The poor versus rich comparison should not escape modern readers. Alec's seemingly endless wealth contrasts with the Durbeyfield's abject poverty. Hardy uses this juxtaposition to demonstrate the difference between the "haves" and the "have nots." However, even Hardy makes the point that at sometime in the distant past, just as Alec and his kind take advantage of Tess and her kind, the ancient d'Urbervilles had their way with the poor of their time: "Doubtless some of Tess d'Urbervilles mailed ancestors rollicking home from a fray had dealt the same measure even more ruthlessly towards peasant girls of their time." But Hardy does not forgive the sins of the past or present saying, "To visit the sins of the fathers upon the children may be a morality good enough for divinities, it is scorned by average human nature; and it therefore does not mend the matter." While not forgiving Alec for his misdeeds, Hardy does make some attempt to understand Alec's actions as a part of his class.
Also, Hardy attempts to comprehend good and evil. The poor down in Marlott have adapted a fatalistic attitude best represented by the saying, "It was to be." Tess questions the contrast between the forces that have dealt her a less than fair hand — "I shouldn't mind learning why — why the sun do shine on the just and unjust alike." Tess' query is one that has perplexed men since the dawn of time: why is there good and evil in the world? Hardy invokes the ancient Greek views on good and evil, along with the Torah and the Old Testament and New Testament of the Bible, as well as Milton's view found in Paradise Lost in an attempt to understand what motivates men to perpetrate either good or bad.
