Tess of the d'Urbervilles: Chapter 49 Summary & Analysis

The Clares receive Tess's letter and hope that it will make Angel hurry home. Mrs. Clare's only complaint to her husband is that Angel wasn't given the chance to attend Cambridge like his brothers. Mr. Clare still feels justified in his decision, but he prays for Angel and misses him. They wonder what went wrong with his marriage and blame themselves.

At that moment Angel is in the interior of Brazil, riding towards the coast. He has had a hard time in Brazil, as have all the hopeful farmers and their families from England. His moral sense has also matured, and he now considers intentions more important than results. This makes him start to feel guilty about how he has treated Tess. He wonders why she doesn't write, and assumes she is doing well.

On one of his journeys Angel rides with another depressed Englishman, and tells him all the details of his marriage. The stranger has traveled in many cultures and remarks how limited Angel's views are. Tess's past should be nothing compared to her present, and Angel was wrong to reject her.

The next day the stranger gets a fever and dies, making his words feel more important. Angel begins to realize how narrow-minded he has been, all while thinking he was being so philosophically open. He had chosen Paganism over Christianity, but Pagan culture would never punish someone for being raped.

Angel thinks again of Izz's words and of Tess's faith in him on their wedding day. Slowly he becomes Tess's advocate against himself, and withdraws his criticisms. Her d'Urberville name starts to appeal to him, as it has no economic value but much sentimental interest in terms of the fallen mighty ones.

Angel also realizes that despite her “impure” past, Tess is still the ideal of purity and freshness that he had loved, and so his feelings begin to return, though he is too far inland to receive the letter yet.

Tess meanwhile fluctuates in her hopes of Angel's return. She decides to learn to sing some of the songs Angel had played on his harp, and she cries as she practices them alone in the cold fields.

Lady-Day and the end of her employment approaches, and one day her sister Liza-Lu appears at the door, looking much more mature. She says that their mother is dying, and their father is also ill, and he still won't work because of his high ancestry. Tess decides to leave the farm early and start home that night.