Are you an Angel or a Devil? —The Analysis of Angel Clare’s Role in Tess’ Tragedy

Are you an Angel or a Devil? —The Analysis of Angel Clare’s Role in Tess’ Tragedy Are you an Angel or a Devil? —The Analysis of Angel Clare’s Role in Tess’ Tragedy Abstract: Tess of the D’Urbervilles is one of the greatest works of Thomas Hardy. This paper focuses on the two major characters and tries to prove whether Angel Clare is a real angel or a devil by analysing Angel Clare’s role in Tess’ tragedy. Firstly, the paper makes an introduction to the author Thomas Harday and his novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Based on Freud’s psychoanalysis theory (personality system theory and psychological structure theory), the paper starts from five aspects to demonstrate that Angel Clare’s love to Tess can not withstand the test of reality. However, his dramatic role of the “Prodigal Son” finally pushes Tess to death. The conclusion is made that Clare is not an angel who is ideological and progressive, and who pursues ideal and guards love, but a devil who is conservative, petty and falsely selfish. Key words: Angel Clare; Tess; Angel; Devil 1. Introduction Tess of the D’Urbervilles is not only one of the greatest novels of Thomas Hardy, but is also seen as one of the greatest works in English literature. It is Hardy’s most mature work in art and thought, as well as one of his finest and most controversial Wessex Novels. On Westminster, critic Hannigan published an article, in which he confirmed Tess of the D’Urbervilles as an epoch-marking work among British novels after George Eliot. The commentary on The Thames also commented it as Hardy’s best novel.[6](P8) “Tess of the D’Urbervilles, however, takes the Victorian novel to its limits without turning it into a didactic diatribe, a satiric parody, or a series of lyric moments. This is its achievement and its power.”[3](P161) The novel has attracted public attention since it was published, and the controversy never stoped, especially, when such a woman who lost her chastity and became a homicide was called “a pure woman” by Hardy. In recent years, many critics and scholars discuss Tess’ tragedy fiercely from different fields. Most of them blame Alec to be the inducement which directly causes Tess’ tragedy. However, this paper holds that Angel Clare, who has been called “Angel”, is the real assassin who pushes Tess to death. Although he tries hard to break the shackles of bourgeoisie, his endeavor turns out in vain. From the different aspects of Clare’s social values and pursuit of ideality, and the process of meeting Tess, falling in love with her, and even torturing her spiritually, this paper will disclose Clare’s true face of evil and hypocrisy under his Angel’s halo. 2． About the Author and the Novel 2.1 Thomas Hardy Without the perfection of Jane Austen, the sharpness of Charles Dickens, and the sensibility of D. H. Lawrence, the cross-century literary giant—Thomas Hardy, is outstanding in a turbulent age. His talent is just like the water stream flowing continously in the process when he seeks ways to be better and better. Hardy shows his transcendent professional competence, like a shining star with its dazzling light in the dark sky. [8](P191-204) Thomas Hardy is one of the most preeminent Victorian writers. He inherits and carries forward the heritage of English literature by creating his own realistic and modern writing and is crowned as “Shakespeare in English Fiction”. During his whole life, Hardy produces fifteen novels, four collections of short stories, eight volumes of poems and two dramatical works. His works emit a sense of local human touch, flashing and enlightening human’s brilliant wisdom and perception. Hardy pours his devotion to issues of religion, ethics, life, society and love. [11](P1-3) Among those, Wessex Novels are remarkable. Tess of the D’Urbervilles is the most pastoral work of Hardy’s Wessex Novels. 2.2 Tess of the D’Urbervilles Tess of the D’Urbervilles describes a tragic story about a pure, pretty, and kind-hearted girl, Tess, a native country girl who is happy by nature. Accidentally, the old horse of her poor family dies in her hand, so driven by the feeling of psychological attonement, she compromises to her parents and works in D’Urbervilles to support her family. However, Tess is seduced by Alec, the young master of D’Urbervilles. Because of her losing chastity, Tess returns home with great shame and pain and gives birth to a baby. After the baby’s death, she goes to a milk factory to work and looks forward to starting a new life. Tess meets Angel Clare and falls in love with him. On the wedding night, Tess confesses her shameful past patheticly, but to her great surprise, she is abandoned by Clare. Tess goes to another farm and works alone, and the life there is so terrible. Because of her father’s sudden death, her family is thrown to streets. She has no choice but to go back to Alec. Meanwhile, Clare comes back to look for Tess after his failure in career and torturous illness in body. With mixed feelings, Tess kills Alec painfully and angrily in order to prove her ture love to Clare. Finally, Tess is sentenced to death. 