Tess (1979)

Peter Firth: Angel Clare

Photos 

Quotes 

• [last lines] 

  Angel Clare : She's sleeping. Just a little longer?

  Tess : Have they come for me?

  Angel Clare : Yes.

  Tess : Oh, I am ready.

• Angel Clare : Which are my hands and which are yours?

  Tess : They're all yours.

• Angel Clare : I forgive you. But, forgiveness isn't all.

  Tess : Nor love me.

  Angel Clare : I can't help associating your lack of firmness with the decline of your family. Decrepit families imply deficient will power and decadent conduct. I thought you were a child of nature; but, you were the last in a line of degenerate aristocrats.

• Angel Clare : Tess! Why run away like that? Are you afraid?

  Tess : No, sir. Not of outdoor things, no.

  Angel Clare : But, you have your indoor fears, eh?

  Tess : I have, yes.

  Angel Clare : At what?

  Tess : I couldn't rightly say.

  Angel Clare : Of the milk turning sour? Fear of life in general?

  Tess : Yes, sir.

  Angel Clare : So have I. Very often. Life's a puzzle. Don't you think?

  Tess : Perhaps. Now, you've put it that way.

• Angel Clare : Happiness seems to put an edge on my appetite. I'm starving.

• Tess : You don't forgive me?

  Angel Clare : You were one person, now you're another. Have mercy.

  [laughs] 

  Angel Clare : Have Mercy.

  Tess : What do you mean by that laugh? How can you speak to me like this? It frightens me. How can you?

  Angel Clare : You are not the woman I love.

  Tess : Well, who am I then?

  Angel Clare : Another woman in her shape.

• Angel Clare : Leave that! You're my wife, not my servant!

  Tess : I'm your wife? You don't want to live with me. You want to go, don't you?

  Angel Clare : I couldn't stay without despising myself. What is worse, without despising you. How can we live together while that man exists? He is your natural husband. Not I.

• Angel Clare : It's absolutely necessary that one of us remain here - to avoid a scandal. We must at least keep up appearances.

  Tess : Oh, yes. We must.

• Angel Clare : I should like to see Mrs. Clare.

  Mrs. Durbeyfield : Mrs. Clare?

  Angel Clare : Tess.

  Mrs. Durbeyfield : Yes, I know. She's not here.

  Angel Clare : You are Mrs. Durbeyfield?

  Mrs. Durbeyfield : Yes.

  Angel Clare : Where is she living?

  Mrs. Durbeyfield : I don't know.

  Angel Clare : I'm her husband.

  Mrs. Durbeyfield : I guessed as much.

• Tess : Did they sacrifice to God here?

  Angel Clare : No. To the Sun, I believe. It was a pagan temple.

  Tess : Older than the ages. Older than the d'Urbervilles.