Narrative

Question 1

how does serialisation the narrative of a text?

Answer 1

-Victorian literature commonly has a fairly leisurely pace as the story was published in instalments and the author could not afford to disclose the main plot too soon

Question 2

How does serialisation affect tess

Answer 2

• Hardy UNLIKE most Victorian authors does not rely on subplots to maintain momentum
• he uses a picaresque structure yet focusing on only very few central characters

Question 3

the pace of Tess

Answer 3

• Tess has relatively few adventures but the effect of these are life changing
• Hardy aims for a long anticipated build up to the single event

Question 4

How does Hardy use dialogue to explore characterisation?

Answer 4

• Tess: not allowed any eloquence in her speech: her puriety lies in her simplicity; her complexity in her unspoken feeling
• Both Alec and Angel are much more eloquent- this inidcates they are less sinscere and more ppursuasive/ manipulative. Words area form of power for them, power over the much more inarticulate Tess

Question 5

Examples of melodrama in Tess

Answer 5

• Alec’s Murder, with the blood dripping through the ceiling
• The deaths of the slaughtered pheasants around Tess
• Angels sleepwalking
• The Durbeyfields camping out by the Kingsbere vaults

Question 6

Examples of symbolic melodrama in Tess

Answer 6

• Tess’s boots being found by Mercy Chant
• The sign painter with his texts in red paint
• Tess’s letter slipping under the carpet

Question 7

how are letters used in the first half of Tess? (before the split with Angel)

Answer 7

• very few letters at the beginning of Tess
• Hardy omits the letter to Angel that falls under the carpet- this letter would be interesting as throughout the novel the details of Tess’s liasion with Alec are left fairly obscure
• We see Joans letter to Tess- he misspellings given the letter a comical aspect, and illuminates the inter-generational advancement in education

Question 8

Use of letters in the second half of Tess (after the split)

Answer 8

• in the later stages of the novel where absence is a growing factor letters are more frequent but still not plentiful (as Angel forbids her to write)
• Hardy thus uses letters to suggest non-communication or communication too late or disregarded- this is intensified by the fact that all letters must pass through