Context & Writer's Techniques (AQA A-Level English Literature A): Revision Notes

Context & Writer's Techniques

Understanding the context

Thomas Hardy's life and background

Thomas Hardy's personal experiences and upbringing deeply influenced his writing of Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Born and raised in rural Dorset, Hardy grew up in a working-class family where his father worked as a stonemason. His mother provided his early education until he turned eight. This rural upbringing gave Hardy an intimate understanding of countryside life and the struggles faced by rural communities, which he later captured in his fiction.

Financial limitations prevented Hardy from attending university, leading him to train as an architect instead. However, his true passion lay in writing, and he eventually dedicated himself fully to literature. Most of his stories are set in the Dorset region, which he renamed Wessex in his fictional works. This connection to his homeland is evident throughout Tess, as the landscape becomes almost a character in itself.

Hardy's personal life was marked by significant relationships that shaped his literary output. His first marriage to Emma Gifford in 1874 lasted until her death in 1912, an event that profoundly affected him emotionally and creatively. He later married his secretary, Florence Dugdale, in 1914. Hardy's novels, particularly Tess, faced considerable controversy and censorship due to their frank treatment of sexuality and social criticism. This hostile reception led him to abandon novel-writing after Jude the Obscure and focus on poetry instead. He died in 1928 at the age of 87, leaving behind a legacy that includes his most famous works: Far from the Madding Crowd, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and Jude the Obscure.

The novel's publication and reception

Tess of the d'Urbervilles was composed between 1887 and 1891 in Dorchester, England, and first appeared in print in 1891. The novel's publication was met with significant controversy, largely due to its candid exploration of female sexuality and its critical examination of Victorian social norms. The subtitle, A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented, was particularly provocative for contemporary audiences, as it challenged conventional moral judgements about women who had experienced sexual relationships outside marriage. This controversy reflected broader tensions in Victorian society regarding morality, gender, and class.

Historical and political background

Economic hardship and the Long Depression

The narrative unfolds during the Long Depression (1873-1879), a period characterised by widespread economic difficulty that disproportionately affected the working classes and rural poor. This economic context is crucial for understanding the financial pressures that drive many of the novel's key events and character decisions. The hardships faced by families like the Durbeyfields were not fictional exaggerations but reflected the genuine struggles of rural communities during this era.

Social transformation in Victorian England

The late 19th century witnessed England's transition from a predominantly agricultural society to an industrial one. This shift brought about the decline of traditional aristocratic power structures. Once-powerful families like the d'Urbervilles had lost their influence, and their names had become little more than symbols of past glory for newly wealthy individuals seeking status. This social upheaval forms the backdrop against which Tess's story unfolds, highlighting themes of class mobility, social pretension, and the erosion of traditional hierarchies.

Victorian sexual morality

Victorian England maintained extremely conservative attitudes towards sexuality, particularly regarding women's purity and virtue. These restrictive moral codes made the novel's frank treatment of sexual themes deeply controversial. The subtitle's assertion that Tess remains a 'pure woman' despite her experiences challenged the prevailing double standards that judged women far more harshly than men for sexual transgressions.

Cultural and literary influences

Victorian realism

Hardy is recognised as a Victorian Realist writer, meaning his work focuses on providing detailed, honest depictions of everyday life and social issues. Unlike romantic fiction that might idealise or sanitise reality, Hardy's realist approach presents an unflinching examination of rural existence, including its hardships, injustices, and moral complexities. His work particularly emphasises the difficulties faced by women navigating a patriarchal society.

Literary inspiration

Hardy's writing was shaped by multiple literary traditions. The Romantic poetry of William Wordsworth influenced his treatment of nature and landscape, whilst the social critiques found in Charles Dickens's novels informed Hardy's own examination of class and morality. Hardy's style can be seen as a bridge between Victorian literature and Modernist works, and his influence extended to later authors such as Virginia Woolf and D.H. Lawrence, who admired his psychological depth and social consciousness.

Philosophical and intellectual themes

Fate, destiny, and individual agency

A central preoccupation of the novel is the tension between fate and personal choice. Hardy explores how societal forces, circumstances, and personal decisions intertwine to shape Tess's life. The narrative raises profound questions about individual responsibility versus determinism, examining how much control characters truly have over their destinies when confronted with rigid social structures and economic pressures.

