Revision Cards - Tess of the D'Urbervilles: A Level, Genre, structure and language

Revise the key points

A novel is a long prose narrative that relates human experiences. It has many roots but most critics believe that the British novel originated in the eighteenth century.
Critic Jonathan Arac, among others, has described the nineteenth century as ‘the age of the novel’. Hardy was writing in the literary mode of his age.
Tess of the D’Urbervilles contains elements of the pastoral genre – a mode of literature that presents man and nature as living harmoniously.
Tess of the D’Urbervilles can also be described as a work of realism, with Hardy representing things as they are rather than idealising rural life.

Genre, structure and language

Tess of the D'Urbervilles: A Level

Hardy divided his narrative into chapters, and then into longer ‘phases’.
The titles of the phases are significant and allow us to trace the fluctuating fortunes of the protagonist.
Just one phase, the sixth, does not refer directly to Hardy’s eponymous character Tess. The ‘convert’ is Alec who temporarily embraces religion.
The narrative is largely relayed in chronological order, with a very occasional flashback to Tess’s childhood or to Angel’s life in Brazil.

Genre, structure and language

Tess of the D'Urbervilles: A Level

Hardy uses a third person, omniscient narrator. Although Tess is the focaliser or main perspective, the narrative also has the privilege of knowing the thoughts of all characters.
Hardy includes authorial intrusions to call our attention away from Tess’s story to wider issues, such as injustice and fate.
The tone of the novel can be sceptical and even anti-religious at times. To Tess, God is a ‘vague ethical being’ (p. 85).
The narrator is heterodiegetic (not involved with the story) but appears biased in Tess’s favour. For example: at the end, ‘Justice’ is treated ironically (p. 397).

Genre, structure and language

Tess of the D'Urbervilles: A Level

Dialogue makes the reader feel they are present when a scene in the novel is taking place, witnessing an actual conversation.
Hardy uses dialect to root his novel in Wessex (Dorset/Wiltshire/Hampshire) and to delineate social class.
Tess’s accent changes as the novel progresses: she begins by speaking in dialect despite her education (p. 16) but contact with Angel makes her speak ‘fluently’ (p. 311).
Hardy also creates drama by relaying conversations that Tess overhears, such as those between her parents.

Genre, structure and language

Tess of the D'Urbervilles: A Level

Victorian society was dominated by Christianity, and biblical references pervade Tess of the D’Urbervilles.
Alec offering Tess fruit in his garden recalls the narrative of temptation in Eden in Genesis (p. 42).
The reference to the Var river as ‘the pure River of Life’ from Revelation 22 emphasises that Tess has an opportunity for a new life (p. 103).
The reading from Proverbs 31 by Angel’s father helps the reader to evaluate what it means for a woman to be ‘prized’ (p. 263).