Angel is surprised by Tess’ revelation. Although Tess had tried several times to recount her sad history, Angel ignored her pleas. Yet, upon hearing her story, he cannot forgive her. The reasons for Angel’s intractability are not clear. The best reason that he gives is that one day their children will find out and Tess will have to tell them about the rape and birth of another baby. Perhaps the most telling line from Angel is “O Tess, forgiveness does not apply to the case! You were one person; now you are another.” In truth, however, it is not Tess who has changed, but Angel’s perception of her. He cannot reconcile in his own mind how a woman who experienced what she has experienced can be the same woman he fell in love with. Hardy tells us that “[w]ithin the remote depths of his constitution, so gentle and affectionate, there lay hidden a hard logical deposit … which turned the edge of everything that attempted to traverse it … and with regarding to the other sex, when he ceased to believe he ceased to follow” and that he “looked upon [Tess] as a species of imposter; a guilty woman in the guise of an innocent one.”
During the disclosure of their pasts on their wedding night, it seems clear that each history is equal in scope and severity. Why the disparate punishments? Hardy seems to answer that, even though the crimes are equal, the punishments are often not equal. Angel can escape with little punishment while Tess must be made to suffer a long period of intense suffering. Here, Hardy shows the difference in society’s moral code for men and women. Although Angel’s past transgressions can be forgiven, Tess’, because she is a woman, cannot. And so Tess must bear not only the punishment, but the nagging concern that her sentence is too harsh.
