[hardy-l] Hardy Talking About Tess

[Fraser Pakes]

There seems to be a lot on record about Hardy's own view of his  
heroine. It appears to have been a popular topic in interviews with  
him.  I don't know how reliable Raymond Blathwayt's memory of what  
Hardy said to him in an interview was (I'm taking it he wasn't  
allowed to write anything while in Hardy's presence - the usual  
stipulation) but assuming it was a clear recollection, its worth  
repeating.
In answer to the question as to why Tess had not left with Angel when  
he returned to her and thus avoided the murder of Alec, Hardy  
reportedly replied. "No, the optimistic living happy-ever-after  
always raises in me a greater horror by its ghastly unreality than  
the honest sadness that comes of a logical and inevitable tragedy. Do  
you not see that under any circumstances they were doomed to  
unhappiness ? An over-sensitive man like Angel Clare could never have  
been happy with her. After the first few months, he would inevitably  
have thrown her failings in her face. He did not recoil from her  
after the murder, it is true.  He was in love with her failings then,  
I suppose; he had not seen her for a long time; with the  
inconsistency of human action, he forgave the greater sin when he  
could not pardon the lesser, feeling perhaps that by her desperate  
act she had made some reparation. She had done what she could. She  
had done exactly what I think one of her nature would have done in  
real life.
("A Chat With the Author of Tess"  Black and White (magazine) 27  
August 1892.