Hardy uses comparison throughout the novel to reveal character and theme. The most obvious comparison is between Angel and Alec. The juxtaposition of Angel, who represents the ideal love of Tess, is contrasted with Alec, who represents the sexual possession of Tess. Since neither character is a perfect personification of good or evil, Hardy has both men exhibit both passion and coldness when they interact with Tess. Angel is passionate about Tess and his love for her, while he coolly dismisses her after learning of her torrid past. Alec is at first cool in his treatment of Tess as a possession, a symptom of his class, and then he decides later that he cannot live without her.
Hardy's Tess is filled with these side-by-side comparisons. Peter J. Casagrande, in his book Tess of the d'Urbervilles: Unorthodox Beauty, coins a new word "beaugly," a combination of the words "beautiful" and "ugly." He argues that the novel is chock-full of these comparisons: poor/rich, good/evil, Angel/brothers; Tess/her siblings; high class/low class, and past/present. Even the title of Casagrande's work, "Unorthodox Beauty," suggests a beauty that is does not conform to the standards by which other novels before or since Tess have been judged. Hardy himself points the out the rationale for his philosophy: "The business of the poet and novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things, and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things." Another Hardy critic, Linda Shires, makes the observation that, Hardy's treatment of his characters is "blatantly non-stereotypical." Now we have a novel that challenges stereotypes and sets the tone for several other Hardy works.
