Tess Durbeyfield is the protagonist of the novel; the plot revolves around her development as a character and the conflict she experiences. Tess is a beautiful young woman with physical characteristics that men tend to find alluring; Hardy describes features, such as a “pouted-up deep red mouth” (21), that imply that Tess possesses a voluptuous beauty. However, Tess’s beauty is largely a source of suffering for her, as it piques Alec d’Urberville’s interest in her and sets the tragic plot in motion.

In addition to her beauty, Tess’s blend of rustic simplicity and thoughtful intelligence also makes her a source of interest to both major male characters. She has received a better education than many of the local villagers; the narrator comments on the vast discrepancy in education between Tess and her mother by explaining that “there was a gap of two hundred years as ordinarily understood” (29). Angel is struck by Tess’s existential musing that “this hobble of being alive is rather serious” and later offers to further her education because he can tell that she possesses a keen innate intelligence (139). However, Tess is also quite sheltered, which often leaves her vulnerable to errors and manipulation: When she tells her mother what Alec has done to her, Tess laments, “[L]adies know what to fend hands against […] but I never had the chance o’ learning” (94).