3. Angel Clare’s Role in Tess’ Tragedy “Angels are messengers of God in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Quran and creatures of good, spirits of love. The term ‘angel’ has also been expanded to various notions of ‘spiritual beings’ found in many other religious traditions. Other roles of angels include protecting and guiding human beings, and carrying out God’s tasks. In art, angels are often depicted with wings.”[18] In many people’s eyes, when Tess suffers so much shame and pain and needs care and love so urgently, Angel Clare—as the name indicates like an angel—flies there to her side and brings comfort to her soul, making her heart warm, enlightening her hope and encouraging her to move forward. However, under the angelic halo, what Clare brings to Tess is totally devastated bitterness by crucifying her and tearing her soul into pieces just like a devil. “The Devil is believed in certain religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. Some regard the Devil as an allegory that represents a crisis of faith, individualism, free will, wisdom and enlightenment. The Devil commands a force of evil angels, commonly known as demons. Modern conceptions of the Devil include the concept that it symbolizes humans’ own lower nature or sinfulness.” [19] Angel Clare is a real devil under the angelic halo. 3.1 Angelic Pursuit or Devilish Vanity Some scholars hold the opinion that Clare comes from a middle-class family, but he would not take his career in a usual way like ancestors. He admires his father’s piety to religious career, but he is aware of the narrowness and limitation in that. Therefore, in order to avoid religious problems and obtain the so-called freedom, he neglects his father’s expectation and others’ gossip and engages in agriculture to learn a variety of agricultural techniques in rural areas. [10](P42) What he pursues is simplicity and freedom of pastoral life. On the surface, Clare is a progressive young man who has his own ideal and pursuit. Nevertheless, as the saying goes, we can know a person well from the details in his life. During the period in the milk factory, we can see what he calls pursuit and his own thoughts is nothing but vanity. At the farm, “he should be addressed as ‘sir’ even by the dairyman himself.” [2](P121) Obviously, in the bottom of his heart, Clare also insists pulling rank to show others that he comes from the middle-class. We could read such descriptions in the novel, “beneath it was something educated, reserved, subtle, sad and differing”; [2](P121) “sitting down as a level member of the dairyman’s house-hold seemed at the outset an undignified proceeding.” [2](P128) At dinner, he never sits together with other workers, but he orders a special position next to the fireplace. [2](P129) Female workers say “never says much to us, he is a pa’son’s son, and is too much taken up wi.” [2](P123) Could you believe that a person who really wants to fit into farmers, and who is engaged in agriculture, puts on a face of superiority all day？It can be seen clearly that Clare has not broken away from the traditional concept of the bourgeoisie yet. The main reason that he wants to work in agriculture is “having an acquaintance who was starting on a thriving life as a colonial farmer.” [2](P127) The sentence “it may be used for the honour and glory of man” is always metioned by him, but his real purpose is to become a homesteader—“he would become an American or Australian Abraham, commanding like a monarch his flocks and his herds, his spotted and his ringstroked, his men—servants and his maids.” [2](P136) His engagement in the pursuit of dirty money and status exposes the ugly nature of the bourgeoisie. He often claims the necessity of judging things with an independent opinion, however, what he maintains is still the decadent social ritual and hypocrisy of bourgeois morality. All of these are in contradiction with what he calls his contempt over class and wealth, and his indifference to social forms and observances. When we admire his unwillingness to submit to the arrangement of his parents and his refusal to a pious Christian Miss Mercy Chant, all his despicable stories are so far with his so-called seriousness, integrity and progressive concept of society. “When he went to live