A liquid crystal device used for electro-optical devices, in which each parameter of the liquid crystal having layer structures is specified to provide a liquid crystal high in stress resistance and capable of gray scale display. The liquid crystal held between a pair of parallel substrates is either ferroelectric or antiferroelectric and represents layer structures. A plurality of substrate interface tilt angles can be set for the layer structures. The layer structures can be configured asymmetric or symmetric about a plane intermediate between the parallel substrates. With this configuration, a liquid crystal device is constructed having a plurality of layer structures including at least one layer structure, which has (1) a substrate interface layer tilt angle of 0.degree. to 3.degree. and the c director pretilt of 3.degree. to 5.degree., or (2) a substrate interface layer tilt angle of 4.degree. to 7.degree. and the c director pretilt of 0.degree. to 3.degree., or (3) a substrate interface layer tilt angle of 8.degree. to 20 .degree. and the c director pretilt of 9.degree. to 90.degree. or less.