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Thomas Hardy
· Tess of the d’Urbervilles
· Project Gutenberg
With pain that was like the bitterness of dissolution she murmured the words of her indispensable and sworn answer as an honourable woman. “O Mr Clare—I cannot be your wife—I cannot be!” The sound of her own decision seemed to break Tess’s very heart, and she bowed her face in her grief. “But, Tess!” he said, amazed at her reply, and holding her still more greedily close.
Tess's whispered refusal carries the weight of irrevocable commitment, conveyed through the metaphor of bitterness and dissolution. Her declaration, framed as both indispensable and sworn, underscores the solemnity with which she upholds her personal honor aga...