Religion and Tess of
The D’Urbervilles
Phase the Fourth
• Hardy was struggling with his own religious beliefs, much like
Angel. He idealised the paganism of the past, but was also
attached to his family’s Christianity
• He accepted that some sort of supernatural being controlled
fate. Tess’ hardships are described as mere sport for the
“President of the Immortals” which contrasts with the
Christian idea of a God who has a benevolent plan for
everyone, and connects with the notes of paganism
throughout the novel.
• Tess is usually portrayed as an embodiment of pagan
innocence, a sort of English nature goddess- the fertility ritual
of May-Day, whistling to the birds and mercifully killing the
injured pheasants. Angel even describes her as a “new-sprung
child of nature” and compares to mythical women like Eve
and Artemis.
Phase the Fourth
• She regarded him as Eve at her second waking might have
regarded Adam.” Alec is Satan. He seduces Tess under a tree,
giving her sexual knowledge in return for her lost innocence.
The very name of the forest where this seduction occurs, the
Chase, suggests how Eve will be chased from Eden for her sins.
This guilt, which will never be erased, is known in Christian
theology as the original sin that all humans have
inherited. Tess is the troubled, indecisive Eve whilst Clare is
the noble Adam newly born.
• Tess also represents a different form of divinity- the role of a
sacrificial victim- associated with both Christianity and
Paganism. It is significant that when Tess’s sins catch up with
her and the police arrest her, it is at Stonehenge. At the time
of writing, this was thought to be a heathen’s (someone who
doesn’t belong to a widely held religion) temple.
Phase the Fourth
• There is a clear division between Angel and his brothers. Felix Clare
is a parish minister described by Hardy as "all Church," while
Cuthbert, dean of a college, seems to be "all College." Angel is then
seen by his older brothers as "growing in social ineptness," and
Angel sees his brothers as "growing [with] mental limitations."
• Each sees the other not as opposite, but as flawed in ways that can
divide families. Cuthbert is "the more liberal minded," though "he
had not much heart." Likewise, Felix is "less self-sacrificing and
disinterested." Thus both men are not like Angel in many respects
when "[n]either saw the difference between local truth and
universal truth; that what the inner world said in their clerical and
academic hearing was quite a different thing from what the outer
world was thinking." Felix asks Angel if he is "somehow losing
intellectual grasp." Angel responds, "[I]f it comes to intellectual
grasp, I think you, as a contented dogmatist, had better leave mine
alone, and inquire what has become of yours." Thus, Angel feels
that "despite his own heterodoxy, he was nearer to his father on
the human side than was either of his brethren."
Phase the Fourth
• During the century, the Church of England could be divided into three groups, clearly seen
in the novel.
• The Low Church/evangelical:
It upheld the importance of preaching, the Bible, individual conversion or a personal
experience, and was often quite simple in its worship. They believed that human beings are
profoundly affected by sin and therefore unable to achieve a close relationship with God by
their own efforts, no matter how hard they try.
Angel’s father is an example of the evangelical Church of England. Hardy appears to
admire his sincerity and courage. He is thought to be modelled on the Rev. Henry Moule
of Fordingham, a poor suburb of Dorchester. Moule's sons also went to Cambridge, and
Hardy was much influenced by one of them, Horace, while he was a young man in
Dorchester.
• The broad church:
The broad church group believed the Church of England was the national church and
therefore should be broad enough for everyone to join. They did not insist on a rigid
following of the 39 Articles, the guidelines for Anglican belief. They tended to count
everyone in as Christians unless they opted out. The vicar of Marlott is a good example
here - he is willing to ‘bend the rules' somewhat to accommodate Tess.
• The high church:
The high church section grew in importance from the 1840s. It wanted to establish Anglican
beliefs as essentially Catholic, which then led to concern for reviving ritual practises lost at
the formation of the Church of England in the sixteenth century. It especially wanted to
restore the sense of awe in worship, and to stress the importance of the sacraments.
Phase the Sixth
Chapter XLV
• The entire paragraph on top of page 395, describes the change in Alec D’Urberville’s
character, which is not only ironic, but also hypocritical as it quickly returns to the we
previously see in earlier parts of the novel.
• ‘…It was less a reform than a transfiguration…. animalism has become fanaticism;
paganism
Paulinism…rude energy of a theolatry that was almost
ferocious.’
• Fanaticism: belief or behaviour involving uncritical zeal, or an obsessive enthusiasm. A
philosopher George Santayana defines fanaticism as ‘redoubling your effort when you have
forgotten your aim” which seems to fit the description of Alec’s character.
• Paganism: based on the worship of nature or a person who is not a Jew, Christian or
Muslim; a heathen. In other words, a hedonistic or irreligious person which Alec most
certainly is. Hardy is satirising his character greatly, perhaps using him as a tool for humour
and irony. Also, exploiting the hypocrisy existing in region.
• Paulinism: a theory which considers Jesus the supreme authority of Christianity, and a
follower aims to restore Jesus’ sayings to their original purity which is incredibly ironic
considering the character of Alec.
