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The woman pays - somewhat puzzled


 Posted by Constanza on September 21, 1998 at 11:11:17:


Back to the LibraryI am a little puzzled as to what is Angel's real objection to Tess.  He admits she is not guilty, he forgives her, he says she is respectable but he cannot stay with her out of principle...I grant he is disappointed in that she is not as innocent as he supposed, but really, I think his reaction is exaggerated.  And what does he mean by Alec's being Tess husband by Nature? In that case he himself should be that stranger husband's by nature.  

`Angel! - Angel! I was a child - a child when it happened! I knew nothing of men.' 
`You were more sinned against than sinning, that I admit.' 
`Then will you not forgive me?' 
`I do forgive you, but forgiveness is not all.'
(snip)
`I wish half the women in England were as respectable as you,' he said, in an ebullition of bitterness against womankind in general. `It isn't a question of respectability, but one of principle!'
(snip)
`I cannot,' he said, `without despising myself, and what is worse, perhaps, despising you. I mean, of course, cannot live with you in the ordinary sense. At present, whatever I feel, I do not despise you. And, let me speak plainly, or you may not see all my difficulties. How can we live together while that man lives? - he being your husband in Nature, and not I. If he were dead it might be different... .
BTW, if Tess had told him, do you think he would have married her?  





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