The Leitmotif of Pursuit in Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles

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The Leitmotif of Pursuit in Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Pursuit recurs in Tess of the d'Urbervilles as a strong leitmotif. Starting with their first encounter, Alec Stoke-d'Urbervile lusts after Tess with his desire for steadily increasing thereafter. He withholds the crucial information that he is not her cousin, and they in fact have no familial relationship whatsoever. While under the impression he is her cousin, Alec uses this ignorance to get closer to her. Feeding her strawberries in an obviously erotic manner momentarily appeases his lustful hunger. His longing for her never abates from contact with Tess - perhaps even the opposite might be said: the more contact he has with her, the more he seems to want her. Alec, ...

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...e only way to stop this vicious cycle of pursuit is death.

Angel's description of Tess as Demeter, the goddess of chastity, and as Artemis, goddess of the hunt, seems quite fitting for Tess. Tess Durbeyfield is, as Hardy's subtitle indicates, a pure woman and as the men in the novel demonstrate by their actions, a hunted animal.

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