It was on the day of the May Dance,
that Tess's father encountered the parson
who revealed to him what would better have been left forgotten.
A chance encounter. A chance remark.
Yet such things determine our fate.
Good day, to you.
- Good day, Sir John.
Well, sir, beggin' your pardon,
but what might be your meaning in calling me "Sir John,"
when I be plain Jack Durbeyfield, dealer?
On account of a discovery I made not some little time ago.
- I thought you might perhaps know, Durbeyfield,
that you are the lineal descendent of the ancient and knightly family
of the D'Urbervilles?
Well, daze my eyes.
One of the noblest families in England.
And, shall we ever come into our own again?
I mean....would it be our family mansions
and estates and...our lands?
- Oh, you haven't any. You're extinct.
As a county family.
But, it was my whim to tell you.
Well, well. You'll turn around and have a quart of beer
on the strength of it?
No, thank you Durbeyfield. You've had enough, already.
D'Urbervilles!
[ Local girls arriving for the annual May Dance ]
Hey! Call me "Sir John!"
- Tess Durbeyfield.
- If it isn't your father ridin' home in a carriage.
- He had to get a lift home because his horse has to rest today.
- [ Laughing ]
Yes and he'll have to rest tonight. He's got a bellyful!
Look, I won't walk another inch with you if you say jokes about my father.
- My dear brother, I know you think yourself agnostic,
but surely you must agree that Christianity has been
and continues to be the dominant influence
- on our civilization. - Yes.
Which is precisely why so many people are still living in this dark ages,
my dear brother.
[ Sounds of cheerful laughter and music ]
[ Shouts and dancing ]
Angel, what are you doing?
I'm inclined to go and have a fling with them.
Oh, no. No. Dancing in public.
With a bunch of country bumpkins.
Suppose we should be seen.
Oh, that would never do.
Go on. I'll catch you up in five minutes.
D'you like the May-day dance, sir?
Yes!
It seems a pity, though. Where're all your partners?
Well, they're all away. They'll be here soon.
Till then, you be the ones, sir.
Certainly, but what is one amongst so many?
Oh, I'm sure you've got more than enough for all, sir.
- Don't be so forward.
Now, pick a partner.
Pick and choose, sir.
[ The outspoken girl was not chosen ]
[ Neither was Tess, in spite of her new-found lineage ]
[ The band strikes up the music ]
[ Following his example, the village young men joined in ]
- Will you dance with me, Tess? - No, with me!
- I was gonna ask her. - I asked her first.
I'm not dancing with either of you.
I'm havin' a rest.
[ The church clock strikes ]
- Robert. - Goodnight, Tess.
[ An owl hoots and flies away ]
[ Singing from inside the house ]
- Evenin', Tessie, love.
- # ...in yonder lawn. Come, love, and I'll show you where. #
# Come, love, and I'll show you where. #
- # Oh, come, and I'll show... - I will rock it.
- Oh, Tess, I forgot you're back. - I'll take off my best frock, and
...what you're doing should have been finished long ago.
I must tell you what's happened.
Has it anything to do with Daddy making such a show of himself
in a carriage this afternoon?
We felt like sinking into the ground with shame.
Because he had something to celebrate, that's why.
Listen to me.
We've been found to be the greatest gentlefolk in the whole county!
Our family reaches way back before Oliver Grumble's time.
Our family, when it comes to our real name not being Durbeyfield,
but D'Urbervilles.
Just so, great things may come of it.
Where's Father now?
He'll have to be up by midnight, won't he,
if he's to deliver the beehives to Casterbridge for tomorrow.
Don't you be bursting out angry, Tess.
Poor man was so shaken by the Parson's news
that he went up to Rolliver's to get his strength up for the journey.
He went to Rolliver's to get his strength up for the journey?
- And you agreed, Mother? - I did not agree.
I've been waitin' for you to get back and keep house
- so I can go and fetch him. - I'll go!
Well, no. It's no use in your going.
[ Door opens and closes ]
- Abraham.
[ Sounds of music inside the house ]
[ Knock on door ]
[ Door unlocks and opens ]
[ Whispering ] Hello Joan. Go on up.
[ Door closes and locks ]
- Dozens of them, all of Purbeck-marble.
- There. ..... compress and trails from it.
Told ye what's happened to us, I suppose?
Yas, you know why.
Ha, ha. D'you think there's any money hangin' by it?
- .....probably a vault at Kingsbere, and
- finest skeletons as any man in Fredrick!
- I'm heir as good as some folks here. I'm heir.
Don't be so loud, my good man.
In case any member of the government might be passin'.
Then I could lose my license.
Jackie, listen to me.
- Here, Joan, you sit here.
Thank you, Tim.
I've somethin' to tell you that's come into my head.
A grand project.
- What I've been thinkin' since... - Here, Joan.
.... that there's this great lady helped me
at Tantridge on the edge of The Chase.
Her name is D'Urberville.
That woman must be our relation.
And my project is to send Tess to claim kinship.
Joan Durbeyfield better be careful.
She could be gettin' that Tess into trouble.
She's a find figure of....
There is a lady of the name.
Uh, nothin' beside us.
A junior branch to us.
Junior maybe but that lady's rich.
Tess ought to go to see this other member of our family.
Likely enough there can be some noble gentleman wantin' to marry the maid.
And, uh, what does our Tess say?
Oh, I haven't asked her yet.
But it certainly would put her in the way of a grand marriage.
And she won't say nay to goin'.
Oh...uh, Tess is queer.
Yeah, but she's tractable at bottom.
- Joan!
Leave her to me.
- # I've got a family vault in Kingsbere. #
- You'll never make it to Casterbridge tonight.
- Oh, I will.
- Mother, what will we do? Someone must go.
- It's late for the beehives already. - Some youngfeller, perhaps.
- One of them looked so keen to dance with you.
Oh no, I wouldn't have it for the world!
And everyone would know that Father can't make the journey.
[ Slurring ] Ohhhh. I'm head of the noblest family
in the whole Wessex.
Mother, I think I could go if Abraham came with me to keep me company.
Oh, would you, Tess? You're a good girl.
Oh, ah, here we are.
[ Horse nickering ]
Tess? Yes, Abraham.
Aren't you glad we've become gentlefolk?
Not particularly glad.
Well, aren't you glad you're going to marry a gentleman?
What?
That our great relation will help you marry a gentleman.
We have no such relation.
What put that into your head?
I heard Mother talking about it when they came back tonight.
There's a rich lady of ours over at Tantridge,
and Mother said you claim kin of her she'd put you
in the way of marrying a gentleman.
Aby, you must have been dreaming.
Tess? Yes, Abraham.
How far away are the stars?
Oh, millions of miles.
Is God on the other side of them?
Yes.
And this side, too, they say.
[ Sounds of the mail-cart fast approaching ]
If you got rich you could buy a giant spyglass
and see them right close.
I mean, if you married a rich gentleman.
Aby, don't go on about that.
Lie back and go to sleep.
[ Mail-cart racing toward them ]
[ Tess falling asleep ]
[ Tess's lantern goes out ]
- Ho! Look out!
[ Shouts and screams from the horse as they collide ]
[ Tess's horse continues to scream in pain ]
- Your lights have gone out. What're you thinking of?
- Come down here.
Come on. Lemme show you how's this horse.
Steady, walk on.
Come on, there. Come on.
Steady lad, steady. Lie still.
Oh, Prince.
- I have to go on with the mail bags.
Best thing for you to do is stay here, and I'll
send someone to help you as soon as I can.
- He's dead, love.
[ Mail-cart drives on ]
[ Sobbing ] Aby!
[ Sobbing ] I'm sorry.
Aby, wake up. I killed Prince.
Aby.
[ Sobbing ] Wake up. I've killed Prince.
[ Back home; baby crying ] Poor Prince. Is he gone to heaven?
- He has, boy.
- It's right that he rest with us, here.
I couldn't a sold his old body.
That's a fine feeling, Jackie, but we coulda' done with that money.
How we gonna manage?
How we gonna make do without a horse?
Uh...let the nacker keep his shillings.
Old Prince served us well in his lifetime.
Well, I won't part with him now.
Well, we must take you up for the downs.
But, Tess, never was your fine blood found a more called-for moment.
You must go to Mrs. D'Urberville and claim kin.
And ask for some help in our time of need.
I'd rather try to get work for myself.
I know you would.
But Tess you've tried to get work and found none.
There is no work.
And how we gonna eat?
Durbeyfield, you can settle it.
If you say she ought to go she will go.
I don't like my children going and making themselves
beholden to strange kin.
I'm the head of the noblest branch in the family.
And as such I ought to live up to it.
Oh, Father.
I don't know.
Suppose as I could go. I ought to do something.
I don't mind going and seeing her.
But you must leave it to me about asking for help.
Don't think about her makin' a match for me.
It's silly.
- Well, we're all set, Tess.
