The Relationship Between Love And Lovemaking In Hardy's Tess Of The D'Urbervilles

This paper examines the need of bodily sensation and spiritual sensation from the perspective of the heroine's relationships. I feel that Tess is facing the conflict between her body and her mind or her soul through her relationships with two men.I describe the theoretical backdrop of naturalism, feminism and Freudian theory to support this paper is argument and to provide a more complete understanding and to develop my analysis.Mr. Hardy creates an unconventional portrait of a woman who desires passionate love from one man and passionate sex from another. It is a staunch criticism of the sexual and social hypocrisy found in English society in Hardy's time, owing to the main character's unjust suffering from her will which she cannot control.Her life is full of love and human desire. Tess is strong and open-minded and is caught between her lust for Alec d'Urbervilles and her love for Angel Clare. Alec is the man who first makes the love to her and who also gives her sexual gratification. And Angel Clare gives her first love and fills her heart with happiness. This is why she lives in hesitation, and why she cannot choose her lover between Alec and Angel. And also this is why Tess moved from Alec to Angel, and then back to Alec before returning to Angel. According to my analysis and the analyses of others, as a normal human being, she needs both of them to fulfil her need for love and for lust. Lovemaking does not really need love but lovemaking is sacred only when love is present. The needs to love and to be loved are natural human instincts. Love and lust, the two extreme feelings of human beings, make 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' mysterious and poignant.