The Leitmotif of Pursuit in Hardys Tess of the dUrbervilles Essay

The leitmotiv of Pursuit in Tess of the dUrbervilles Pursuit recurs in Tess of the dUrbervilles as a loaded leitmotif. Starting with their first encounter, Alec Stoke-dUrbervile 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 nonplus 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 air mo custodytarily appeases his lustful hunger. His longing for her never abates from contact with Tess - perhaps tear down the opposite might be said the more contact he has with her, the more he seems to want her. Alec, ... ...e only way to stop this vile cycle of pursuit is death. Angels description of Tess as Demeter, the goddess of chastity, and as Artemis, goddess of the hunt, seems quite adjustment for Tess. Tess Durbeyfield is, as Hardys subtitle indicates, a pure woman and as the men in the novel demonstrate by their actions, a hunted animal. 3