And who said I had such a thought?
I fancy it's in your mind, Mother.
But I'll go.
[ Horses nickering ]
[ At Tantridge Cross ]
- Thank you. - Walk on.
Tess had never traveled outside her own parish before.
But having made the long journey across country to her ancestor's estate,
she was expecting to find the ancient D'Urberville mansion.
But found instead a newly-built house of brick.
[ Sounds of peacock calling and distant laughter ]
- Well, my beauty.
What can I do for you?
I'm lookin' for a Mrs. D'Urberville.
- She's my mother.
But I'm afraid you can't see her. She's an invalid.
May I be of help?
- What was the business that you wished to see her about?
It's not business. It's... I can hardly say what.
Oh, not business. Then pleasure?
Oh no, no. It isn't pleasure, it's...
Tell me.
Sir, if I tell you, it'll seem so foolish.
No matter. I like foolish things.
Well...my mother asked me to come.
I came, sir, to tell you that we are the same family as you.
Uh...poor relations.
But our mother said we ought to make ourselves known to you.
As we've lost our horse by a bad accident
and are the oldest branch of the family.
[ He sniggers ]
Our name has worn away to Durbeyfield.
There are several proofs that we are D'Urber.....
I see I amuse you, sir.
Ah...no, no. Your mother was quite right.
And I, for one, do not regret her sending you.
So, you've come on a... friendly visit?
As...well, relations?
I suppose I have.
Then I must make you welcome.
Come, I'll show you around.
No, no, thank you. But no. I think I ought to...
- How did you get here?
I took the van to Tantridge Cross.
Well, it's a while before he returns that way.
Supposing we walk around the grounds awhile to pass the time.
I really must think that I can't do something to help.
My mother must find a berth for you.
But listen, no more nonsense about 'D'Urberville'.
'Durbeyfield' only, you know, it's quite another name.
I wish for no better, sir.
Do you like strawberries?
Yes,
- Is it too warm for you?
Are you uncomfortable?
Fragrance. Delicious.
There are some beautiful specimens here.
You must take some home with you.
As many as you can manage.
These.
These are British Queen. A real beauty.
Ugh...uh, uh, uh.
No. No, I'd rather take it with my own hand.
Nonsense.
[ Softly ] I insist.
[ Softly ] Now, bite.
[ She bites sharply ]
[ Laughing ]
Why, you be quite a posy! And such roses early in June!
Oh, these, the flowers were given to me.
[ Caged birds singing ]
So you think she could manage the fowl farm, do you?
I'm sure she could.
Would you mind standing in front of me?
- I prefer you to face me.
Of course, Mother. Forgive me.
Durbeyfield. How embarrassing.
Well, she was under the impression that our families were related.
You didn't explain that we merely adopted the name?
No. No, she's never have understood.
I thought you said she seemed highly intelligent.
She does.
It's just....I think she'd be shocked to learn you could just
legally annex an old name.
She's rather naive.
But the main thing is, Mother, that she seems very capable. Very...
- Is she pretty?
Yes, she is quite pretty.
Quite womanly.... for her years.
Then I suppose you'd better go and get her.
So Tess had to abandon any hopes for the future
that she might become a teacher,
and instead accepted the role that fate had decreed for her.
Don't she look lovely, Durbeyfield?
Aye, she do that.
Now, [ clears throat ]
you tell that young man I will consider selling the title.
Tell him I will take, uh, a thousand pound.
Well, maybe less.
Hundred.
No.
Say, he may have it for 20 pound.
And that's the lowest.
Family honor is family honor.
[ Softly ] Good-bye, Father.
Good-bye, my maid.
Tess,
No, Mother!
Tess, climb aboard.
Go on.
[ Door opens ]
What's the matter with you, then?
I don't know exactly.
Perhaps it would have been best if Tess had not gone.
Oughtn't you to have thought of that before?
[ Sobbing ] 'Tis a chance for the maid.
She's ought to make her way with him if she plays her trump card right.
And if he don't marry her before, he will soon after.
What's a trump card, then?
Her D'Urberville blood, you mean?
No, stupid, her face.
As 'twas mine.
- Huwa!
[ Horse whinnies ] Huwa!
[ Horse neighs ]
[ Horse nickers ]
[ Horse neighs ]
- Huwa!
- Whoa!
[ Horse whinnies ]
- Whoa! Whoah!
- Ho boy!
You will...go down slow, sir, I suppose?
Why, Tess, it isn't a brave, bouncing girl like you
that asks such a question?
I always go down at full gallop.
Giddap!
[ Horse snorts ]
Yahhh!
Hyaa!
[ Horse neighs ]
[ Horse whinnies ]
- Huwaah - Oh!
- Huwa! - Ah!
Ho!
[ Horse nickers ]
Huwa!
Not on my arm! We'll be thrown from the cart!
Hold on my waist! That's it.
- Ah! - Huah!
Whoa!
Huah!
- Stop! - Giddup!
Huah!
Ah!
Huah!
- Ah! - Whoa!
Safe, thank God, in spite of your foolin'!
- Tessie fie! That's temper! - 'Tis truth!
You needn't let go your hold of me so thanklessly
the moment you feel yourself out of danger.
Stop. Put your arms around my waist again.
Never!
Then, let me put one kiss on those Holmberry lips,
or even on that reddened cheek, and I'll stop, I swear.
I don't want anyone to kiss me, sir!
And I wouldn't have come if I'd known!
- Oh! - Huwah! Wahoo!
Why you're mighty sensitive for a country girl!
You will be made sorry for that unless you let me do it again.
And this time...no handkerchief!
Very well, sir.
Oh!
- Let me get my hat! - Whoa! Whoa!
[ Horse whinnies ] I'll get it.
I'll get it!
[ Horse neighs ]
Why, you look prettier with it off, if that's at all possible.
Come, Tessa.
No!
What, you won't get up here with me?
No, I shall walk.
But it's five or six miles yet.
I don't care if it's dozens!
Besides, the luggage cart is following.
Ha. Ha.
[ Rooster crowing' ducks quacking ]
Mrs. D'Urberville wants the fowls, now.
What's the fowls?
Oh, you...
She likes to have the fowls brought to her each morning.
[ Chickens clucking nervously ]
[ Squawk ]
[ Peacock calling ]
[ Hens clucking ]
[ Canaries singing; large clock ticking ]
Ahh. You're the young woman come to look after my birds.
I hope you'll be kind to them.
Well, where are they?
She's eating enough.
I believe so, ma'am.
Feed her up. Feed her up.
Yes, I will.
[ Clucking loudly ]
Can you whistle?
Whistle, ma'am?
Yes. Whistle tunes?
I think I can.
Then you'll have to practice it everyday.
I want you to whistle to my Bullfinches.
If I cannot see them, I like to hear them.
And we teach 'em airs that way.
Mr. D'Urberville was whistling to them this morning, ma'am.
He...huh, huh...phwef.
[ Tess trying to whistle ]
[ Chickens noisy ]
[ Tess's whistling is blowing mostly ]
[ Warbling whistle in background ]
- Ha, ha, ha.
- Oh, forgive me, Tess, -How dare you!
I cannot resist the sight of you trying to whistle.
Upon my honor, cousin Tess, I have been watching you
pouting up that pretty red mouth of yours
to whistling and phwing and phwing
- and privately swearing... - I didn't swear!
Yes, you did on not being able to produce a note.
Why, you were quite cross that you can't do it.
I may be cross, but I didn't swear.
I'll teach you how to do it.
On, no you won't!
Now, don't be silly Tess. I'm not going to touch you.
Now look here, you're screwing your lips up too harshly for whistling.
Try it like this. [ He warbles with no tune ]
Try it.
Oh, come on, Tess.
Mother won't be happy with you unless you can whistle to her birds.
Try it.
[ Tess whistles faintly ] - That's it.
And whistle. [ A steady whistling sound ]
[ A weak steady whistle ]
[ Loudly ] Yes, that's it! That's it!
[ Tess giggles ]
But it's more effective if you shape your mouth like this.
[ Alec demonstrates with a steady whistle ]
[ Tess does the same; Alec kisses her ]
I taught you whistling, cousin,
and one day I'll teach you kissing.
Every Saturday night the maids of the Slopes
repaired to the local market town
for a night of drinking and merrymaking.
For a long time Tess did not join the weekly pilgrimage.
But under pressure from the others, she went along with them.
[ Loud singing, dancing, music and general merrymaking ]
Why do you choose to come in here to dance?
Maids don't think it's a spectacle to dance in the village.
They don't like see everybody see with their fancy men are.
- So it's, as you say as long as they didn't ask for it.
Are you coming home?
Soon, after this gig, maybe.
Besides, tomorrow's Sunday. Sleep it off in church morning.
Well, My Pretty, what are you doing here?
May I ask the same of you?
I've come to take you home.
What?
It's a long walk.
And there's always a lot of unreliable characters at market day.
