Men have learned to exploit nature, but they have yet to transcend it. The laws of nature strongly influence human behavior, and these laws are often antithetical to those of society. Therefore the conscientious human being is constantly in flux, attracted at the same time by primordial and civilized forces. In Tess of D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy portrays Tess Durbeyfield as a character subjected to this type of compulsion. She and the men who love her are unable to reach a compromise between their animal lust and their civilized sensibilities, and their collective inability ultimately destroys her happiness. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Hardy shows that Tess has primal desires. At the May Day procession, she is the characteristic girl with the deep red mouth, mobile face, red ribbon and abundant endowment. Her figure exudes sexuality. Hardy also places Tess in a setting that matches her sensual and natural attributes. Following the sound of Angel's harp, he walks through a "damp, smelly" garden with juicy grass, which raised mists of pollen at the mere touch...on his bare arms [there were] sticky patches which, though white as snow on the apple-tree trunks, made stronger stains on her arms" (97). The heavy, mature description in this passage screams sex. Moisture and pollen promote reproduction, the arms are bare and the spots are white as snow on trees, alluding to sperm. Through this scene Hardy suggests Tess's ability to be sexually aroused, although this arousal may only be in her subconscious, as she does not particularly notice her surroundings. The use of natural imagery shows that the lust in Tess came from her features, as gifts from nature. Tess's Sixth Standard education and Christian morality are just a thin veneer, because ultimately she cannot resist the biological urge to procreate. The season also reflects this need, as Tess's passion for Angel grows like the summer heat, "[a]mid the oozing fat and hot ferments of the Froom Vale, in a season when the flow of juices could almost be felt beneath the hiss of fertilization" (113). The author explicitly links Tess to the intense fertilization activity of the valley that surrounds her. It shows that nature forces Tess to search for Angel, just as nature would force two rivers in the same valley to merge eventually. Hardy also describes the attraction between Alec and Tess as natural. At their first meeting, Alec feeds Tess strawberries, and she eats them in a "half-satisfied, half-reluctant state" (30). Alec also covers Tess in roses. Strawberries and roses are symbols of passion; Tess readily accepts them. Hardy reveals that Tess has animal instincts that her more refined sensibilities cannot hope to suppress. This sense of inevitability is implicit in Hardy's description of The Chase: "Above them stood the primeval yews and oaks of The Chase...around them stole rabbits and leaping hares" (58). Apparently there is nothing wrong: life in the woods continues. Hardy's reference to rabbits and hares isn't just a cute detail, as these animals are known to be prolific breeders. Tess and Alec are in great company. Throughout this scene, Hardy emphasizes that the half-forced, half-consensual sexual act, disgusting to human sensibilities, is entirely normal in the natural scheme of things. Here lies the conflict. Despite Tess's strong passion for Alec and Angel, she cannot reconcile her feelings with hersocial laws that require women to be physically and mentally chaste. As Tess climbs the lonely hills surrounding Marlott, shortly after her return from Trantridge, she reflects on her actions and condemns herself for them. The narrator then comments that Tess "had been forced to break an accepted social law, but no known law from the environment in which she imagined such an anomaly" (68). In other words, Tess gives in to the sexual drive that nature gave her. In contrast, social laws seem arbitrary and unrelated to the reality of life on Earth. Yet it is social laws that Tess consciously tries to obey, even though her attempt inflicts guilt and unhappiness on her. Tess is also a victim of the sexual double standard. The night Angel and Tess arrive at the D'Urberville mansion, Angel obtains Tess' forgiveness for her affair with a London lover. Ironically, Angel can't find the same compassion within himself when Tess recounts her misdeed. The double standard stems from the Victorian-era belief that virile young men should be given allowances. Furthermore, men were the initiators of sex. Women were supposed to passively accept male desire. Yet one would expect Angel to transcend these prejudices. The irony of the confession scene is the contrast between what is expected of Angel and what he does. Angel is a person who rejected Christianity for humanism. Hardy reports that Angel said that "much better outcomes might have resulted for humanity if Greece had been the source of the religion of modern civilization, and not Palestine" (126). On this view, one would expect Angel to recognize morality as relative to circumstances. Yet Angel obeys a harsh and dogmatic morality, which is even more condemning than that of his parents, whose "hearts were suddenly unleashed towards extreme cases" (242). Angel's parents would have pitied Tess: they would have seen her as someone to love and save. So it's doubly ironic that Angel rejects Tess---he is neither faithful to his parents nor to himself. Through Angel's rejection, Hardy convincingly demonstrates the power of society to shape morality and therefore behavior. Although Angel may forget both his humanism and Christian forgiveness, he cannot escape the powerful bond of the oppressive social code until it is too late. Tess, inculcated with the same Victorian values, accepts Angel's judgment of her: "I will obey you as your miserable slave even if he should lie down and die" (184). Tess doesn't defend herself; accepts that her past actions have taken away her right to self-determination. She, like Angel, believes that lust and propriety cannot coexist in the same person. Once again, the conflict between nature and society destroys Tess's hope for a happy relationship. Tess's men cannot reconcile their attitude towards love, given by nature and instilled by society. But the conflict between nature and society prevents this fusion, since men are unable to combine sexual passion and Victorian morality: they choose one or the other. Alec is the character whose love is primordial: he represents the force of nature. Nature demands only the proliferation of life, the physical act of sex. Sophisticated love does little to propagate a species. Angel is the antithesis of Alec. His love is not physical: it is idealized and spiritual. Together they make the perfect lover for Tess, who needs both types of love. But in love the two halves do not make a whole. Alec plays his role from the start, calling Tess "my beauty", "my beautiful girl" and "my beautiful cousin" when they first meet. His behavior did not.