In these chapters, Hardy gives the readers a fine set of juxtaposed characters to consider: Tess versus Mercy; Angel and Reverend Clare versus Angel’s brothers Felix and Cuthbert; and Angel versus Alec. The characters are developed as sets of opposites that cause the reader to consider both sides of the argument. These two sides are not a contrast between right or wrong, good or bad, but rather, they are a way to demonstrate that positions have two distinct sides, each with its own viewpoint. Mercy Chant is “accomplished,” educated, able to provide a good home for Angel as a wife. Tess is presented clearly as a better choice as a farmer’s wife. Of course, should Angel have chosen the life of a minister, Mercy Chant may have been a better choice.
Also interesting is the 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.”
Angel’s father, Reverend Clare is a “Pauliad” or Paulist; that is, his religious attitudes are like those of the biblical Paul, meaning that he believes that conversion is not an intellectual occurrence but an emotional one. Hardy describes Reverend Clare as “sincere.” He is an evangelical believer and minister, even suffering beatings and berating to convert sinners to join the church. Thus Reverend Clare and Angel are very similar in their practical religious beliefs. Angel’s brothers, on the other hand, are more inclined to use their religious beliefs for their own ends and are even vain in their “fashionable” ways.
In the consideration of religion, Angel continues to be a contrast to Alec. Angel has a better concept of religion, and he practices what he preaches. Alec, on the other hand, experiences a sudden conversion from his harmful ways; he has abused Reverend Clare when approached on the subject of his Christianity. Reverend Clare is proud to have won a new convert, no matter the consequence. Angel is aghast at his father for taking too many risks, whether they be physical or mental from strangers: “I wish he would not wear himself out now he is getting old, and would leave such pigs to their wallowing.” Angel admires his father’s work, even though it has cost him in the past, “though the younger could not accept his parent’s narrow dogma he revered his practice, and recognized the hero under the pietist.”
The reintroduction of Alec in the story is important for two reasons: First, it indicates that Alec will play a part in later events. Up to this point, although we may have suspected Alec’s reappearance, it was possible that his part in Tess’ ruin had already been played and that it would simply be the results of the past action that color future events. Now we know that that is not the case. Alec d’Urberville’s part in Tess’ life is not, unfortunately for Tess, over. Second, Angel’s comment that he wishes his father would “leave such pigs to their wallowing” indicates both Alec’s past nature and the sincerity of his present conversion. Although no one in the novel presently questions Alec’s conversion, the reader should.