in London […] he was carried off his head, and nearly entrapped by a woman much old than himself.” [2](P127) Clare is an ignorant, complicated and hypocritical man who acts knowledgeable, decent and upright. Deep in his heart, there is a narrow, corrupt and dirty soul. His irrational behaviors expose his ugly nature. Even, frivolously, he invites Izz, who has once worked with him, to go to Brazil together and starts a new life and career after he has abandoned Tess. Can these enable us to believe that he is really pursuring his dream? Does he own a noble view of society? Of course, we can not deny that Clare has free thinking and shows many progressive aspects, but he “has the limitation to the resistance against the old morality, the old tradition, the old life, also the old order. In his thought he has been inextricably tied up with them.” [4](P24) Is it the angelic pursuit or the devilish vanity? In the patriarchal society of Victorian age, Clare is rooted in the corrupt ideas and hypocrisy of middle-class. What he really pursues is just the vanity and sensation which makes him different from others. 3.2 Angelic Protection or Devilish Restriction Suffering from the seduction by Alec, mortality of the baby, cold shoulder and discrimination from her family and the folks, Tess leaves her native place and goes to Talbothays, in order to escape public opinion and forget the unfortunate experience of the past. As it is mentioned in the novel: “unexpended youth, surging up anew after its temporary check, and bring with its hope, and the invincible instinct towards self-delight.” [2](P109) She meets Clare there and falls in love with him. Everything seems so good in the new environment, especially Clare’s love, so on and so forth. Clare, who plays the role of an angel from Heaven, always accompanies her. However, through our careful observation, we can find that Tess not only fails to fulfill her original intention of changing the environment, but also racalls her unspeakable past because of the gradual influence of Clare. Evidently, Tess’ thoughts and emotions have been fluctuating and she has been living in contradiction from beginning to end. After going to Talbothays, Tess seems to find a new ego: her “sense of being amid new scenes where there were no indivious eyes upon her, sent up her spirits wonderful. Her spirits, and her thankfulness, and her hopes, rose higher and higher. Full zest for life.” [2](P112-113) “She appeared to feel that she really had laid a new foundation for her future.” [2](P118) Here, Clare’s love makes her happy. “Her affection for him was now the breath and life of Tess’ being, it enveloped her as a photosphere, irradiated her into for getfulness of her past sorrows, keeping back the gloomy spectres that would persist in their attempts to touch her—doubt, fear, moodiness, care, shame.” [2](P212) It is no doubt that Clare’s appearance and love make Tess taste the true love and true happiness. Clare, just like an angel, protects Tess and brings great comfort to her mental depression. However, as having been mentioned in the former section, being over-intellectualized, pedantic, and circumlocutionary, Clare is always showing off his sense of superiority in the milk factory. So, “Tess seemed to regard Clare as an intelligence rather than as a man. As such she compared him with herself; and at every discovery of the abundance of his illuminations, of the distance between her own modest mental standpoint and the unmeasurable, Andean altitude of his, she became quite dejected, disheartened from all further effort on her own part whatever.” [2](P136) The love between Tess and Clare is unequal from the beginning. In the patriarchal society of Victorian age, Clare is at the manipulative position and blurs Tess’ vision just like Satan. Tess never ceases recalling her shameful past under the influence of Clare and she has no one to talk with. In his inner world, Clare still supports bourgeois social etiquette of that age; this can be revealed from his statements and actions in daily life. His influence is like an invisible shackle which restricts Tess from breathing freely. Under the influence of Clare, Tess denies herself constantly and suffers a lot. Thus, she thinks that those ghosts are devils, “waiting like wolves just outside the circumscribing light.” [2](P212) Hardly is Tess moved by Clare’s unremitting proposal, when she begs to cry with burning heart, thinking herself not good enough to fit Clare. It is clear that under the bondge of Clare’s invisible ethical and moral decay, what Tess really feels is pain, torture, horror, shame, trepidation and remorse. [7](P150) Angelic protection of Clare makes Tess forget her suffering past and feels happy. Yet, Clare’s