In Crick's telling the story of Jack Dollop, Hardy shows us the dark, real side of humor whereupon many jokes are based. The butt of the joke is usually some person or profession that we might see as humorous. But Tess has lived the tale of Jack Dollop, and she cannot bear being "ridiculed" even though no one at Talbothays knows her story.
When Angel carries Tess across the swollen creek and his preference for her becomes obvious to her companions, the other young ladies are not hurtful or vindictive, as the women at The Slopes were when they realized Alec's preference for Tess. Of the girls at Talbothays, Hardy says "The differences which distinguished them as individuals were abstracted by passion, and each was but portion of one organism called sex. There was so much frankness and so little jealousy because there was no hope." In fact, they later tell Tess of the woman Angel's family has selected for him to marry and do so without spite or resentfulness. Instead, they "talked, and ached, and wept till sleep charmed their sorrow away."
