 The novel closes with Angel and Liza-Lu watching from a nearby hill as the black flag signalling Tess's execution is raised over the prison.Angel and Liza-Lu then join hands and go on their way.Hardy's writing often explores what he called the "ache of modernism", and this theme is notable in "Tess", which, as one critic noted, portrays "the energy of traditional ways and the strength of the forces that are destroying them".