unintentional words and deeds, which are filled with villainous concept, remind her of those pains. We live together at the ecosystem of the earth, and have a spiritual circle which is built up with humankind’s integrity, faith, meditation and imagination. [12](P43) Balance and harmony of this spiritual circle is very important for humankind. Tess loses herself under the capricious atmosphere because of Clare’s constant manipulation. Her spiritual circle becomes disordered and unbalanced. All these show that the individual thought and freedom of Tess are restrained by Clare’s invisible shackles. The devilish restriction makes Tess unable to remove her heavy spirit cross. Clare’s love to Tess, which is just like a huge stone, makes Tess breathless. The limitation of the middle-class and the ethical and moral decay of that class always manipulate Tess’ psychic. Tess is an isolated boat drifting in Clare’s vast and devilish ocean, which is full of storms and big waves, however, it seems never be engulfed. 3.3 Angelic Idealization or Devilish Selfishness Finally, Tess still chooses to marry Clare, although her heart is full of contradiction, horror and pain. The hope that life would be as wonderful as she and Clare look forward to has been shattered after she confesses her shameful past to Clare. Knowing the truth, he abandons Tess on the wedding night. In many people’s opinion, Clare does not abandon Tess ruthlessly. On the contrary, he makes a helpless choice when his angelic idealization is ruined by the shock of reality. Can we really attribute it to the angelic idealization? Actually, Clare depicted by Hardy is just like other people of that age, whose multitude of sin is covered by fair skin. On the wedding night, Clare confesses his past dissolute behaviors to Tess and gets her immediate forgiveness. However, Clare can not accept Tess’ painful past. He is the spokesman of the concept that “free speech for me, but not for you”. As the son of a priest, he not only misbehaves, but also has no broad heart to forgive others’ faults. [15](P85) In fact, Tess could continue to hide her past, but she thinks that “let him for whom she lived and breathed despise her if he would, rather than preserve a silence which might be deemed a treachery to him.” [2](P217) Let us look at what Clare does: without a little sense of guilt for his dissolute behaviours, he takes it for granted that it is insignificant and Tess should forgive him, which shows his selfishness to the best. Tess’ begging and apology do not work at all. He tells Tess brutally: “The woman I have been loving is not you. Another woman in your shape.” “(He) fling elaborate sarcasms at Tess, however, was much like flinging them at a dog or cat.”[2](P248-249) As we know, Clare wants to become a homesteader, so he needs an assistant urgently. The motivation for his choosing Tess as his wife is not so simple. Tess, born in the rural area, begins to help her family do farm-work since her childhood. She is homely and capable, which exactly fits Clare’s pursuit. To some degree, the love of Clare to Tess is mingled with his own selfishness. We can even say that Tess is a stepping stone on the way to his destination. Clare, “with all his emancipated ideas, is not merely a prig and a hypocrite but a snob as well.” [4](P22) Clare is a typical selfish man. In the milk factory, there are quite a few girls. However, Clare notices Tess at the first meeting and falls in love with her, in which, Tess’ beauty accounts a very large proportion. The novel mentions more than once that Clare is attracted by the beauty of Tess and loses himself in her beauty—how lovely Tess’ face is to him; just as metioned in the book: “To young man with the least fire in him that little upward life in the middle of her red top lip was distracting, infatuating, maddening.” [2](P164) Hardy catagorizes people in love as spiritual, sexual desire and one with both quality according to the perception of spirituality and sexuality. Clare is the one with both quality at the most. [17](P124) —“Clare had studied the curves of those lips so many times that he could reproduce them mentally with ease. Actually produced, by some mysterious physiological process, a prosaic sneeze.” [2](P164) Even when Tess is hesitating about marrying him or not—to our surprise—Clare says “Then, if your heart does, why not your hand.?” [2](P204) When he proposes to Tess, he always hints the importance of sex. In Freud’s opinion, id is the orectic abyss which makes people keep pursuing something to fill endless greed; ego stands for sense and guides people’s act according to the principle of reslity; superego is the conscience, which plays as a high-rise leader of personality in limiting id.