Tess of the D Urbervilles (Literature)/YMMV


 * Draco in Leather Pants: Alec in the 2008 BBC version. He's way more sympathetic than in the book or the other films, complete with a clear Freudian Excuse (and lacking a creepy moustache, too).
 * Some give Alec this treatment in the 1979 film version. Yes he is portrayed with some humanity, but ultimately possessive and disregarding of Tess's emotions.
 * Some girls go as far as wanting Tess to be with the handsome rapist who feign repentence.
 * My God, What Have I Done?: Angel does eventually realize his cruel treatment of Tess.
 * Narm: Modern readers often find the Deus Angst Machina plotline just a little bit too much to handle seriously.
 * Purity Sue: Simultaneously played straight and subverted. On one hand, by Victorian sensibilities, presenting a female rape victim as unfailingly pure was shocking - common thought would have been to view her as a slut who must have been 'asking for it'. On the other, Tess is deeply a victim of Victorian tragic literary convention, and considering that her only real character 'flaw' is her early naivete (which is presented as a part of her innocent charm), she definitely rings more than a little of this. Hell, even the title of the novel is Tess of the d'Urbervilles: a Pure Woman Faithfully Presented.
 * The Woobie: Tess.
 * Jerkass Woobie: Angel, he suffers a severe fever in Brazil.
 * The Alec of the 2008 version seems to have shades of this.