Tess of the d’Urbervilles · Chapter
XXII explained
Tess, feeling unworthy of Angel Clare's love, deliberately tries to push him towards her fellow dairymaids Izz Huett and Retty Priddle.
What happens
Tess, feeling unworthy of Angel Clare's love, deliberately tries to push him towards her fellow dairymaids Izz Huett and Retty Priddle. The chapter also describes a communal search for garlic in a meadow after a customer complains about the butter's taste, during which Angel and Tess work side by side.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Marriage
Tess's self-sacrificing attempt to push Angel toward other women highlights her internal conflict between love and her sense of unworthiness.
Suffering and Resilience
Tess endures emotional pain by deliberately avoiding Angel and recommending her rivals, showing her resilience in the face of her own despair.
Characters to notice
- Tess Durbeyfield
Tess heroically tries to recommend Izz and Retty to Angel, avoiding his company and sacrificing her own chances.
- Angel Clare
Angel works alongside the dairymaids in the garlic search and walks next to Tess, showing continued interest in her.
- Izz Huett
Izz is one of the dairymaids Tess points out as pretty and suitable for Angel.
- Retty Priddle
Retty is the other dairymaid Tess recommends to Angel, noting she colors up when he looks at her.
- Dairyman Crick
Dairyman Crick organizes the garlic search and expresses concern for Tess's health, telling her to rest.
Key passages
“Self-sacrificing as her mood might be, Tess could not well go further and cry, "Marry one of them, if you really do want a dairywoman and not a lady; and don't think of marrying me!"”
Tess, in a self-denying frame of mind, almost tells Angel to marry one of the other dairymaids instead of her.
This moment reveals Tess's deep sense of unworthiness and her willingness to sacrifice her own happiness.
“It was not, of course, by accident that he walked next to Tess.”
Angel deliberately positions himself beside Tess during the garlic search.
The narrator emphasizes Angel's intentional closeness to Tess, contrasting with her efforts to avoid him.