Then Tess becomes involved with Mrs D"Urbervilles" son, a rich and sensuous young man Alec, who takes advantage of her and seduces her. By him the girl has a child which dies in infancy. .
The second stage of the novel concerns Angel. At the Dairy, Tess meets the intellectual and free-thinking son of a clergyman Angel Clare, with whom she falls in love with her whole being. But she is in dilemma, being accused by her own conscience while feeling she should tell Angel about her past. She tries to write him a confessional note but unfortunately Angel never sees it. After their wedding, Angel and Tess both confess indiscretions: Angel tells Tess about an affair he had with an older woman in London, and Tess tells Angel about her history with Alec. Tess forgives Angel, but Angel cannot. He abandons her and goes to Brazil. Several years later, the husband comes to understand his moral and intellectual arrogance and searches for the girl, only to find that the extreme poverty of her family has driven her back to the other man, the seducer. So strong is the girl's love for her husband and so powerful her disgust is at what the other man has forced her to become, that she kills the other man. The couple, together again but on the run from the police, spend a few days of loving reconciliation before the girl is arrested, tried, sentenced to death for murder, and executed. Angel mourns her death, and marries her sister instead, keeping a promise he made to Tess.
What an exceptionally bleak novel! What persistent cruelty of fate against Tess, a pure and chaste woman! Never have I been so immersed in a book and so moved by a book. Tess of the D"Urbervilles offers me the most unforgettable reading experience that I ever know. By describing the tragic fate of Tess, Hardy discloses the misfortune to the lower class in the development of the English Capitalism and strongly criticizes the exploiting class and the contemporary social moralities and religion in the capitalistic society.