the phrase tremulous shadow of the sea is an example of

The interactions between Angel and Tess reflect the way the modern industrial world view gradually overpowered the traditional rural one. Interpreting the novel this way, Angel is the intellectual spirit of modern progress, while Tess is a living personification of the innocent natural world. Tess herself is an embodiment of nature and her and Angel embody the ideological conflict between modern and traditional ways of life that prompted the rural decline depicted in Tess. Tess's paganism is representative of the traditional rural worldview, with its belief in the superstitions and its celebration of fertility through festivals like the May Day Dance. This carnality is at odds with the Hellenic paganism proposed by Angel. Intimately connected with the earth: it is aesthetic, sensuous and 'impassioned'. Angel's desire to learn to far is symbolically significant, as it demonstrates the way in which the interests of the intellectual class (Angel's brothers are priests and scholars) began to turn towards agriculture in the 18th and 19th centuries. This Hellenic paganism represents the modern world view rational, abstract and uncompromising- in other words, the very values that propelled the Industrial Revolution forward. Hardy describes it as a 'hard logical deposit or vein of metal' in Angel's nature. Angel practiced a Hellenic paganism, which he has 'persistently elevated at the expense of Christianity'. In the novel, these two kinds of paganism represent completely opposing worldviews.

In the novel, Hardy makes a clear distinction, for example, between the paganism of Angel Clare and that of the inhabitants of the countryside. Hardy employs two religious strands of imagery weaving together Christian references to the Fall (which operate on a narrative level) and pagan references (which Hardy uses to classify his characters)

The phrase tremulous shadow of the sea is an example of