I've only a saddle horse, but come with me now.
I'll hire a trap.
Thank you, but I won't trouble you.
I said I'd walk home with my friend Nancy.
- She'll be expecting me now. - Very well, My Princess.
Be it so.
[ Dogs barking; owl hooting ]
[ Market Day dance crowd walking home ]
[ Laughing and talking ]
Car, what is that clinging down your back?
Is it hair?
Oh, God, it's that treacle!
It's spilled from the basket!
Ahhhh!
[ Laughter ]
You be like a whirling dervish!
Going about hurley twirley!
Don't you dare laugh at me, you bitch.
I could hardly help doing what the others did.
You think you're superior, don't you?
You think you're better than everyone else!
- Just because you're his favorite, right now.
- No.
Well, I'm worth two of you.
And I'll show you....
No, I am not goin' to fight!
And if I knew what you and your friends were like
I wouldn't have let myself down by joining you.
Oh, listen to her.
Who she think she is!
Don't...
[ Scuffling ]
[ Horse neighs and nickers ]
What the devil's going on here?
Jump up behind me.
Stupid cow!
Out of the frying pan and into the fire!
[ Laughter ]
[ Owl hooting ]
Where are we.
We're in the oldest woods in England.
It's foggy.
- I can't see where we're going. - It'll clear up.
It's a beautiful night. Just, just enjoy the ride.
All right.
- Set me down. I'll walk home. - You can't walk home.
- We're miles away. - I don't care where we are.
Only let me get down.
- Please. - All right. - I beg you.
[ Alec kisses her ]
I'm not even sure myself quite where we are.
I'll, I'll go and try and find my bearings.
Come. Sit here.
These leaves aren't damp yet. Come.
- Ugh. - Don't worry.
Oh, and Tess, your father has a new horse today.
Somebody gave it to him.
Somebody?
You.
And all the children have new toys.
Oh, you're very kind.
Thank you.
But, I almost wish you had not.
Why?
It...hampers me.
Oh, Tessie.
Don't you love me just a little bit now?
Ever so little.
I'm grateful to you, but I'm afraid I don't...
Oh, Tess.
Tess
Shhh.
Come, don't cry.
Hey, you're cold. [ She sniffles ]
Here.
Here
There. That'll keep you warm.
[ She sniffles or sobs ]
Wait here.
[ He walks away ]
[ An owl calls ]
[ She sniffles and falls asleep ]
[ Some time later ]
[ Sound of quiet footfalls ]
[ He kisses her ]
[ He repeatedly kisses her ]
[ He kisses her more]
No, don't. Please!
[ Sobbing ] Stop!
Stop!
[ Breathing heavy ]
Some weeks later in the early hours of the morning
Tess packed her bags and left.
- Whoa, whoah.
What'ya think you're doing?
Goin' home.
Well, the way you've been behaving these last few weeks
I can't claim to be surprised.
Why're you sneaking off like this?
This hour on a Sunday morning with everyone still in their beds.
Why are you going like this?
You weren't a prisoner.
Nobody would've stopped you going.
But, to climb all this way with that load.
I followed like a madman just to drive you the rest of the way
if you won't come back.
I shan't come back.
Well I didn't think you would.
Put up you luggage. Let me help you on your way.
Come along.
Walk on.
Why are you crying?
I was only thinking I was born over there.
Well, we've all gotta be born somewhere.
I wish I'd never been born.
There or anywhere else.
Oh, God.
If you didn't want to come to us Tess, then why did you come?
It certainly wasn't for love of me that I'll swear.
True
If I'd gone for love of you I wouldn't hate myself
for my weakness as I do now.
My eyes were blinded by you for a little, that was all.
Aw, that's what all women say.
Well, I thought I could look you eyes apart.
Did it never strike you that what every women says
some women may feel!
I'm sorry I wounded you.
I did wrong and I admit it.
These last three weeks you've treated me like a leper.
Even when I kissed you, you were like marble.
And if that's the way you felt, then why didn't you leave?
Why didn't you just leave immediately?
I should have done, but I didn't know what I...
I didn't know what to do.
Look...
I'm prepared to pay for the wrong I've done you.
You know you needn't work again. You can have any dress you like,
Instead of that sackcloth you've been wearing lately.
I've said I will not take anything from you.
And I will not.
I cannot.
I should be your creature to accept that.
And I won't.
All right. I can say no more, Princess.
I'm a bad fellow. I was born bad.
I've lived bad, and in all probability I will die bad.
But, I will never be bad to you again, Tess.
Do you understand?
If anything should happen.
You understand? If you ever need anything,
then you write, and you shall have it by return.
This is far enough. I'll walk from here.
Whoa.
Tess. You're not going to turn away like that, are you?
Come. For old acquaintance sake.
If you wish.
See how you've mastered me.
You don't give me your mouth and kiss me back.
You never willingly did that.
- You'll never love me, I fear. - I've said so often. It's true.
I've never really and truly loved you.
And I think I never can. [ Church bell chimes ]
Yet, Tess, won't you come back to me?
I don't like to let you go like this.
No.
Never.
I made up my mind as soon as I saw...
what I ought to have seen sooner.
Then, good morning, my four-month cousin.
And goodbye.
And you didn't get him to marry you?
He didn't ask me.
Oh, any woman would have got him to ask her after that.
Then any woman would except me.
[ Indistinct bickering ]
...sure there was a wedding in the offing.
- What will your father say? - ....do it to save face!
- I didn't love him! - Then you ought to be more careful
if you didn't mean to get him to marry you!
How could I be expected to know?
I was a child when I left this house!
Why didn't you tell me there was danger in men!
You didn't help me!
I didn't want to frighten you with talk like that.
I feared you might lose your chance.
We must make the best of it, I suppose.
'Tis nature, after all. And God's will.
Tess had run away from her past. Hoping to escape it.
But there was no escape. She was carrying a child.
The seasons turned, and the time for harvesting arrived
with it's opportunity for remunerative work in the field.
At last Tess ended her long seclusion.
Though even now she felt like a stranger.
She had broken the laws of society.
But in her feeling of guilt and distress
she believed mistakenly that she had broken the laws of nature itself.
Poor little thing.
It's not a well child, you know. It's sickly.
Tess'll look after her. She loves that baby.
Why does she say that she wishes it was in a churchyard, then?
Poor girl. It's a thousand pities
that it should have happened to her of all others.
It's always the comeliest. The plain ones are safe as churches.
Aye, Cissie?
What is it?
Poor little mite took sick this afternoon.
He can't breathe properly.
[ Sobbing ] He feels....
Tess, he may not last the night.
[ Baby crying ] I must send for the parson.
[ Father: ] No parson. No parson!
Father, he's not baptized.
I'll have no parson in here,
prying into our affairs. [ Slams door ]
Not now.
Not with the way things be as they be now.
[ Baby cries continuously ]
Mother, do something!
[ Whispering ]
Are you really going to christen him, Tess?
Yes.
Liza-Lu, wake up.
Wake up.
We're gonna baptize him. Wake up.
Hoe, Hoe.
Good girls.
What is his name gonna be?
[ In clear voice ]
"Sorrow," I baptize thee in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
Children...say, "Amen."
[ Whispering ] Amen.
[ Cock crows ]
[ Labored breathing ]
[ Whispering ] My precious.
What chance had you?
No chance at all.
[ Cock crows ]
Forgive me.
[ Tess speaks to parson ]
- So, will it be the same for him as if you had baptized him?
My dear child, it will be just the same.
Then, will you give him a Christian burial?
Ah. Well, that's another matter.
Another matter...why?
I must not for certain reasons.
Just for once, sir!
Really, I must not.
Then I don't like you, and I'll never come to church no more!
Don't talk so rashly.
If you don't, will it be just the same for him?
For God's sake don't speak to me as saint to sinner, but as you yourself.
To me myself.
It will be just the same.
Tess buried "Sorrow" in that corner of the churchyard reserved for "weeds,
unbaptized infants, notorious drunkards, suicides and others conjecturally damned."
Some two years later on a thyme- scented, bird-hatching morning in May
Tess left home for the second time.
The irresistible universal impulse to find happiness somewhere,
had at length mastered her.
She wanted to walk uprightly to make her life anew.
And so she made the long journey to the valley of the Great Dairies.
She had never before visited this part of the country.
And yet, she had this strange feeling of returning home.
In fact she had returned to the ancestral seat of the D'Urbervilles,
where once their grand estates had dominated the lanscape.
[ Calls from herders and cattle mooing ]
- How do?
Do you need a Durbeyfield?
- Aye, you come from Mallet? - Yes, that's right.
I'm Dillon Crick.
- Uh, your mother wrote me. -That's right.
There was an old woman of ninety used to live here.
Long dead now.
I now remember she told me there were a family
with a name like yours once ruled these parts.
A Durbey-field, Durbey-ville. Something like that.
