see him is through the eyes of Tess, when he is a youth and has completely changed. He is now twenty-six and has an unexpectedly firm close of the lower lip. There is a certain degree of determination in him. Tess thinks that “every line in the contour of his person” is “the perfection of masculine beauty, his soul, the soul of a saint, his intellect that of a seer.” Further on, Hardy has described him as having, “a long regard of fixed, abstracted eyes, and a mobility of mouth somewhat too small and delicately lined for a man’s though with an unexpectedly firm close of the lower lip now and then, enough to do away with any suggestion of indecision. Nevertheless, something nebulous, preoccupied, vague, in his bearing and regard, marked him as one who probably had not very definite aim or concern about his material future.” When he appears before us, he is gay and sportive, refined in manners, graceful in his behavior and frank in his utterances. He is a promising young man and about him people said—when he was a lad— that he, “might do anything if he tried.’
Angel unlike his brothers has not taken a university degree but has a wide taste for reading. He has spent some years of his life in desultory reading. He reads all types of books. Once in his boyhood, he ordered a book dealing with a system of philosophy. This shocked his father as the book did not square with his religious views. He also has a taste for music. He appreciates Tess’s tender and fluty voice. His eyes shine with the light of intelligence. He is often seen playing on his harp in his spare time. We are told that, “One day Hoover, when he had been coming out of his music-scores, and by force of imagination was hearing the tune in his head, he lapsed into listlessness, and the music sheet rolled to the hearth.”
His Nature
Angel Clare is a creature of the intellect with all its limitations. A hard logical deposit runs through his mental constitution, like a vein of metal in a soft loam which turns the edge of everything that attempts to traverse it. We should not confuse this hard logical deposit with a logical habit of mind. He is incapable of logical thinking. He is a sinner like Tess, but he fails to reason out that being a sinner himself he has no right to punish her for her sin. He thinks that her case is quite different from his case so forgiveness does not apply to it.
He mistakes physical impurity for personal. He fails to convince us with his reasons for deserting Tess. He is a pure spirit of intellect, for he is like a statue of frozen air. At the first sound of whisper of sin, he grows colder and harder than a stone. This whisper makes him as merciless as the winter sky is. He lacks not animalism but imagination. Animalism he has in plenty. He shows it when one morning he presses Tess to fix the date of wedding or embraces her while she is milking a cow. He is both emotional and impulsive to a fault. This impulsiveness is one of the tragic qualities of Angel Clare. It is only under a fit of impulsive emotions that he deserts his wife. But he is capable of self-control also. While living at Talbothays he is loved by four young women, but he faces these onslaughts of cupid successfully and well. When his emotions cool down, he realizes his follies and rectifies his mistakes. He is conscious of certain moral superiority or great purity which he thinks is present in his character. Though he mixes with the milk-maids and ordinary shepherds, yet he suffers from what is called superiority complex. He pretends to be broad-minded and unorthodox man, but he is a narrow-minded person. He is a product of conventional morality. The clouds of his unorthodox views fail to stand against the wind of his orthodox views of whose presence he is not aware.
Angel considers himself a man of judgment, but his principles can be thrust aside when it suits his purpose. His reactions to old families illustrate this attribute. We are told he sees something sad in the extinction of a family of renown, but feels that wisdom and virtue should win respect rather than illustrious ancestors. Yet he rejoices when he realizes that Tess is a d’Urberville the simple, country girl comes from a more illustrious family than his own or those of his friends.
After he learns that she is not a virgin, her family becomes a handle to despise her more. He reproaches himself for not forsaking her as soon as he found out about her ancestor's infidelity to his principles. After his experiences in Brazil when once again he can look upon Tess favorably her historic family touches his sentiments and he sees it as an inconsequential accident.
His Outlook on Life and Religion
Angel Clare is a wayward child of nature. He loves liberty and hates to follow the common run or the beaten track. He is impelled by a sort of the Bohemian tendency, so he wants not to take orders but to become a farmer. He has a certain deep-seated aversion for the town life. His long association with the countryside has made him fond of the village life. In this respect he is like Hardy himself. He is unorthodox so far his religion is concerned, but he loves and respects the Church just as one loves his parents. He admires the history of Christianity. While speaking of his religious faith before his own father, he says that his “whole instinct in matters of religion is towards reconstruction. He wants to remove the shaken things so that the unshaken ones may continue after them. He thinks that it might have resulted far better for mankind if Greece had been the source of the religion of modern civilization. In this case, it is because of his independent attitude he is indifferent to social usages, forms, customs and observances. He dislikes to the point of hatred the material distinctions of rank and wealth. That is why he prefers Tess to Mercy Chant. Angel Clare is a pagan in his outlook on life and is in his nature like the ancient Greeks for he loves and worships beauty in all its forms. Like Keats, he loves beauty both of form and of sound manhood. These aesthetic sensibilities show that Angel Clare is a romantic youth for whom Tess is a rosy apparition. He allows his mind to be occupied with her. He shows a philosopher’s regard for this fresh and interesting model of womanhood.