• theolatry: derives from the Greek, meaning the worship of a deity
• taken from the notes in the Penguin Classics edition, authorial comment is presented
explaining that Alec’s complete change allows Hardy to show explicitly what has been
implicit in the description of the Clares: the sexual mastery underlying religious fanaticism,
the paganism underlying the Pauline fundamentalism of the Reverend Clare, and the close
relationship between theolatry ad Tess’ worship of Angel.
Phase the Sixth
• Chapter XLVI
• ‘I believe in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount , and so did my dear husband….’
• The sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7) is the longest and fullest record of Christ’s
teaching. Tess’s adherence to its ‘spirit’ is further evidence that her faith, like Clare’s,
is held in deep suspicion of the dogma of organised religions, for her the New
testament is a Christian not a Pauliad, like it is for Alec.
• Tess’s views are a reflection of Hardy’s personal views on religion, somewhat doubtful
or cynical.
• ‘Dictionnaire Philosophique to Huxley’s essays’
• written by Voltaire, who bitterly opposed organised religions, but believed in a
righteous God.
• Hardy perhaps liked this criticism, and so referenced it to enforce his rather
controversial, or unconventional views at the time.
• Huxley, in the other hand, a Victorian agnostic, published essays, in which he stated ‘i
have great respect for the Nazarenism of Jesus- very little for later Christianity’
• ‘…like the devils I believe and tremble…’
• This recalls the Reverend Clare’s hatred of St James’ theology of good works, and also
points out how hollow Alec’s ‘faith without works’ is, and how dangerous Clare’s
theology is.
• Ref. from James 2:19
Phase the Sixth
• Chapter XLVII
• ‘..a creature from Tophet’
• Like a visitant from the valley of fire near Gehenna outside Jerusalem, a kind of
hell where idolatrous Jews burnt their sons and daughters (Jeremiah 7:31) a
reference towards Alec, unsurprisingly.
• God of the underworld in Greek mythology, which links to the view of hell in
Christian teachings. ‘..his Plutonic master’
• ‘Why, you can have the religion of loving-kindness and purity at least, if you
cant have- what do they call it- dogma.’
• Tess is summarising Voltaire, Huxley and Hardy himself.
• At the heart, is the idea of sincerity, which Hardy felt was being deeply
compromised by dogma
• ‘And she shall follow her lover, but she shall not overtake him; she shall seek
him, but shall not find him: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first
husband; for then was it better with me than now!’
• Hosea 2:7
• The prophet is referring to idolatry
• Ethelberta uses this same quotation in The Hand of Ethelberta to express her
scruples about leaving her first love for a richer man, likewise Tess does so later.
Hardy is again contextually foreboding her future.
Phase the Sixth
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Chapter XLVIII
‘my last state will be worse than my first’
Luke 11:26
Jesus preaches on the perils of an imperfect repentance and conversion.
The sinner who believes the devil has gone finds ‘seven other spirits more
wicked than himself, and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of
that man is worse than the first.’
Tess fears she will fall into temptation again, and the allusion also echoes
Alec’s situation, as Alec’s will become worse than he was before.
Chapter XLIX
‘Was not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of
Abi-ezer?’
refers to Judges 8:2 and the victory of the Israelites over the Midianites,
Gideon, the general of the Israelites, pacifies them by assuring them that
cleaning up after the battle is more honourable than actually winning it.
Tess accepts that by returning to Alec, she has won due to the stability she
regains, as her rape has been somewhat forgotten, however she has lost her
husband and only love.
Phase the Seventh
• Before Tess was sacrificed for the good of society, she and
Angel flee from the police, to Stonehenge. When they are
found, Tess lies asleep upon an altar. The significance of this is
that it is believed the Druids and Pagans used the altar to
present sacrifices, although this has never been fully proven
due to a lack of historical evidence.
• Fundamentally, Stonehenge for Hardy stands for ‘the natural’,
and – as Hardy himself makes clear – Tess Durbeyfield,
described in the subtitle of Tess as ‘a pure woman’, is pure in
the sense of being ‘natural’, in her femininity, her beauty, and
her motivations. Therefore Stonehenge is used as a metaphor
for Tess.
• Furthermore, the stones of Stonehenge represent the
unyielding nature of the fate that, for Hardy, determines
human destinies.
Phase the Seventh
• Although Hardy was Agnostic, he bore no negativity towards
Christianity. In fact Hardy admired some aspects of
Christianity- especially their charitable natures. The Clare’s are
examples of pure Christian charity- they did not shun Tess
upon discovering the reason for Angel and Tess’ separation.
Instead, they pity her for her past sin
• In Chapter LIV, Angel passes the Cross In Hand stone, the ill
omened stone that Tess once swore upon. There is an irony in
the fact that Tess tries to redeem herself by swearing in the
presence of God, yet fate works against her in a stone that is
not holy, but was once a medieval torture device-it was said
that the man who died there sold his soul to the devil.