A very ancient family all but perished.
Their bones are at Kingsbere Church near here.
Or so she said.
Would, uh...would they be your family of long ago?
Oh, I...I don't know.
Well, you traveled a long way, today.
You sure you don't want something to eat or drink?
I'd rather begin milking right now, if that's all right.
I'll have a drop of milk.
All right, if you can swallow it.
I haven't touched it for years. The rotten stuff.
Lay inside me like lead. Ha.
Here, follow me.
Here, now.
Try your hand on her.
[ Cow mooing ]
There you go.
Good girl. [ Patting cow ] Good girl.
Yeah.
That'll do, maidy.
Good.
[ Cow moos ]
[ Mr. Kail ] They're not giving down their milk as usual today.
It's because a new hand has come among us.
And I've been told it goes up into their horns, at times.
You should get a couple or two, yourself.
They likes a bit 'o melody.
Half buck, but a fiddle is best.
Why, a fiddle can even quiet a mad bull.
I knew a fiddler was faced by a bull, one night.
snorting and scraping in front of him.
Then he thought how he'd seen the cattle kneel on Christmas Eve
at dead of night.
So...he played The Nativity to 'em on his fiddle.
And lo and behold
down went the bull on his bended knee.
[ Angel Clare ] That's a wonderful story.
- It takes us back to medieval times when faith was a living thing.
Take it gentle!
It's knack, not strength, that does it.
Oh yeah. Fine.
I think I've finished it, unless she made my fingers ache.
[ Loud mooing ]
So, who is he, then?
Why he's a gentleman born.
Seems he's good at sheep farming, and now he's learning the dairy work.
He plays a concertina whenever in the evenings.
- Amen. - Never says much to us.
He's a parson's son, and too busy with his own thoughts to notice girls.
His father is the Reverend Clare.
And all his sons are parsons for except our Mr. Clare.
- What's his name? - Angel.
His name is Angel.
Angel Clare.
- I don't know about ghosts,
but I do know that our souls can be made to go outside our body.
- When we are alive.
Really, now maidy.
Lie on the grass, and look up at some big, bright star,
and by fixing you mind on it, you'll soon find that you're
hundreds and hundreds of miles away from your body,
which you don't seem to want at all.
- Now that's a rum thing, Christianner, hey?
- To think of all the miles I've covered on starlit nights,
and never feel my soul rise so much as an inch above my shirt collar.
Ha, ha, hey?
[ Laughter ]
No....huh.
It's only my fancy.
You having trouble there?
- I'm all right, Mr. Crick. - Get on with it.
Oop!
Ah!
You look like Demeter standing there.
Demeter?
The Greek goddess of fruitfulness.
Oh, perhaps not Demeter. Perhaps I should call you Artemis.
The goddess of purity.
Call me Tess.
Uh, Te..Tess, don't go. Please.
You're not afraid, are you?
No, sir. Not about out there.
But you have your indoors affairs, eh?
Why, yes, sir.
What of?
Couldn't quite say.
The milk turning sour?
Noooo.
What then?
Life in general?
Yes, sir.
Uh, so do I.
Very often.
This...business of being alive is pretty serious, don't you think?
It is.
Now you put it that way.
Who would say?
I shouldn't have expected a young girl like to see it like that, just yet.
Why is that?
- Come, Tess. Tell me.
- In confidence.
Oh I had a view you seem to see a number of tomorrows.
All in a line.
- One of those tomorrows is the day you die.
- But, you don't know which it'll be.
And all of them seem to be saying,
"Beware of me!"
- Such horrid fancies.
You, sir, you can raise up dreams with your music and drive 'em all away.
But, they aren't just fancies, Tess. They're very modern ideas.
- Though, the ancient Greeks would have known... - Aw, don't talk to me about ancient Greeks!
I know nothing about all of that.
Uh-huh.
When I look at you I sometimes feel as though
our paths have crossed before.
Do you?
No.
Have I said something to upset you?
- I thought I had last night. - It's what you mean?
Me, myself.
Why? What?
When I see the things you know about.
What you've seen and heard and thought,
I'm serious,...what are nothing now.
I feel as if my life has been wasted.
Now, Tess...you're wrong.
Quite wrong.
If you did want to study something, history, any line of reading...
What's the point of reading some old book
only to discover that there were thousands of people like you in the past.
And you're just repeatin' their experiences.
Better not to know.
Not to know!
You mean you don't want to study anything?
I'd like to know why the sun shines on the just and the unjust.
Books won't tell me that.
Tess. Such bitterness.
- Shhhh.
[ Whispering ] There he be!
Don't push! You can see as well as I!
It's no use you're being in love with him, Izzy.
Who says I am?
I saw you kissin' his shade on the wall.
What did you say I was doin'?
The shade of his face fell on the wall behind her.
and she turned around and kissed the shade of his mouth on the wall!
Oh, Izzy Huett!
There's no harm in it.
And if I am in love with him, so are you.
We can't both of us marry him.
And we shan't anyway, either of us.
Why?
Because he likes Tess Durbeyfield.
Oh, it's silly.
He won't marry us, and he won't marry her, either.
A gentleman's son who wants to be landowner
and a farmer abroad?
He's more likely want us as farm hands.
I head him tell Mrs. Crick it'd be useless if he married a fine lady.
But, he hates old families, anyway.
Look, he said the sensible thing to do would be to marry a farm woman.
- [ Laughter ]
It's not churning.
I know. What's the matter with it?
Retty.
Do my tray.
Don't touch it. Leave it there.
Mr. Crick!
The butter won't churn!
[ Clare ] What can be wrong with the churn?
Why won't they make the butter?
[ Mr. Crick ] Blessed if I know. It sometimes happens, that's all.
[ Mrs. Crick ] Perhaps someone in the house is in love.
I've heard that will cause that.
Right, Crick? That maid we had?
The butter wouldn't come...
That had nothing to do with the loving.
The churn was damaged
[ Mr. Kail ] That said Jack Dollop and the maid's mother.
Jack was a milker here, and he deceived the girl
like he deceived many another.
But he didn't reckon on having her mother to deal with.
- She marched up here with a great brass umbrella (- We know.)
that would have felled an ox!
When Jack saw her coming, he said, "She'll murder me!"
And he jumped inside the churn.
Then they was huge in those days.
Pretty big, yeah!
But then the mother came in. Dragging the daughter behind her.
"Where is he?", says she,
"I'll claw his face off!" [ General laughter ]
But the poor maid for, long human rider (?),
she was stood by the door crying her eyes out.
I'll never forget it! Hee, hee, hee.
To beat the dandy, then the mother, she got hold of the winch,
and she spun the churn around,
with Jack flopping around inside [ Laughter ]
and out pops his head, then says, "Stop the churn,
"or I'll be churned into pulp. STOP THE CHURN, you old witch!"
[ Loud laughter ] Then she turns to him.
"Ah, hah, hah. Do you call me a witch, do you?
"when you should be calling me, MOTHER-IN-LAW!!"
[ Loud laughter, thunder ]
[ Thunder ] - So he churned that damage now.
And nobody here's in love, not to my knowledge.
Any?
The past came back to haunt Tess,
reminding her of the fragility of her happiness.
What was comedy to them was tragedy to her.
[ Thunder, steady rainfall ]
[ On their way to Mellstock Church ]
Who would've expected the river to rise like that in the summertime.
Is there any other way round?
Yes, but we'd be too late.
He's not going to church.
No, I wish he was.
[ Giggling ]
You trying to get to church?
Uh...yes...but it's getting late, and...
I'll carry you through. Every Jill of you.
I think you can't, sir.
It's the only way you'll get there.
Who's first?
I am...umm...me, thank you.
[ Laughter ]
[ Giggling ]
[ Church bell ringing ]
Izzy.
I may be able to climb along the banks, perhaps.
- I can climb better than they. - No. No, Tess.
You must be so tired, Mr. Clare.
- No.
I hope I'm not too heavy?
You should lift Marian. That's a lump.
And Izzy, squirming and shifting in my arms.
But they are both pretty girls, though.
- Pretty? - Uh-huh.
Yes they are pretty girls.
And excellent dairy women.
Yes, but not better than you.
Oh no, they skim the milk better than I do.
- Do they? - Yes.
Tess.
You know that I've done two parts of this job
just in order to do the third.
No.
I didn't expect this today.
You're right. The water came up so soon.
Bless the rains.
[ Softly ] Oh, Tess.
Thank you.
He likes you best.
The very best.
We could see it, as he held you.
He'd have kissed you if you'd encouraged him.
No.
No, you're quite wrong.
[ Clare whistling and skipping along ]
Good morning.
- Tess.
I understand that he spoke to neither of you.
He always notices you, Tess.
I can't help that.
I don't think that marryin' is mind at all.
And even if it was, I'd confuse him.
So I'd confuse any man.
Would you, Tess? Why?
It can't be, that's all.
