# XXII explained — Tess of the d’Urbervilles

> Chapter companion for Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy.

## 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.

## Character check-ins

### 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 lines

> 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._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tess_of_the_d_urbervilles_se/chapters/xxii
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tess_of_the_d_urbervilles_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tess_of_the_d_urbervilles_se/chapters