Clare believes in holding a religious belief not because it is held by everyone. His father wants him to take orders and join the Church, but from within he is not convinced of its practices. “Since you have alluded to the matter, father, I should like to say, once for all, that I should prefer not to take orders. I fear I could not conscientiously do so. I love the Church as one loves a parent. I shall always have the warmest affection for. her. There is no institution for whose history I have a deeper admiration; but I cannot honestly be ordained her minister, as my brothers are, while she refuses to liberate her mind from an untenable redemptive theology.”
His Loving Nature
This respectful son of Mr. and Mrs. Clare is a loving husband also. He is an idealist in his love affair. When we study this side of his character we find that he is rather bright than hot, less Byronic than Shelleyan. His love is inclined to the imaginative and ethereal. It does not bum but it shines with a sort of spiritual light. With him, the bodily presence is less appealing than the bodily absence. He falls in love with Tess, for he feels that she is perfectly pure and chaste. Once he is disappointed in this respect his cold fastidious nature makes him desert her. He does so for he lacks practical wisdom and first-hand knowledge of the world.
In his love, he can easily be compared with any Shakespearean lover. The girl he does not love, he is clearly able to tell her that he cannot marry her and one, whom he loves, he leaves not until she agrees to marry. He loves Tess dearly and passionately, though perhaps “rather ideally and fancifully than with the impassioned thoroughness of her feeling for him.” About his love for Tess, Hardy says, “It was for herself that he loved Tess; her soul, her heart, her substance—not for her skill in the dairy, her aptness as his scholar, and certainly not for her simple formal faith in professions.” In fact, his love for her is more spiritual than animal and is singularly free from any grossness. But the same man deserts her when he knows that she has been seduced by Alec. This shows that he is not constant in his love. But this consistency in love is short-lived. He realizes his mistake and returns to her but for late.
His Weaknesses
There are a number of weaknesses in his character. It is because of these weaknesses that Angel of Tess is not the Angel of her happiness. That is why it is Angel and not Alec who is the real poison in the life of poor Tess. The most important point of his weakness is his emotional and impulsive nature. He deserts Tess in a fit of emotional excitement. It is because of his breeding, heredity and environment that he has become a man with the conscience. This conscience is nothing but a conventional instinct which has taken the shape of a rigid principle. He does not break this principle even at the cost of deserting his wife. It is because of his cold factitious nature that he suffers from a superiority in respect of impurity even when he is a sinner like Tess herself. It is due to this theoretical high-mindedness that he mistakes physical impurity of Tess for her personal sin. He lacks a logical habit of mind, so he thinks that he should not forgive Tess for her forced seduction. He fails to convince us with his reasons for deserting Tess. The novelist refers to the presence of a hard logical deposit in him. This thing works like a metal lying hidden in the loam. It turns the edge of everything that traverses it. That is why Tess fails to appeal to him with her arguments. Tess suffers at the hands of his morbid idealism also. He is a slave of custom and conventionality even when he claims to have unorthodox modern views. This thing accounts for his estrangement from Tess. Alee causes a wound to her, but this wound is almost healed after the death of Sorrow, but the wound caused by Angel Clare is fatal. It is caused by his strange behavior. It is lie who turns this wound to an unendurable agony. Tess loves him with her soul and she dies for his love alone. This love is her life. All these things prove the fact that it is not Alee but Angel who makes the life of Tess miserable. Angel is not the Angel of her happiness. Indeed he is the real poison in the life of Tess. She suffers mainly due to these weaknesses of his character. That is why Angel Clare embodies the tragedy of intellect as Tess stands for the tragedy of soul.
Undoubtedly Angel Clare suffers from a number of weaknesses in his character. In fact, he falls from his evangelic heights when he refuses to forgive Tess and thus turning the real poison in Tess’s life. It is here that his super-humanism vanishes and he looks even lower than an ordinary liberal man. The grave weakness of nature that he suffers from is his emotional and impulsive nature. He deserts Tess in a fit of emotional excitement. His strong conscience which has been endowed upon him by his parents is nothing but the acceptance of rigid principles. He applies double standards of morality. He himself is guilty of moral lapse, and yet he would not forgive Tess for something for which she was not responsible. Thus, Tess fails to appeal to his morbid idealism. Though he claims to have modern, unorthodox views but actually he is a slave to custom and conventionality.
