Tess of the D

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Tess of the DUrbervilles

• Lecture 2 Paper 5
• Overview of Narrative Techniques

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Recap Lecture 1
Conflict btwn her moral ideals the double
standard in patriarchal Victorian sexual ideology
Victim of her own passivity her internalization
of the sexual moral codes in society (?)
Tess Woman as Victim
Victim of her high moral standards her pride
Victim of her own physical charms
Victim of her innate innocence purity a natural
disposition
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• Complexity of Tesss victimization is the
  source of the tragedy within and/or outside of
  her?
• A tragedy solely due to gender?
• What about family social class?
• Role of Fate Chance?

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• The force of the novel stems from the narrative
  methods used by Hardy to convey an intense
  sympathy for Tess
• Nothing is more remarkable in the novel than the
  extraordinary passion with which Tess is
  described and justified. (Biographer, Michael
  Millgate 1971)

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1. Setting

• Wessex a partly real, partly dream country
  (Preface to 1895 edition of Far From A Madding
  Crowd)
• Up until the last quarter of the 19th C.,
  Wessex was purely a historical term defining
  the south-western region of the island of Britain
  that had been ruled by the West Saxons in the
  early Middle Ages

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• With Hardys appropriation of Wessex in his
  literary creation, the term has come to mean a
  tradition bound region that is rural and
  pre-industrial, well steeped in superstition,
  folk-lore folk customs.
• Hardys Wessex centred in his native county of
  Dorset (South Wessex)

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• Visual effect of Hardys descriptive language
• Careful handling of scenery season, so that
  time place reinforce mood
• Use of dialect that adds a degree of authenticity
  in characterizing class diff.
• Novel marked by a degree of verisimilitude

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• TUB characterized by the emphasis of movement and
  the landscape changes with the changes in the
  phases of Tesss history
• Careful handling of scenery season, so that
  time place reinforce mood
• E.g. Contrast btwn the lush landscape of the
  Valley of the Great Diaries the drabness of
  Flintcomb Ash ? parallels Tesss wintry loss of
  sensuality and love

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• Natural setting is used symbolically and bears an
  integral relationship to the physical
  psychological state of Tess
• a daughter of the soil a figure which is part
  of the landscape, a fieldswoman pure and simple,
  in winter guise.
• Tess as a symbol of agricultural purity stained
  by industrialized society conflict btwn the two
  worlds of country city

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• Concept of Nature as the presence that remains
  unaffected by, indifferent to human suffering.
• Sometimes, Nature exercises an active influence
  on the course of events.
• like a fly on a billiard table of indefinite
  length (Chap 16, p.105) Tess as defenceless
  vulnerable

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2. Use of Coincidence / Chance events

• As the external expression of Fate which is
  omnipotent indifferent
• Chance a subordinate agency of Fate something
  that happens unpredictably without discernible
  human intention or observable cause

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• Cumulative effects of chance / coincidence that
  thwart Tesss well-intentioned actions
• E.g. Tesss wish to confess to Angel Clare before
  marrying him is frustrated by chance which has
  her confessional letter slipped under the carpet,
  so that Angel never sees it.
• Inevitability of suffering
• Too far-fetched? Excessive?

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3. Irony

• a) Cosmic irony
• Cosmic irony or the irony of fate exists when
  God, or destiny, or the universal process, is
  represented as though deliberately manipulating
  events to frustrate and mock the protagonist
  M.H. Abrams
• Ironic references to Christianity, God or gods

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• But where was Tesss guardian angel? where was
  Providence? Perhaps, like that other god of whom
  the ironical Tishbite spoke, he was talking, or
  he was pursuing, or he was in a journey, or
  peradventure he was sleeping and was not to be
  awaked. (Chap 11, p.74)

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• b) Irony of circumstance
• Two features when a person desires one thing
  the outcome is opposite, and when a person
  marries, he usually makes a wrong marriage
• E.g. The dUrbervilles residing at The Slopes are
  not the true dUrbervilles and instead of
  receiving help, Tess ironically loses her
  virginity because of her innocence.

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4. Omens Foreshadowing

• Images connected with omens of misfortune
• Death of Prince, the horse and Tess seeing
  herself as a murderess
• Tess pricked by a thorn from the roses that Alec
  dUrberville gives her on her first visit to his
  house
• Crowing of the cock on her wedding day signifies
  either a brides unchaste nature or just ill-luck
  
• Builds up a pessimistic atmosphere of fatality
  and impending misfortune

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5. Imagery Symbolism

• Natural imagery earth, flowers, agriculture
• Animal imagery
• Colour (esp. red)
• Clothing, dressing up
• Symbolic use of setting sun, mist / fog, light
  vs. dark, seasons
• Naming

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6. Point-of-view Voice Perspective

• Third-person omniscient narrator
• Events seen through the eyes of different
  characters (i.e. multiple perspectives)
• Intrusive voice of the author

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• Darkness and silence ruled everywhere around.
  Above them rose the primeval yews and oaks of the
  Chase, in which were poised gentle roosting birds
  in their last nap and around them the hopping
  rabbits and hares. But where was Tesss guardian
  angel? where was Providence? (Chap 11, p.74)

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Critical evaluation

• How do we as readers respond to this strength of
  feeling? involved moving or too heavily
  insistent, even contrived?
• Does this undercurrent of emotion conveyed by a
  significantly male voice complicate or perhaps
  even compromise Hardys social criticism of
  womens issues?

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• Forcefulness of sympathy for Tesss plight is
  double-edged.
• At one level, such forcefulness exposes the
  hypocrisy of Victorian sexual norms and its cruel
  injustice inflicted on women (in his time).
• Yet, at another level, some feminist critics have
  suggested that Hardy, in his fascination with
  Tess, is creating an ideal subjected to the
  voyeuristic male gaze.

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• Contradictory positioning of Hardy as a writer in
  presenting women and their experiences
• Hardy still sees Tesss self-effacing character
  (her meekness patience) as good and admirable,
  which paradoxically endorses a moral pattern of
  womanhood which the novel demonstrates is
  damaging and repressive

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• Hardy was sympathetic to womens dilemmas and
  demands, but this sympathy was still embedded in
  a culture which was still essentially patriarchal
• Fictional stereotypes of women (as natural,
  instinctive) remodelled, but not transformed
• Is this contradiction also found in Lawrences
  WL?