Characters
(Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction)
Generally the novel's minor characters sometimes come to life with quick, deft strokes of defining habits or idiom, such as Joan Derbyfield's...
(The entire section is 2226 words.)
At a Glance
- Tess Durbeyville, an uneducated peasant who falls victim to many personal disasters.
- Alec Stoke-d'Urberville, who takes advantage of Tess. She kills him in the end.
- Angel Clare, Tess' husband, who abandons her to travel to Brazil.
- Richard Crick, the owner of Talbothays Dairy, where Tess works as a milkmaid.
- Jack Durbeyfield, Tess' alcoholic father.
- Joan Durbeyfield, Tess's practical mother.
- Sorrow, Tess' child, who dies soon after being born.