As a Lover
In his love, he can easily be compared with any Shakespearean lover. The girl he does not love, he is clearly able to tell her that he cannot marry her and one, whom he loves, he leaves not until she agrees to marry. He loves Tess dearly and passionately, though perhaps “rather ideally and fancifully than with the impassioned thoroughness of her feeling for him.” About his love for Tess, Hardy says, “It was for herself that he loved Tess; her soul, her heart, her substance—not for her skill in the dairy, her aptness as his scholar, and certainly not for her simple formal faith in professions.” In fact, his love for her is more spiritual than animal and is singularly free from any grossness. But the same man deserts her when he knows that she has been seduced by Alec. This shows that he is not constant in his love. But this consistency in love is short-lived. He realizes his mistake and returns to her but for late.
His Morality
In spite of the fact that Clare himself is guilty of an immoral act. He had himself been entrapped by a woman older than himself, and led the life of a dissolute for forty-eight hours. Though he escaped but he had been guilty of the same moral crime of which Tess became a victim. But still, he does not follow the same principles of morality while judging Tess. He does blame himself for the same crime but he cannot excuse Tess. He feels that if a woman loses her physical chastity, she is not entitled to lead an honorable life but in the case of man, it does not matter whether he is physically chaste or not. Hence, Tess forgives him for his unchastity but he is unable to do so to Tess. His double standards of morality, one for man and the other for woman blinds him from seeing the situation dispassionately. Thus, a pure woman like Tess is deserted by him because of his weak morality.
Dislike of Town Life
Angel Clare has a real dislike of town life. Once he was in London, he had a very unfortunate experience, he was carried off his head and nearly trapped by a woman much older than himself. Hardy bringing out his dislike for town life says. “Early association with country solitudes had bred in him an unconquerable, and almost unreasonable aversion to modern town life. He likes nature and watches the phenomena of nature closely—the seasons in their woods, morning and evening, night and noon, winds in their different tempers, inanimate things. We are told, “he became wonderfully free from the chronic melancholy which is taking hold of the civilized, races with the decline of belief in a beneficent power.” Living among the dairy folks he began to love them.
A Philosopher
Angel Clare feels that God is only a name to utter. Though he respects the Church as one does one’s parents yet he takes the chanting of services a mere wastage of time. His whole religion is humanity and he thinks that the whole humanity suffers at the hands of some irresistible force. He also feels that life is a period where there is no pleasure. There is darkness all around. There is no beam of light for the guidance of humanity. If at all God is there, he himself then wants the destruction of mankind. But inspite of his revolutionary ideas and philosophical thinking he attaches great importance to the purity of the body. He at once leaves Tess when he finds out that her virginity has been violated. He fails to understand that a girl may remain pure even after the loss of maidenhood. When he returns to England from Brazil we see that he has grown stronger in mental health.
Attitude Towards his Parents
Angel Clare is highly incompatible with his parents in intellectual and religious matters, yet he is highly respectful of them. His patents are pious and simple and do everything out of faith. Angel was not provided with a University education because Mr. Clare felt that a degree which did not enhance the glory of God was of no use. Angel has so much respect for his parents that he accepts everything without complaint. He is even prepared to accept their wish regarding his marriage. We are told “For though legally at liberty to do as he chose, and though their daughter-in-law’s qualifications could make no practical difference to their lives, in the probability of living far away from them, he wished for affection's sake not to wound their sentiments in the most important decision of his life.”
Conclusion
We sympathize with Angel Clare once but we condemn him at the same time. Critics have also both admired and condemned the character of Angel Clare. One can conclude in the words of H.C. Duffin, ‘‘Conspicuous among the protagonists of Hardy’s stage is the pale, fine form of Angel Clare. I believe it will not be disputed that the hold this man has on life whether it be complete or precarious, is essentially spiritual, ideal, free from grossness. Indeed the charge most frequently brought against him is that his spirituality eclipses his humanity. His renunciation of Tess is in direct contradiction of the tendencies of his emotional desires, and is sanctioned by a voice that over rules even the demands of reasonableness—the voice of high passion which has been viewed by evidence throughout the whole progress of his love. He is not only guided solely by passion. Reason enters when he attempts to argue his position, and, for as much as passions, methods proceed on a special logic, reason goes hopelessly astray—his defense of the course is on the whole mistaken. Passion’s child, then, is Clare, and to be loveable or not, there is surely no contesting the celestial beauty of his figure.”