"I take thee to be my lawful wedded [husband], to have and to hold, for better or for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others, keep thee only unto me, until death do us part." Traditional wedding vows are held sacred not only to the ones who pronounce them but vows are also kept sacred in many religions. There are many contrasting views of this sacred sacrament that Christians call Marriage. In the religion of Catholics, marriage is a sacred bonding of the mind, body and soul. "Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all." (Proverbs 31:29) In Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D"Urbervilles, Tess, the focal point of the novel, remained faithful at heart to her marriage despite all of her hardships. As marriage completely changes people's lives "for better or for worse" every day, Tess's ceremony affected her actions and her ability to progress as a young woman. .
The book is divided into seven phases, each of which tells a concise and particular story within the larger story of Tess's life and each accomplishes specific goals in moving Tess from her simple, youthful life in the country to her tragic early death. To an extent, this makes the characters in Tess seem one-dimensional. Angel Clare, who appears briefly in the first section, is shown to be graceful, kind, and life loving but after a while, the genuine "angel" turns cold and heartless. Alec D"Urberville, who in the beginning took advantage of the pure Tess, ended up offering a home and family to her when she had no one else to turn to. For the reader, Hardy created predictable characters to produce suspense of not being able to guess how they will turn out by the end. .
Many readers of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles believe that Alec, logically, is Tess's opposition throughout the novel. Often, readers lose perspective of not only the negative impact Angel has on Tess's life, but also the positive effort put forth by Alec.
