Tess of the D'Urbervilles Characters

Tess is the protagonist, and not just because she's the title character. She's also the moral center of the novel – the narrator consistently sympathizes with her, and her moral outlook is co...

We discuss Alec before Angel not because he's more important to Tess, but because he's more important to Tess of the D'Urbervilles, as a novel. His actions drive the tragedy forward, and his obsess...

Part of the difficulty in interpreting Angel – or Tess, for that matter – is that Hardy's skill at creating the sense of psychological depth and complexity makes it hard to recollect that these...

Joan Durbeyfield might not appear too often, but she's an important character, nonetheless. In terms of the plot, she's the main reason Tess goes to the D'Urbervilles' house at Trantridge in the fi...

What's there to say about Jack Durbeyfield? He's a minor character, but like Mrs. Durbeyfield, he serves a certain purpose in the novel. His unreasonable pride in his dusty D'Urberville connections...