Angel Clare: A Hypocritical Secularist

Abstract

In Thomas Hardy’s masterpiece, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Angel Clare is often referred to “angel” who is gentle and kind. However, it is Angel Clare who loves her that pushed Tess D’Urbervilles into deep abyss of death and ruined her step by step. This paper is going to analyze Angel Clare from a totally different perspective, the image of Angel Clare is not the conventional “angel” in the eyes of most critics of Tess of the D’Urbervilles, wheras, he appeared to be more like a hypocritical secularist, who wants to dominate both women and nature, and the hierarchical and patriarchal values are deeply rooted in his thoughts no matter how hard he tried to decline.