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Her Personality
Of the three room mates of Tess, Izz Huett is one of them and in respect of age, stands between the two. She is a pale girl. Her hair is dark and damp and her lips are keenly cut. Whenever she feels shy, her full face is not flushed rather a rosy spot appears in the middle of her checks.
Her Love for Angel
All the three room mates have the same ardor in their love for Angel. Each of them can sacrifice all her possessions for his happiness, but there is a peculiarity with Izz. Amid her companions, she is always shy, but when she is alone she betrays her passion for Angel. She is so deeply in love with Angel that she kisses his shadow, on the wall. Angel never responded to her love, but she never minds it. Everything she leaves upon fate. She becomes very happy when Angel wants to elope with her. She does not care about her friends, about the fame of her parents and about her own position there with Angel. He very frankly tells her that he is married and he would not marry with her there, but she would not expect any kind of control on his part. She agrees to live with him as his concubine. She has a strange principle of love. Why to shrink the body from a man, whom soul is already forwarded. Her love is very high. In her love-episode Angel falls from his standard and she is comparatively raised very high.
Sincere and Faithful
In respect of Sincere and Faithful, Izz Huett is even higher than Tess. For revealing the truth to Angel, Tess has to wriggle much. Many times she thinks that everything is fair in love and war and therefore she should keep her past in the dark but lzz never thinks of telling a lie to her love. When Angel asks about the love of Tess for his ownself she knows that by speaking the truth she will be lowered in the eyes of Angel. She never thinks about the situation which will rise up after she speaks the truth. There is no conflict in her mind. Her character is unfolded in these dialogues:
“You love me, very much, lzz?” he suddenly asked.“I do—I have said I do! I loved you all the time we were at the dairy together!” “More than Tess?”“No” she murmured, “not more than she.”“How’s I hat?”“Because nobody could love ‘is more than 'less did!.. She would have laid down her life for ‘ee. I could no more.”
To win the favor of her lover, to live quite happily and comfortably with him abroad, and to do all what she has dreamed in her restless nights, she never stains the character of Tess. Fascination overpowers her rougher nature and she speaks every inch of the truth. The poor fellow pays for speaking this truth by being insulted and oppressed. But what a kind and genial heart God has given her. She forgives Angel, though his fault is unforgivable. He plays with her feelings and yet she wishes that he should live happily, wherever he lives.
Never Complains of Her Fate
Izz Huett knows that she is to work hard. She lives by her work and so do all the country girls who take hirth in cottages. She is happy in the fields; she is happy in the dairy. Even at Flintcomb-Ash, though she works as hard as Marian and other girts and she is not habitual of that work and though she faints on the very first day, but she never heaves a sigh. She does not weep, does not sob.
When Angel marries Tess, they all feel oppressed. The kiss of charity adds fuel to the fire. Marian starts drinking and grumbles in intoxication, Retty Priddle tries to drown herself in the water; but poor Izz does nothing. She faces the situation very boldly. Despite the insult which she had to bear because of Tess, she remains helpful to her. She along with Marian writes a letter to Angel in which she asks him to look after his wife.
No doubt Izz Huett is a minor character in the novel and has very little significance in the vital plot, no doubt that she does not help writer in emphasizing any philosophy of life and no doubt she appears only on a few pages, yet her character stands as the example of the most sincere friend and most sincere lover. If pride is taken out of Tess she becomes Izz.
Main Aspects of the Character in a Nut-Shell
1. Izz Huett is one of the three roommates of Tess. She is pale girl with damp hair and keenly cut lips.
2. She is a very humble love.
3. She is the most sincere and quite truthful.
4. Never complains of her Fate.
5. She is Tess, if pride is added to her character.