[9](P159-212) In Clare’s sleepwalk, he always recalls Tess’ goodness, which represents the id in his dream. However, in reality, he can not forgive Tess’ loss of virginity, which is the influence of his superego. At that moment, women’s chastity concept is that their chastity is their hunsband’s privilege, and women who lose chastity are unclean. “Dream is a perfectly valid psychic phenomenon, actually a wish-fulfilment, it may be enrolled in the continuity of the intelligible psychic activities of the waking state.” [1](P34) From the sleepwalk in which Clare takes Tess in his arms, we can know he loves Tess. However, the wish in a dream is the restrained wish and it is reached by distortion and always shifts the key point of spirit. [1](P45-69) In Freud’s psychological structure, Clare is a paradox. In the daytime, his unconscious love to Tess is restrained from transferring to consciousness. Only at night, he shows his sincere feelings to Tess and holds her sleepwalking. In the struggle between id and ego, Clare is unable to reach the degree of superego. The endless struggle by the effects of rapid sublimation and self-posture, once emerged in the deep psychological fierce, now continues to exist at a superior area. [9](P190) Clare “has mistaken Tess for a pure, unspoiled, innocent young woman. Throughout the whole book, Clare never once sees that his own affair with another woman, both of them responsible adults, is in any way comparable to young Tess’ seduction by Alec. Clare’s highest concern is whether or not he will ‘forgive’ Tess.” [5](P292) “Here was I think you a new-sprung child of nature; there were you, the belated seedling of an effete aristocracy.”[2](P251)—That is his evaluation on Tess. Clare’s love to Tess is hypocritical, selfish and abstract. Is it the angelic idealization or devilish selfishness? Ego originates from the perception system, and derives from comprehension about the preconscious which abuts the remnants of memory. [9](P174) Hardy points out sharply: “With all his attempted independence of judgment this advanced and well meaning young man, a sample product of the last five-and-twenty years, was yet the slave to custom and conventionality when surprised back into his early teachings.” [2](P286) 3.4 Angelic Testing or Devilish Torment From their first meeting each other, falling in love and getting married, what Clare brings to Tess is not only self-abasement, restriction and suffering, but also endless torment with his vanity, hypocrisy and selfishness. Tess is abandoned and lives a miserable life lonely and roughly. Is this the tribulation set up by Clare who is like a so-called angel for Tess? No, absolutly not! Hold your hands, and get old together—this is just a simple sentence. It is not simply a promise for a lifetime, yet it means more responsibility for a man. However, after Clare swears that he will accompany Tess regardless of sickness and death, he stylishly leaves Tess and goes to Brazil alone. Since the setting up of a family, there are responsibility as well as obligation between husband and wife. Even in the concept of Christian, there are obligations for couples in marriage, too. St. Paul says that a husband who loves his wife loves himself. Reciprocal love, mutual attention, consideration, assistance and understanding between couples have always been the marriage ethics which everybody should respect. [7](P106) But what we can see between Clare and Tess is just the unilateral devotion of Tess. After being abandoned by Clare, Tess’ life is totally changed. She wanders here and there to find a job; she wants to be self-reliant rather than being supported by Clare; she does not want to go back to the milk factory for the reason that she worries her idealized husband might be reproached by others. Tess selects a poorest upland farm introduced by Marian. On the way to the farm, she endures the worst humiliation about her past. At night, “she scraped together the dead leaves till she had formed them into a large heap, making a sort of nest in the middle.” [2](P299) The dying birds wounded by hunters call up her miserable experience. No one has experienced so deep than her about this kind of pain, so she kills birds with her own hands with the goodwill to help birds relieve suffering. “And soon reached the farmhouse, which was almost sublime in its dreariness.” [2](P306) She does not forget to remind Marian that “nothing about him, if I get the place. I don’t wish to bring his name down to the dirt.” [2](P306) Tess is a crazy woman in love and loves a man not worth loving. Indeed, Clare has left some money to Tess. Yet, she gives them to her family. Compared with the torment, what is the money worth? Poor Tess endures double