Innocence, purity and freshness of Tess rightly made Angel to describe her as, “What a fresh and virginal daughter of nature that milkmaid is”.
True to Angel’s description, Nature acts in a parental way towards Tess, protecting her or reflecting her feelings, indistinguishable from nature. In ‘Tess’, nature serves as a living character as oneness between Tess and nature is established which is often expressed through her moods and instincts. She is all symbolic to nature as humans don’t find time to stop and cherish the beauty of nature, Tess too was over sighted by Angel but as whenever man gets time to refresh himself through the beauty of nature and goddess of beauty never disappoints him, Tess on her part was relative to nature as Angel named her after Greek goddess such as “Artemis or Demeter” that makes her seem coupled with supernatural side of nature. Like towards nature, for Tess too “Strangers grow momentarily fascinated by her freshness”. When they glance over her features, on her “large innocent eyes”, they seem so like equilibrate and affectionate glance of nature over humans, having no discrimination for any race thus as innocent as Tess’ eyes.
Now in the life of Tess, most moving characters are Angel Claire and Alec; both are symbolic to their part. Being Tess’ lover, Angel is playing for a naturalist who loves, admires and cherishes nature and considers it most exquisite and flawless thing of the world. Such admiration is shown when it is narrated that Angel “loved Tess; her soul, her heart, her substance_” but the same saviors and admirers of nature were not there alongside with it when industrialists practiced their evil plans over nature, same like when Tess was screaming alone in agony when Alec, like an industrialist or materialist was depriving her of her purity and the very lover of Tess, Angel Claire, who vowed to protect her by every mean, was even unconscious of the fact that harm had been done, that her blossoming fertility was snatched away. Nature, being wounded by the materialists is no more able to shower its beauties in the same prosperous way though it can’t deprive humans, being helpless by its affection for them……Tess being alive of nature was also though not made barren but being wounded, now the outcome of her fertility was ‘Sorrow’.
As nature is not subject to man-made laws, Tess too is seen as taking her decisions by her own. At an instance, she has also played for hostile nature as when nature is infuriated, it gets revengeful, Tess took her revenge when was reached to the limits of her patience and thus she murdered Alec. But now it was the act of eleventh hour, Nature was now demonized by the materialists, it was dying , the fields which were considered never to be brown and the spring, never to be dry, were breathing their last, its saviors, the naturalists, living in the character of Angel, didn’t come to rescue her when its freshness had been dusting by the materialistic figures like Alec, thus now it was of no use to sympathize with Tess as that dust had made her short of breath and eventually, had damned her to her death as she herself says at last, “There is no more spirit in me”.....