Alec uses all types of methods to achieve his goal, from light sexual teasing to forcible rape. One has to believe that it was Alec’s intent all along to take any freedoms he chose with Tess. This is foreshadowed by Hardy throughout Phase I in his references to Alec’s debauchery and Tess’ innocence. From the beginning, Alec has implied that he and she share an intimate link through their common ancestor. (Alec—and the readers—knows this relationship to be false, but Tess does not.) Alec has also been able, in nearly every encounter with Tess, to coerce her to do as he wishes, despite her obvious despair. His predatory behavior escalates from simply refusing to accept her refusal of his advances (the strawberry episode), to putting her in a precarious position (during their wild ride to The Slopes) and then offering her salvation—if she will acquiesce to one small liberty—a kiss in this case, to finally, raping her.
It might be argued that Alec had a history of doing as he pleased, even with the hired help at The Slopes: “It was evidently the gentleman’s wish not to be disturbed in this pleasant tete-a-tete by the servantry.” Even the cottage workers know what is about to happen, “‘Heu-heu-heu!’ laughed Car’s mother, stroking her moustache as she explains laconically: ‘Out of the frying-pan into the fire!’”
Hardy also reintroduces the concept that fate plays a significant part in how people’s lives turn out, when he concludes “It [the rape] was meant to be.” Fate was not a new concept with Hardy. The ancient Greeks used fate as a guiding force in their plays. To the Greeks (and later Romans) the Fates were, literally, three goddesses—Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos—who control human destiny and life. Late in the novel, Hardy evokes Aeschylus and the Greek idea that we are all destined to be controlled by fate.
Because Alec is of the gentry class in England, there will be no consequences for him to endure. Tess, the victim, is the one who must live with the consequences of the act. This scenario is one of the ways in which this novel was considered controversial by its original readers. Alec is allowed to do as he pleases, abusing power and position, which in Hardy’s estimation, was one of the ills of Victorian society and one of the issues with English aristocracy: “One may, indeed, admit the possibility of a retribution lurking in the present catastrophe. Doubtless some of Tess d’Urberville’s mailed ancestors rollicking home from a fray had dealt the same measure even more ruthlessly towards peasant girls of their time.” Whether it’s fate, or “retribution” for past offenses, or predestination, Tess does not deserve what happens to her. Nevertheless, she is the one who must endure under the burden of the crime perpetrated against her.
Hardy would not offend the sensibilities of his readers by tainting the novel with a lurid sex scene. At the end of Chapter 9, the rape scene is not played out before our eyes. In fact, it is hard to find the actual mention of rape in the entire novel. Hardy leaves out the gratuitous violent scenes. Instead, like a Greek tragedy, the violence takes place off-stage. Indeed, all violence in the Greek theatre was played off-stage as witnessed by Aeschylus’ play Oedipus Rex. Even when his main character, Oedipus, blinds himself by gouging his eyes out, we do not see the actual act on stage, which would have offended the sensibilities of his audience. Instead, we see the result of the action, as we will here. What the characters do or how they react is more important than the act.
Now that Alec has conquered Tess, he wants to keep her as his own. But Tess will not let Alec’s advances keep her at The Slopes.