Oh, well, it's all dreaming, isn't it?
I heard him tell Mrs. Crick that his
family had looked up some lady for him.
I wonder what she's like.
- Some lady? - Yes.
Of his own rank in his father's parish.
He says he don't care much for her,
but she's his family's choice, and he's sure to marry her.
[ Rooster crows ]
[ Indistinct chatter ]
[ Shivers, sneezes ]
I love you.
Truly.
She'll kick over the milk.
[ Softly ] Oh, Tessie.
Why are you crying?
I...I...I don't know.
Well, I've betrayed my feelings, Tess.
At last.
That I love you, I need not say, but...I see that it upsets you.
I'm as surprised as you are.
Do you feel that I've rushed you, taking...too much for granted?
I don't know.
I can't tell.
Morning, all.
- Morning.
[ All greeted him ]
I haven't seen anything of Mr. Clare this morning?
Nor I. Is he all right?
He's gone back to his family.
To his family?
Aye.
But he didn't say goodbye.
Oh, no.
Well, he's gettin' on toward the end of his time, isn't he?
He's learnt near all he needs about the dairy inside of things.
Now, he must sort out his future.
That's why he's got to see his family.
- And of the lady that they have in mind for him.
[ Gasp ] Mr. Clare, you gave me a start.
Dear darling Tessie.
Please don't "Mr." me anymore. I've rushed back on account of you.
I have told my family that I shall soon want to marry,
and that my wife must be a woman who can help me in my farming.
Will you be that woman, Tess?
Mr. Clare, I cannot be your wife.
I cannot.
Do you love me?
Yes.
I'd rather be yours than anybody's in the world.
But I cannot marry you.
Why? Is, uh...
- Are you engaged to somebody else? - No,
No.
Then, why? Why not?!
I don't want to marry. I haven't thought it.
I only want to love you.
Well, if you wanted to love me, why do you blow so hot and cold?
Why do you... keep tantalizing me?
I tell you, Tess, I'd take you for a flirt,
For a sit you could catch,
If I didn't know just honest and pure you are.
If you love me, why don't you like the idea of being my wife?
I can't. I can't.
- When? - Never!
Am I rushing you again?
Yes.
I didn't expect it.
Think it over.
I won't press you.
For now.
[ Cock crowing ] Four o'clock!
Mr. Clare!
[ Cock crowing ]
Mr. Clare!
Wake up, Mr. Clare.
[ Door opens ]
Now, Miss Flirt, before you flee.
Sometime since I've said my piece.
And, now that I've seen you in your nightgown,
you must give me an answer.
Or I shall be forced to leave this house.
For your own safety I must go.
Mr. Clare, I'm only just up. It's too early.
Well, call me Angel, then.
Angel, then.
Angel, dearest!
Angel, dearest.
If I must.
That's all.
Will you ride with me to the station, Tess?
[ Mr. Crick ] Go on, maidy.
[ Mr. Crick ] Well, come on, you three, back to work.
Thank you.
[ First train arriving ]
- Allez up.
[ Another train arriving ]
- Here you go, John.
[ Tess ] Londoners will drink their milk
it at their breakfasts to-morrow, won't they?
Yeah, I suppose they will.
Noble men and women, ambassadors and centurions,
ladies and babies who've never even seen a cow.
Especially centurions.
Who don't know anything about us, or where we come from
or how we two drive miles just so we'd reach 'em in time.
We didn't drive together entirely on account of these [ Thunder ]
precious Londoners, Tess.
We go, Ned.
[ Thunder ]
Tess, am I right in thinking that your heart belongs to me?
You know as well as I, yes.
Than, if your heart, why not your hand?
My only reason is on account of you.
I'm concerned for your happiness.
So am I!
Tess, you understand I wish to marry you
for entirely selfish reasons.
- Angel, I want to tell you of my life before I... - I want you to make me happy.
I didn't tell you once of my history.
- I want you to know it. - ...that I shall make you happy, too.
You won't like me so well.
- Angel. - Go on, then, your history.
You were born at so and so.
Marlott. I grew up there, and...
Marlott!
The dancing!
The May Dance!
I have met you before.
Yes. At the dance on the green, but you wouldn't dance with me.
Why didn't you stay and love me when I was sixteen
and you danced on the green? Why didn't you?
Just what I feel. Why didn't I stay?
Why didn't I. If I had only known!
It was fate.
But, Tess, I just brought us together again. What does it matter?
I...I only meant the I would have had four more years
knowing you. I wouldn't have wasted my time.
We...uh...I don't believe that you have.
Otherwise you wouldn't be what you are.
What I am?
The most perfect woman...
I have ever met.
[ Sobbing ]
[ Softly ] Tess.
I...I sometimes wish I'd never been born.
[ Softly ] Tess.
How can you say that?
After...
Do you really care for me?
Deeply?
Yes.
- Now, do you believe me? - Yes,
Yes, I do. Though I never really doubted.
I do love you.
With all my heart.
But, I...
- I don't deserve you. - Love,
now don't start saying that you don't deserve this
and you don't deserve that.
You really do not know your own worth, Tess.
Forgive me.
I interrupted your tale. You were born at Marlott,
Theresa Durbeyfield.
Yes, except I'm not a Durbeyfield, but a...D'Urberville,
a descendant of the ancient family.
But we are nothing now.
D'Urberville?
You are a D'Urberville indeed?
And is that the trouble?
Yes.
But, why should I love you any less, knowing that?
Because I heard you say you hated old families.
That is true in one sense. I do hate the aristocratic principle.
I believe that people should be valued for what they are,
and not their lineage, but...
Tess...you must spell your name correctly from this day on...D’Urberville!
Angel, I would rather not take the name. It may be unlucky.
Then the answer is simple.
Take my name
and escape your own.
You secret is out.
So how can you now refuse?
If it's sure to make you very happy to have me as our wife,
and you feel that you do wish to marry me very, very much.
[ Whisper ] Yes, yes I do.
I mean that you've...said that you want me very much,
and that you are hardly able to keep alive without me.
- Whatever I've done. - Yes, yes, yes.
It's only that makes me feel I ought to say, "I will."
You will?
You will say it?
You will be mine forever?
Yes.
The past would not go away, but appear right there before her
in the shape of her old enemy, Car Darch, leaving Tess with the dread of exposure.
Thank you.
What did you promise? What did you promise me the day you left?
- Mother, you made me promise.. - What did you promise?
- That you.... - That you would never tell a soul about your problem.
I fear I ought to tell him.
On no account.
I feel I owe it to him.
I didn't even tell you father everything.
Look, Tess, I've left Liza-Lu looking after the children.
I must get back.
Look, listen to me. On no account must you tell.
Men are very proud of their respectability. Your father is.
And like that your intended is the same.
But, I feel I was living a lie. I must tell him.
Never, never tell.
It was a long time ago and not your fault at all.
Why, you must forget it ever happened.
On the eve of her wedding Tess listened to her own heart
and made the fateful decision that she must tell Angel
everything about her past.
And so she began her confession.
Dearest, Angel,
I have not told you everything about my past.
And I must do so before it is too late.
When I was still only sixteen, I went to work for some relatives
of my family, and there... there encountered a distant
cousin who's name was Alec.
Alec D'Urberville.
[ Owl hooting ]
We're trying to do something about her for the big day.
Oh, it looks marvelous.
- Oh, look.
It's all so welcoming, so festive.
Well, we thought that we, at least, could do it up.
Since you didn't want us to invite everyone
and have a big party with fiddles and viols.
No, we just want it quiet.
So, this is the quietest celebration we could think of.
Thank you. Thank you, both.
Isn't it lovely, Darling.
It's very kind of you both. Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
- Did you sleep well, Darling. - Like a log.
Did you?
Well, I was too excited.
- Didn't you read it at all? - Finish your breakfast.
- Tess.
- Tess?
- Tess.
[ Door opens ]
Thank you so much.
[ Cheers of congratulation ]
Goodbye, my darlings.
I shall remember you always.
[ Cock crows ] I don't like to hear that.
What, Darling.
Crowing in the afternoon.
I don't like it.
Angel, tell him to drive on.
Drive on.
I have not heard a cock crow in the afternoon the whole year.
[ Cock crows ] - Goodbye.
[ All ] Goodbye!
Thank you.
[ Laughing ]
[ Door kicks open ]
Welcome to the ancestral manor of the D'Urbervilles.
Well, it was once. Now, it's rented out.
It's ours for the week. I wanted to surprise you.
We have the place to ourselves since the owners have gone away, bless 'em.
[ Tess giggles ]
She looks all right. Who is it?
That's one of you ancestors, I'm afraid, my dear.
I don't look anything like her.
Do I?
Oh, I don't about that.
I think there could be a certain...resemblance.
Angel, how dare you!
Which fingers are mine, and which are yours?
They're all yours.
My mother wanted you to have these.
What are they?
Tess, how beautiful you are.