torment mentally and physically because of Clare. She wears her wedding-ring on a ribbon around her neck—how highly she thinks of their marriage! She does not tell her family about her suffering situation, because it may bring about reproach to Clare—everything for Clare’s sake. When Izz criticizes Clare, Tess explains that “he had to go—he was obliged to go, to see about the land over there!” [2](P316) Tess suffers from silent sadness alone, besides, she should also stay up with Alec’s harassment, even the death of her father. She and her whole family have no way out. No one can share their suffering, and Tess is almost collapsed. “The only way is to write a letter to Clare,” she keeps thinking this. She screams in the letter: “I must cry to you in my trouble—I have no one else! I am so exposed to temptation, Angel.” [2](P362-363) How profound Tess’ despair is, and how throughgoing Tess’ abyss of misery is. There is something extremely important on a man’s shoulder—responsibility. As Tess’ husband, Clare escapes from the reality and goes to Brazil, when Tess is in an impass and comes to a dead end. In the system of ethics, responsibility is at the sovereign place. Responsibility is the obligation which human should be aware consciously and which contains the element of conscience.[13](P186-187) To be frank, without the help of Alec, the D’urbervilles could have already died on the street. Compared with Clare, Alec is more as a man. Though Alec is a villain, he is a veridical villain. The so-called gracious Clare is comparatively inferior to Alec, because he is a hypocritical gentleman. Is it the angelic testing or devilish torment? Tess lives in distress, mixed with little hope and unspeakable pain. It seems that there is always a feeling of void and panic, reconstructing after being destroyed in an instant, and soon being destroyed again in a constant, endlessness. 3.5 Angelic Return or Devilish Summon Ocean is apart, day after day. Clare finally comes back. When everyone is looking forward to a happy ending, Tess holds up a knife and kills Alec. She makes an irreparable mistake. Does Clare’s return bring happiness and relief to ease Tess’ pain just like an angel? Why does Tess dig her own grave? It seems that something is whispering in her ear to summon her, so Tess goes along the road to ruin. Goodness is the common disadvantage of human sometimes. The impoverished family makes virtuous Tess give up resistance cowardly. After all, all her endeavor turns out to be in vain. Tess is forced to return to Alec’s side. She is drawn into the gear of the fate again. Tragedy is the ruthless destruction of good things. The destruction of Tess by Clare is just one of these cases. Clare’s disapperance and return pull Tess to Death indirectly. Alec repents his fault to Tess and gives Tess the greatest help when Tess is at the end of her rope. He does not mind that Tess has been married to Clare, and he creates a peaceful life for Tess and calls her as Mrs. D’urbervilles. Yet, where is Clare then? Hence, it may be a good thing of Tess’ being with Alec at the strange combination of circumstances. But Clare deliberately makes a mess when Tess’ life is gradually on track. [15](P85) Originally, Clare suffers a long period of illness after abandoning Tess when he arrives at Brazil. In Brazil, he never recovers to health, besides, his career is in a complete mess: “dazzled by representations of easy independence, had suffered, and wasted away.” [2](P366-367) A feeling with pleasurable nature has no inner impetus, while the unpleasant feeling is quite the contrary. [9](P172) Superego in personality system theory is just like a supervisor who tries to guide ego towards better way. Superego will punish ego and makes people feel guilty, inferior or even sinful when ego submits to the requirments of id. As for a moral man, superego will bring about unhappy mood and guilty feelings caused by inferiority, or get sick bacause of unexpected harm. [14](P91) Clare abandons marriage ethics and his responsibility as a husband. His ego is unable to control and guide his id. Because of his suffering from setback and failures—punishment by superego—Clare’s ego is entraped in pain and regret, then he comes back to Tess. Thus, it is obvious that Clare does not retrieve to Tess’ side with all his heart and soul. It is just his id’s influence. Think about this, will Clare come back if his cause runs smoothly and prosperously? The reason why he returns is also that he encounters a passerby at Brazil and tells him about his love experience with Tess. About the passerby, it is described in the book: “he (Clare) knew absolutely nothing beyond a commonplace name, were sublimed by his death, and influenced Clare