Summary: Chapter XLV
Tess has not seen Alec since she left his family’s service.
When she sees and hears him testifying to his religious conversion,
she is struck dumb with a sudden terror. She withdraws, but Alec
sees her and runs after her, claiming he has to save her soul. He
says he has found God through the intercession of the Reverend Clare.
Tess, angry and disbelieving, excoriates people like Alec, who ruin
other people’s lives and then try to secure a place in heaven by
suddenly converting. She then asserts that she cannot put her faith
in Alec’s religion when a better man than he—meaning Angel—does
not believe in that religion. Alec expresses fear of Tess, and as
they come to a stone monument called the Cross-in-Hand, he asks
Tess to swear that she will never tempt him again. She agrees and
Alec leaves, reading a letter from Reverend Clare to calm himself.
Tess asks a shepherd what the Cross-in-Hand signifies, and she learns
that it is an object of ill omen.
Summary: Chapter XLVI
The omen proves correct a few days later, when Alec approaches Tess
in the fields and asks her to marry him. He proposes that they go
to Africa to be missionaries. Tess replies that she is already married,
and she asks the distraught Alec to leave. She begins another letter
to Angel but is unable to finish it.
At Candlemas, Alec again approaches Tess. This time,
he asks her to pray for him. Tess replies that she cannot pray,
and she recites Angel’s reasons for doubting the validity of church
doctrine. Alec appears shaken, and Tess asserts that she has a religion
but no belief in the supernatural. Alec says that he has missed
an opportunity to preach in order to see her, and he says that he
is bothered by the fact that he has no right to help or protect
her, while the man who does have that right has chosen to abandon
her. Tess asks him to leave before their conversation can taint
her husband’s honor.
Summary: Chapter XLVII
In early spring, Tess has been assigned a stint of difficult
work as a thresher on the farm. Alec appears again, saying that
he is no longer a preacher and beseeching Tess to come away with
him. He says his love for her has strengthened, and he is upset
that her husband neglects her. Tess slaps his face with a leather
glove. He becomes angry, but calms himself, asserting his desire
to be her master and telling her that he is her true husband. He
says he will be back in the afternoon to collect her.
Summary: Chapter XLVIII
Alec comes back that afternoon as he promised. He walks
Tess home and asks her to trust him to take care of both Tess and
her family. Tess again refuses his offers, and that night she writes
a letter to Angel, finally confessing her loyalty and her love and
asking for his help against the temptation presented by Alec.
Analysis: Chapters XLV–XLVIII
Though Alec d’Urberville seems at first to have undergone
a remarkable transformation from a rake into a pious and religious
man, he discards this posture so effortlessly and quickly that it
seems to have been a superfluous charade—Alec’s attempts to contain
his desire for Tess seem weak at best. Indeed, we may wonder why
Hardy chooses to reintroduce Alec as a convert at this point in
the novel, given that he seems to be very much the same man as before.
One effect of this choice is to heighten dramatically the bitter
irony of Tess’s predicament. Tess continues to suffer as a social
outcast because of a disgrace that is much more Alec’s fault than
hers, yet the hypocritical Alec has the luxury to repent and even
win acceptance as a preacher. Tess’s plight as a woman thus appears
incredibly unjust, reinforcing the message given in the subtitle
of this section of the novel: “The Woman Pays.”