Angel.
Do you remember...
what were saying to each other this morning about confessing our faults?
Yes.
I have a confession to make to you, Dear.
You have to confess something?
Oh, you didn't expect it.
You thought too highly of me.
Sit down here.
I wonder if you'll forgive me.
I'm sure that I will.
I hope that you will.
I..I mustn't say that. I must tell you first.
You know, Tess, that I am not religious.
Though I think I might claim to have my moral beliefs.
Uh, above all, I value simplicity and purity.
So you can imagine how I felt when...
with all my fine sentiments, I, myself...fell.
Briefly, I was alone in London studying, and I met a woman.
A woman some years older than myself.
And I spent two days with her.
Two days and...two nights of... madness.
Afterwards I was eaten up with remorse and guilt.
I...I couldn't even speak to the woman.
I left and went home.
It's never happened again.
But I felt that I must tell you.
[ Whispering ] Can you forgive me?
[ Whispering ] Yes.
Oh, Angel, I'm almost glad.
Because now you...can forgive me.
I have not made my confession.
- Remember? - Another one.
I tried to tell you this morning.
Oh, yes, so you said.
You smile, but it may be as serious as yours, or more so.
It could hardly be more serious, my love.
No, it can't.
Can it?
No, it can't be more serious, certainly.
Because it's just the same.
I'll tell you now.
When I was still only sixteen,
I went to work for some relatives in my family,
and there encountered a distant cousin,
whose name was Alec.
Alec D'Urberville.
And so she told him her story.
Speaking the words without flinching,
and sparing herself nothing.
Angel.
I was a child.
A child when it happened.
I knew...nothing of men.
You were more sinned against than sinning, I admit.
Then, can't you forgive me?
I do forgive you.
But you no longer love me.
You're not the woman I loved.
I thought you loved me, Angel.
Me,...my very self.
As I love you.
Tess,
I...I sometimes used to feel that you regarded me
more as an intelligence, than as a man.
- And I believe that I, in turn, regarded you more as an ideal,
than a woman. I saw you as some fresh
virginal daughter of nature. The very essence of womanhood.
More, than as a flesh and blood woman.
But, you are flesh and blood, after all.
And the irony is that that impulse that drew you to me
is the same impulse that drew you to that man!
No. My feelings for him were nothing like those
which drew me to you.
Your feelings for him!
- What were they?
I mean that I didn't love him in the way...
- I understand that and I...I believe that, but,
your... your feelings for him, you found him attractive!
Well, he was... good-looking in a way, and..
He knew that you found him attractive.
I can't speak for him.
[ Loudly ] Oh, come, come, a man knows when a woman
finds him attractive, as a woman does in reverse.
He may have known, but he knew I didn't love him.
Can you say...hand on heart... that he was solely, singly, entirely
to blame for what happened?
[ She hesitates ]
No.
[ Her mother was right ]
I could never forget those lovers.
Their faces blind to time and place.
Each isolated in their mutual despair.
I'm sorry.
I need to be alone,
while I...
Would you mind going back to the house?
- Breakfast is ready.
[ Door closes ]
Is he living?
- My baby died. - Yes,
but the man?
He's alive.
[ Sigh ]
If you cannot love me...
Cannot love me at all there's a way out for you.
You can divorce me.
How can I divorce you?
Tess, you... I can't divorce you.
You don't know the law.
You can't?
I thought that would be a way out.
No.
It's impossible.
But I suppose you're not going to live with me long.
How can we live together while than man lives?
He being your husband in nature, and not I.
You must... go away from me.
Yes.
But what can you do?
I can go home.
Home?
Are you sure?
Quite sure.
We ought to part.
And we may as well get it past and done.
And you would like to go home?
I want to leave you and go home.
I should provide for you, Tess.
I'll write to you.
- And may I write to you? - Oh, yes,
or my parents if you are ill, or if you should want
for anything at all.
Tess, I hope that there is no anger between us.
I certainly feel no anger towards you,
though deep down I feel...
I feel what I... cannot express,
and can hardly endure.
You fool. You little fool. I told you not to tell him.
I know it. I know, but I couldn't help it.
He was so good, and it seemed so wicked
to try not to tell him what had happened.
If it were to be done again I should have to do the same.
I could not. I dared not so sin against him.
You sinned enough to marry him first.
That was the agony of it. But if you knew...
If you could only half know how much I loved him,
how desperate I was to have him, and how torn I was between
my love, and how I wished to be fair to him.
[ Mother sighs deeply ] Well, what's done can't be undone.
You should have known better than to elaborate
such a thing when he couldn't have found out until it was too late.
What your father will say I dread to think.
First told the whole ale house about the wedding.
Talks of nothing else.
About his family getting back to their rightful position through you.
Poor, silly man.
And now you've made this mess of it.
[ Sighing deeply ] Oh Lord, oh Lord!
[ Door opens ]
You'd better let me break the bad news to him.
You stay out his sight for a while.
- But what about that? What she going to do?
- She can...make...make him keep her if he's married her, can't she?
- Oh, yes, be she won't think of doing that.
- D'you think she... he really hasn't married her,
- or is it like the other fella?
Listening to the doubts of her own father,
Tess realized that she could no longer live at home.
And so, for the third time, she went her own way,
leaving the family the money given to her by Angel.
Thus, Tess walks on. A figure which is part of the landscape.
A field woman, pure and simple,
with no sign of young passion in her now.
A casual laborer on short hirings,
hedging, well-sinking, ditching... man's work.
Her object now with the winter's work, and a winter's home.
On the winter wind she knows the worst.
Found the bitter sky.
She has learned too well for her years
of the dust and ashes of things.
Of the cruelty of lust and the fragility of love.
[ Indistinct conversation ]
- Has it really come to this, then?
- And to think you be a gentleman's wife.
It don't seem fair that you should be hacking swedes and lifting stones.
Yes it is quite fair.
Then why do you have to work for your living?
When you are Mrs. Angel Clare?
Marian, please don't talk about it.
Please.
All right. Upon my body 'tis a rum life for a married couple.
There. I won't say another word about it.
I can't leave it off, now.
'Tis my only comfort.
I don't think it's too fond a husband to go off and leave you like this.
He had to go. He was obliged to go
to look for land.
But he might have tided you over the winter.
Oh, that's owing to a... misunderstanding.
So where is he then?
Oh, east...west.
He didn't go away like some husbands without telling me.
And he told me that if I ever wanted anything
I only had to go and see his family.
And have you?
I did once walk to that village, and I saw them.
I saw them...I saw them outside the church, but they...
they all looked so grand standing there,
I couldn't face them. I couldn't go.
Cap in hand.
You're his wife. You had every right.
Yes, I am, but...
Why do you keep making excuses for him?
I'm not making excuses! He doesn't know how I am.
Well maybe it's time you told him.
When did you last hear from him?
Not for...almost a year.
Not, Tess!
Uh! I know how proud you are, but...
you're not helping yourself, are you, by suffering in silence?
Oh, it's too cruel.
And it's not even fair to him!
- At least write to him. - Huh?
Write to him and let him know your plight.
[ A preacher's voice ] - O foolish Galatians,
- who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth,
- before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth,
- crucified amongst you?
Believe me, I know. For I myself have been the greatest of sinners.
I have wantonly been with the reckless and the lewd.
- Yea, verily, I have seen the light. The Lord spake unto me, and...
- and the joy of... his word.
[ Audience complaining ]
Tess.
Tess, it's Alec.
Alec D'Urberville.
So I see.
Oh, is that all?
Is that all I deserve?
I suppose I look quite ridiculous in your eyes
in this situation just like this?
Yes.
Tess, please, wait!
Just for a minute.
I don't like the idea of you thinking me ridiculous.
You know my mother died?
No.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, too.
More sorry than I imagined, because, you know, I couldn't
stand the old...woman.
After her death, I went up north for a couple of years.
- I got involved with a group of Methodists. - Oh.
Don't laugh.
I was ready for change.
They were kind, gentle people, and they helped me reclaim my faith.
You don't believe me.
I don't believe in these sudden conversions, these...
flashes of faith!
They have no depth! No permanence!
Tess, don't look at me like that. I'll weaken.
I'm sorry.
Tess, I must go back. My people are waiting.
I must see you again.
And hear you.
You speak with more eloquence than I remember.
I've learnt things in my troubles.
Troubles?
What troubles?
[ She tells him ] [ Congregation mumbles ]
- I knew nothing about it!
Why didn't you write? Hmm?
When you knew you were carrying a child?
I would have helped you. You know that!
And maybe if I had, the child might have survived!
How dare you say that!
My child wanted for nothing!
Neither material things nor love,
that nobody could have saved.
I fathered a child!
It died before I knew of its existence!
Was it a boy or girl? Tell me!
- Let me go! - What was his name?
- I need to know! - I have no more to say!
Don't come near me again, ever.
Oh, Tess, look. The vicar.
