Tess - Context Flashcards
When was Tess of the D’Urbervilles written?
1891
What were Hardy’s religious beliefs?
He was agnostic.
The world is “at best uncaring, at worst malignant”
What writing Techniques does Hardy use?
Classical realist
Omniscient narration
Intrusive narration
Free indirect discourse
What Novel contributed to Hardys loss of religion? when was it written?
Darwins ‘The origin of species’
1859
True or false:
Hardy was brought up Christian
True
He lost his faith at 27
What is determinism? And give a quote from the novel that suggests this is a determinist novel.
the doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes regarded as external to the will.
‘The president of the Immortals’
Hardy describes himself as an ‘evolutionary meliorist’. What does this mean?
Hardy refused the label ‘pessimist’ because he argued that his view on life was not this. His meliorism meant that he feels man has the duty to act morally and well to others as the world is worse than it need be.
He believed that traditional socio-sexual conventions and taboos oppressed the individual, but alot of that could be changed.
What writing style was traditional for 19th century authors?
Classical realist
Who pioneered ‘free indirect speech’?
Jane Austen
What was Hardy most critical of about Christianity?
The hypocritical values it spread and preached. Such as the stigmatisation of ‘the pure woman’ is in direct conflict with ideals of compassion and forgiveness.
What is prolepsis and what effect does it have in ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles?
Prolepsis is ‘flashforwards’
It makes her fate seem inevitable, as if it has already happened, enhancing Hardy’s deterministic views.
Which village is Alec’s home?
Trantridge
Which religious village do the Clares live in?
Emminster
Briefly outline the ways in which Hardy uses Chance and to what effect?
Chance becomes linked to the cause and effect writing style that Hardy adopts as a Classical realist. The sense of ‘if only that hadn’t happened’ is omnipresent in the novel, showing Hardy’s ‘malignant universe’. For example Tess frequently attempts to tell Angel of her rape before their marriage but all her attempts are thwarted by Chance.
Tess of the D’Urbervilles was subject to much censorship and controversy. Why?
In presenting Tess as a ‘pure woman’, Hardy was seen as mocking marriage and condoning what society genuinely thought of as immoral behaviour.