more than all the reasoned ethics of the philosophers.” [2](P368) In the passerby’s opinion, Tess’ past shame is not important, above all, she will be a competent wife. The passerby also points out that Clare should not abandon his wife. The sincere confession and genuine apology of Tess, who sets her affection on him, can not hold a candle to a passerby’s random words. How ridiculous it is! Standing in front of Clare, whom she has been missing day and night, Tess seems to be so bewitched that she is not in her right mind—Clare expresses how deep his love is to her. Tess is soliloquizing, exclaming, and wailing. Maybe she is recalled by Clare’s indifferent words: “how can we live together while that man (Alec) lives? —he being your husband in Nature, and not I. If he were dead it might be different.” [2](P262) This simple sentence has so much power that it is branded deeply in Tess’ subconsciousness and becomes the chief culprit of Alec’s death. The madness of Tess driven by love instiqates her to bury Alec who loves her. Tess always follows Clare, runs after Clare, and loses herself in love with Clare. After killing Alec, she still wails “only, Angel, will you forgive me my sin against you, how I have killed him (Alec)?” [2](P417) Tess kills Alec just in purpose of proving her true love for Clare. Is it the angelic return or devilish summon? Clare only considers his own feelings. Whether to go or stay just depends on what he is thinking at that moment. His ruthless abandonment forces helpless Tess to turn to Alec. His abrupt return only lights up a ray of hope for her. [16](P50) For Tess, Clare’s comemoration of her may not last a lifetime, so she chooses to sacrifice herself to show her true love, even at the cost of her life. After tasting the despair of thinking herself as nothing to Clare—such an absurd fact brings about the flavor of death and extinguishment before her death—she even does not consider it as bitterness to her exhausted and numb heart. 4. Conclusion The moment of black flag rising slowly is also the moment of Tess’ death. Retrospect Tess’ transient lifetime: with life on the edge, she is seduced by Alec; after the nightmare, she is abandoned by Clare; finally, she becomes a homicide because of her so-called “pursuit of happiness”. Spirit is so important that it can encourage and urge on human. Alec, who is always criticized by people as a playboy, has sullied Tess’ body. On the other hand, Clare, who is always called an angel, crumbs Tess’ pure heart. This mental destruction is more devastated than the physical destruction. Although, Clare loves Tess in psychological structure, he can not find a balanced point between consciousness and subconsciousness; in personality system, he can not either be concordant and unitive among id, ego and superego. Furthermore, Clare uses his vanity, restriction, selfishness, torment and devilish summon deprive Tess’ soul. Then the deathward tragedy of Tess is put on the stage. Angel Clare—a real angel or a devil? Beyond no doubt, he is a real devil. References: [1] Freud. Interpretation of Dreams [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 1997. [2] Hardy Thomas. Tess of the D’Urbervilles [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 2007. [3] Kramer Dale (eds). The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Hardy. [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2000. [4] Yao Li. Tess, A Tragic Figure Seized by Evil Claws—An Analysis of the Causes of Tess’ Tragedy [D]. Hebei: Hebei Normal University, 2009:1-57. [5] Yaoxin Chang (ed). 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[18] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel [19] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil 天使还是恶魔？ ——解读安吉尔▪克莱尔在苔丝悲剧中扮演的角色 【摘要】 《德伯家的苔丝》是托马斯•哈代最著名的作品之一。本文从苔丝的悲剧这个角度出发，探讨安吉尔•克莱尔在苔丝悲剧一生中扮演的角色，即他到底是守护苔丝的天使还是把苔丝推向死亡的恶魔。文档首先介绍了作家及作品的概况；接着从五个方面入手，以弗洛伊德的精神分析理论（心理结构理论、人格系统理论）为依据，对克莱尔的爱没能经受住考验，抛弃苔丝，最后戏剧性的“浪子回头”反而把苔丝推向死亡等事实进行剖析，最后得出结论：克莱尔并非一个思想进步、追求理想、守护爱情的天使，而是一个思想保守、心胸狭窄、虚伪自私的恶魔。 【关键词】 安吉尔•克莱尔；苔丝；天使；恶魔 Acknowledgements On the completion of this paper, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my instructor Miss. Zhang Wei. She guided me how to choose the theme, how to gather invaluable materials, and how to construct the structure of the paper. All the stages of writing the thesis were full of her smile. She used tutor’s unique angelic wings to help me soar in a fascinating world of English literature. Without her guidance and help, this paper could not have been accomplished successfully. Then, my special thanks are to my dear friends and family, for their support, encouragement and constructive suggestions for the paper.

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