[ Laughing ]
Oh-ho, well, that thing's done for.
Ah, even now, and to save us poor women.
- Say good sister.
Tess. I want to speak to you.
I told you not to come near me.
Yes, but I have good reason.
Tess.
It breaks my heart to see you slaving away like this.
Especially when I know the blame is mine.
I cannot undo it, Tess.
But I can try to make amends.
I've obtained this.
- What is it?
It's a marriage license.
- Oh.
No.
I don't want you to think that I'm asking for your hand
simply out of duty.
In this case, duty follows desire.
The truth is that I love you.
I've loved you ever since we first met.
You know I feel nothing for you.
You have every right to feel bitterness towards me,
but given time, when I learn to...
- Never. - How can you be so sure?
I love somebody else.
Somebody else?
Yes.
- It may not last. It may be a passing fancy. - No.
How do you know. You must tell me!
All right, then! I've married him!
What?
Married?
Who...who is he?
- Does he work here? - Huh,
Here, I should think not.
Who, then?
Please stop questioning me.
It's none of your business.
Remember, we're strangers now.
Oh, strangers are we?
You and I.
Strangers?
All right, then.
But, if you'd just tell me who you husband is,
then maybe I can help you and him.
Where is he?
He's far away.
Far away?
Far away from you? What sort of a husband is he?
Don't speak against him. It was because of you.
He found out.
I see.
That's sad, Tess.
- Yes.
But, to leave you here.
- To work like this. - He doesn't know about it.
He doesn't know how I live. It's my own choice.
Well, does he write?
I've said all I'm going to say.
That means he doesn't.
Listen Tess, you're a deserted wife.
Don't! Please don't!
Go away for the sake of me and my husband.
Believe me, I didn't mean...
Look, if you won't marry me or pass him,
I want you to give up this awful work.
Get out of this hell hole.
I want you to come and live with me.
That much I dissuade you, and it's mine, Darling, not his.
You know the rest.
Come with me. Come with me now,
and leave that mule that you call you husband, forever.
[ Slap ]
But remember my fine lady, I was master of you once,
I'll me master of you again!
If you are any man's wife, you are mine!
[ Peacock calls ]
[ Closes bible; removes collar ]
Tess was exhausted in body, yet her mind would not rest.
Anniversaries crowded in on her.
It was four years since that night in the forest with Alec.
Three years since her baby, Sorrow, died.
And a year since her wedding and Angel's departure.
When would he come back? When would she see him again?
[ Cough; gasp ]
[ Breathing heavily ]
Ohhh.
[ Loud steam engine roar ]
[ Whistle toots ]
You oughta' get a quart of this down ya'.
Like I just done.
You wouldn't look so pale then.
What was your body like if you're gonna' drop down dead.
Come on, then.
I'm here again, as you see.
Why do you trouble me so?
I trouble you?
I might ask why you trouble me.
I'm sure I don't trouble you.
Well, never mind.
I'm here again.
[ Sigh ] As in the old days.
Not as then. Never as then.
Different now.
The difference is that you are in a bad way.
Neglected by one who ought to cherish you.
Wait. I've more to say.
I can't. I must go down. I...
I've been to see your mother.
My mother?
How is she?
She's poorly, I'm afraid.
Poor Mother, I didn't know.
She asked where you were.
I think she'd like to see you.
Oh, God.
Tess, I know you have every reason to be mistrustful of me.
But, in this at least, please, trust me.
I want to help you.
I have enough, and more than enough,
to make you all comfortable.
You, your parents, your brothers and sisters...
Oh, God, don't mention my brothers and sisters.
If you want to help your poor relations...
God knows they need it.
Do it without telling me!
All I'm asking is that you have confidence in me.
Very well.
But I can't...I won't take anything from you.
Not for them, nor for me.
Tess writes: "My dear husband,
"let me call you so even if it makes you angry.
"I must cry to you in my trouble.
"I have no one else.
"I'm so exposed to temptation, Angel.
"I fear to say what it is. I do not like to write about it at all.
"But, I cling to you in a way you cannot think.
"Can you not come to me now? At once.
"I need you desperately.
"Come to me. Come to me and save me
"from what frightens me."
[ Tess returns home ]
- Mother. - Tess!
- I was led to believe... - Shhh.
- I was led to believe you were at death's door.
No. [ Door closes ]
Who told you that?
Mr. D'Urberville.
Well, I was poorly, but I'm better now.
I've had some bad days of labor.
He doesn't know what his country women are like.
We just get on with it, don't we?
Why are you up and doing the washing at this hour?
Well, I was in bed all day.
So, when it came time to sleep, I woke up. Huh.
Ah, I'm catching up. I've been all topsy-turvy.
And Father?
Oh, he's all right.
Especially now he's got some ale money in his pocket.
Your father.
Tess, he wouldn't take money from anyone else.
He accepted it from Mr. D'Urberville, same as any relation.
Mother, it's very kind of him, I'm sure.
But we can manage,... can't we?
I'll work the allotment.
We had to eat the seed potatoes.
Was it so bad, then?
Well, the children had to eat.
But, we'll manage somehow.
Won't we?
We always do, don't we?
[ Scrubbing sound ]
[ Chopping sound; Durbeyfields were behind in their allotment ]
[ Tess grunts ]
Joan! Joan, I have a project.
Could change our lives entirely.
Oh, what might that be, Jack?
I'm thinking of sending around to all the old antiquarians in these parts,
tell 'em who there is living among 'em, and them knowing nothing about him.
Why? How is that going to change our lives?
They spend a lot of money digging up old bones
and maintaining old ruins.
Now, if they only know'd about me,
I'm sure they'd take it proper thing to maintain me
as a living old ruin.
Heh! Ha, ha, heh.
Heh, what'ya say, Ted?
Heh, how would they laugh, at the sound of me, Ted!
What's that going down the road?
Old dirt crate, eh, heh!
Sir John,... come on you old ruin.
Jack.
Jack!
Dear Lord. I'll shall be summoned for this!
I shall lose my license!
- So, it's true, then. They're throwing you out because...
Because of me.
Miserable slobs.
Tess, I can help. I...I can offer you comfortable accommodations.
Don't need your help.
We've already taken rooms at Kingsbere.
And what are you going to do there?
Wait for that saint of a husband of yours
who's never coming back.
[ Door slams shut ]
[ Tess leaves a note for Angel, if he does come looking for her ]
"Why have you treated me so monstrously, Angel?
"I do not deserve it.
"I have thought it all over carefully, and I can never, never forgive you.
"You know that I did not intend to wrong you.
"Why have you so wronged me."
"You are cruel...cruel, indeed. I will try to forget you."
[ Angel knocks on door ]
I...
Mr. Clare!
[ Thunder ]
She finished here a couple of months ago.
She went home because her mother was poorly.
She went home?
Well, she said she was going home.
I've written to her home and received no reply.
Marian, I wrote and told her that I was back
and that I wanted to see her as soon as possible,
but I had no reply.
I think, perhaps, she doesn't want to see me.
Would that surprise you?
No.
No, it would not.
What's it been like... working here on the farm?
Horrible.
Hard horrible work.
I thought perhaps she'd ask my family for help.
- Apparently she never did. - Did you really think she would?
I hoped she would.
Marian, was she...angry with me? Was she bitter?
She never talked about you.
I don't know if that doesn't hurt even more.
Marian, tell me honestly.
Do you think she would prefer it if I left her alone?
Only Tess can tell you what she feels.
What do you think?
Me?
I think...
I think you should at least give her the opportunity to tell you herself.
I'm Angel Clare.
Now, you be good and stay quiet.
I am sorry sir, I really can't help you.
Mrs. Durbeyfield, please, I must see Tess.
- I must talk to her. - Why?
- She's my wife!
We thought you'd forgotten.
I'm sorry, I...I deserve that.
- Please tell me. Is she here? - No.
- When will she be home? - I don't know.
Do you know if... Is she well?
I don't.
You ought to know.
I admit it.
Where is she staying?
Well, I don't exactly know where she's staying.
- I think she was... - She was where?
Oh, Mrs. Durbeyfield, you give me the impression
that Tess wouldn't want me to try and find her
- If that is... - I don't think she does.
Are you sure?
I'm sure she does not.
The letters she wrote... Not the last one that's missing...
but not want to see me or even talk to me
I can't believe that. I can't believe that I...
I am sure she would want to see me.
I know her better than you!
That is very likely, sir.
For I have never really known her.
Mrs. Durbeyfield, please.
I beg you. Give me her address.
- I don't exactly have her address. - Tell me where she is. I beg you.
She's at Sandbourne.
Sandbourne.
It's a big place.
Well, I don't know any more particularly than I've said.
For myself, I was never there.
Thank you.
- Do you...
Do you want for anything, Mrs. Durbeyfield?
No sir,... we are fairly well provided for.
[ Door closes ]
[ Knocks on door ]
Good morning.
I'm looking for Theresa D'Urberville.
Mrs. D'Urberville?
Yes.
Uh, will you kindly tell her that...
that a relative is very anxious to see her.
It's rather early. I've just served breakfast.
She'll understand.
- What name shall I give, sir? - Angel.
- Mr. Angel. - No. Angel is my Christian name.
- Take a seat, sir.
[ Knock on door ]
Sorry to disturb you so early, Ma'am,
but there's a gentleman anxious to see you. A relative.
A relative?
By the name of Angel.
Thank you.
I'll come down.
- Tess.
It's nothing. I won't be a moment.
Eat your breakfast.
Tess.
Can you forgive me for going away?
- Can't you...come to me?
How...how'd you get to be like this?
It is too late.
Tess, I was wrong.
- I was wrong to think that... I didn't see you as you were.
But since then I've learned how wrong I was, and I've come to...
[ Door closes upstairs ]
[ Whispering ] Oh, Tess.
Tess, my love.
[ Whispering ] Too late.
Too late.
Don't, Angel.
You mustn’t come close to me.
Keep away.
All right.
- All right, but I have to talk to you.
- I have to explain.
- I traveled. I went to Brazil and worked on the land there.
- But I,...I fell ill.
Very ill.
- And I...
I have no excuses.
- I hate myself for what I said and did.
But I at least would have got back sooner
if I hadn't been in hospital.
I... [ Laughs ]
I had plenty of time to think there.
- And I thought of nothing but you.
You, Tess.
My dear wife.
- No. - Tess, please.
If I could undo all that has happened, I would.
- But, can't you forgive me?
Can't you love me like you once did?
I don't believe that your love could have changed,
not more than mine could have.
[ Whispering ] I want you to come with me.
I want you to meet my mother and father.
I told them that I was coming here to fetch you.
And they want to see you.
They want to welcome you.
[ Whispering ] Yes.
- Oh, yes.
But its...
too late.
Too late?
Don't you know?
Know what?
Tess.
You don't. Do you?
Yet, how is it that you're here, if you don't know?
Well, I...I've looked for you everywhere.
And then you... Someone told me that you were
at Sandbourne, and I managed to trace you here.
Why do you say...?
I waited and waited for you.
And you didn't come.
And I wrote to you.
But you didn't come.
He...kept...saying that you would never come.
- That I was a...foolish woman.
He was very kind to me and to Mother.
To all of us after Father's death.
Tess, what are you trying to tell me?
I don't understand.
He has won be back, then.
- He's...
He's upstairs.
I hate him, now.
Because he...told me a lie.
That you would not come again.
- And you have come.
These clothes are what he's put on me.
And I didn't care... what he did with me.
- Angel.
Please go away.
- And never come anymore.
[ Angel ] And it's my fault.
It is all my fault.
[ Door opens ]
What's the matter?
He came back
He came back.
And I didn't know.
- I didn't know. - What?
- You didn't know what?
You said he'd never come back.
You laughed at me.
You said you knew what men were like
and he'd never come back because he'd never be able to...
forgive.
And I believed you.
[ Sobbing ] I believed you.
And now he's gone.
[ Rising anger ] My dear husband!
- Oh, he came back?
- When?
- Where? Now?
[ Sobbing ] Now, he's gone!
Gone a second time!
[ Sobbing ] Oh, God, I have lost him now forever.
He won't love me the littlest bit anymore, only hates me.
Oh, yes, I have lost him now.
YOU SAID HE'D NEVER COME BACK!!
I didn't believe he would. I swear!
And I have lost him AGAIN, because of you!
Tess, you lost him years ago, when you first told him the truth.
- He abandoned you then.
I wouldn't have done that. No matter what you told me.
And HE wouldn't if he ever truly loved you.
He loved me.
He loves me still.
That's why he came back.
THEN WHY HAS HE GONE AGAIN!!
[ Sobbing ] My sin. My sin. He looks as if he's dying.
Tess! You rejected me a hundred times.
and it never altered how I felt for you.
- Because I loved you! That's all that mattered!
I offered you everything that I had to offer.
My soul, my life, everything!
My sin will kill him and not kill me.
- You've...torn my life to pieces.
You've made me be... you made me be what
I prayed you not to make me be again.
You used your wealth to get your way.
You knew I never loved you, but you exploited my family.
- You exploited your poor relations. - They're not my relations.
My people are not D'Urbervilles. We only adopted the name.
Not D'Urbervilles?
No!
Stokes! My name is Stokes!
I helped your family for your sake, because I loved you!
I would have done anything for you.
Not D'Urbervilles?
Not... Then it was all lies.
From the very start. Deceit and lies!
You have destroyed me! You have destroyed my life!
You have destroyed my husband's, my own true husband's!
Your own true husband is a spineless bastard!
[ Door opens ]
[ Scream ]
Angel.
I've killed him.
What?
I have done it.
He can never come between us anymore.
Can you forgive my sin against you, now I have killed him?
I thought you would be sure to forgive me, now I have done it.
Say you love me, Angel.
Say you love me, now I have killed him.
Tess, my poor Tess.
I love you.
I do love you.
Wha..what're you saying. What do you mean by saying,
"I've killed him?"
I mean that I have.
What?
You mean literally?
- Yes - You mean he's dead?
I thought it was the one way I might get you back.
- Does anyone else know? - No.
I left him in the room.
Come.
His mind in turmoil, Angel could think only of the need to protect Tess.
To remove her from the vicinity of the guest house before the alarm was sounded.
And so they hastened away from the promenade, away from the town,
avoiding high roads and following obscure paths with the vague notion
that they might find some way to hide until they had been forgotten.
[ Angel ] Until they raise the alarm, so...we walk a few more miles.
[ Tess ] I could walk forever with your arm around me.
[ Angel ] It's all shut up with the grass growing on the drive.
[ Tess ] Some of the windows are open.
[ Angel ] Just to air the rooms, I suppose.
[ Tess ] All of those rooms, and us without a roof to our head.
[ Angel ] You're getting tired, Tess.
[ Shuttered door opens ]
[ Pigeons wings fluttering ]
[ Door closes ]
There's probably a caretaker who keeps the place ventilated.
We have to keep quiet just in case.
You must be famished. I suppose I'll go and try to find some food.
Not now.
[ Shriek ]
[ Softly ] Angel?
[ Loudly ] Angel?
Angel.
[ Frightened ] Angel?
- Tess.
You were sleeping so deeply, I didn't want to wake you.
I've been to a farm a couple of miles from here to get some food.
You must be hungry by now.
I'm starving.
What are you thinking?
I worry about what you think of me now.
It may not last.
I don't wish to outlive your present feeling for me.
I'd rather be dead and buried. When the time comes
for you to despise me.
So that I'll never know you despised me.
[ Whispering ] I couldn't ever despise you.
I hope that's true.
But, I...
I have killed a man. I have ended a life.
I formerly couldn't bear to hurt a fly, or a worm.
The sight of a bird in a cage often used to make me cry.
- And now...Now I'm guilty of... - You are guilty of nothing.
He did love me, Angel.
Did he?
Yes.
In his way.
In the way his nature loved.
[ Angel ] In that way, yes.
[ Tess ] And now he's dead.
- And I'm guilty of... - Tess.
You are guilty of nothing.
If anyone is guilty...I am.
[ Angel ] Hmm.
Somebody's here. [ Sound of door opening below ]
We must leave at once.
Oh, happy house.
- If only we could have stayed there. - Don't keep saying it, Tess.
They'll be out in this district altogether soon.
We'll head for the north. Nobody'll think of looking for us there.
If they do look for us at all, it'll be at the southern ports.
When we get to the north, we'll head straight for a port,
and away. [ Kiss ]
[ Belongings left behind ]
I love it here.
[ Owl hooting ]
Being with you has been... such happiness, but now...
it's so solemn and lonely with nothing but the sky above our heads.
It seems there were no people in the world but we two.
I wish there were not.
Rest here until it gets a little lighter.
You won't leave me?
Never.
I'll never leave you.
Even after all I've done?
Whatever you have done or not done, my love.
I will never leave you.
And I will protect you with every means in my power.
Did they sacrifice to God, here?
No.
Who to?
I believe to the sun.
That lofty stone set away over there is in the direction of the sun.
Which will soon rise behind it.
You used to talk so much about your loss of faith.
Angel.
Tell me now.
Do you think we shall meet again?
After we are dead?
[ Sigh ]
Angel, I fear that means "no."
And I wanted to see you again so much.
So much.
What, not even you and I, Angel,... who love each other so well?
What is it, Angel?
Have they come for me?
They have come.
It's as it should be.
I'm almost glad.
This happiness could not have lasted.
I've had enough.
And now I shall not live for you to despise me.
I'm ready.
Justice was done.
Mankind in time-honored way had finished its sport with Tess.
And Angel went scot free?