Critique of social structures

Hardy offers a penetrating critique of Victorian society's rigid hierarchies and moral hypocrisies. He particularly focuses on how these structures affect gender relations and class divisions. The novel exposes the injustice of social systems that punish women for circumstances often beyond their control whilst allowing men to escape consequences for their actions.

Nature versus modernity

The conflict between traditional rural life and encroaching industrialisation runs throughout the narrative. Hardy portrays the decline of agricultural traditions and the rise of mechanisation as both inevitable and destructive. This tension reflects broader anxieties about progress and what might be lost in the pursuit of modernisation.

Important literary concepts in the novel

Narrative perspective

The novel employs third-person omniscient narration, meaning the narrator exists outside the story but has access to Tess's inner thoughts and feelings. This narrative approach allows readers to understand Tess's perspective intimately whilst also providing broader commentary on social issues and other characters' motivations.

Realist fiction

As a work of Victorian realism, the novel prioritises authentic, detailed representations of rural existence, social challenges, and character psychology. Hardy doesn't shy away from depicting hardship, poverty, and injustice, making the novel feel grounded in genuine social realities rather than romantic fantasy.

The tragic heroine

Tess is presented as a tragic heroine – a protagonist whose life is marked by suffering and injustice despite her moral goodness. Her story follows a tragic trajectory as she struggles against societal forces that ultimately overwhelm her. This characterisation invites readers to question whether Tess's fate is deserved or if she is a victim of circumstances and social prejudices.

Symbolic representation

Hardy uses symbolism extensively throughout the novel. Changing seasons mirror Tess's emotional and circumstantial fortunes, moving from spring's promise to winter's despair. Names carry symbolic weight – the 'd'Urberville' surname represents both aristocratic heritage and the burden of a problematic past. These symbolic elements add layers of meaning to the narrative beyond the literal events.

Setting and place

The fictional county of Wessex, based on Hardy's native Dorset, serves as more than mere backdrop. The rural landscape actively influences the characters and story, representing both natural beauty and harsh reality. The agricultural setting emphasises how closely characters' lives are tied to the land and seasonal cycles, whilst also highlighting the vulnerability of rural communities to economic and social changes.

Writer's techniques

Structural choices

Non-linear storytelling

Hardy constructs his narrative using a non-linear structure that incorporates flashbacks and foreshadowing. Rather than presenting events in simple chronological order, he strategically reveals information about Tess's past at key moments. This technique serves multiple purposes: it builds complexity into the storytelling, helps readers understand the context for Tess's decisions and circumstances, and creates a mounting sense of tragic inevitability as we gradually piece together how past events determine future outcomes.

Phase divisions

The novel is organised into seven distinct phases, each marking a significant period or turning point in Tess's journey. This structural division serves to highlight the episodic nature of her experiences, with each phase representing a new chapter in her increasingly tragic story. The phase structure emphasises how Tess's life unfolds through a series of pivotal moments, each leading inexorably toward her downfall. This organisation helps readers recognise the pattern of rising hope followed by crushing disappointment that characterises Tess's experience.

Varied pacing

Hardy skilfully varies the novel's pacing to create emotional impact. Lengthy, descriptive passages that slowly evoke the rural landscape and characters' inner states contrast sharply with moments of dramatic, fast-paced action. This rhythm of slow contemplation and sudden drama serves to build tension gradually before releasing it in moments of high drama. The variation in pace also mirrors the emotional intensity of Tess's experiences – slow, contemplative periods alternate with sudden, life-changing events.

Language and stylistic features

Blending pastoral and realist language

Hardy creates a distinctive voice by combining pastoral language (which traditionally idealises and romanticises rural life) with realist language (which depicts harsh realities unflinchingly). This blend produces a rich, descriptive style that brings the countryside vividly to life whilst refusing to sentimentalise rural poverty and hardship.

The pastoral elements allow Hardy to celebrate the beauty of the natural world and explore its symbolic significance. Meanwhile, the realist components ensure that readers confront the stark difficulties faced by agricultural workers, the grinding poverty of rural life, and the limited options available to people in Tess's position. This combination creates a complex, nuanced portrayal that acknowledges both beauty and suffering.

Dialect and authentic speech

The novel's dialogue incorporates regional dialect, lending authenticity to the rural setting and highlighting class distinctions between characters. Different characters' speech patterns reveal their social positions and backgrounds. Tess's own speech reflects her education and upbringing, marking her as somewhat distinct from other rural characters, whilst other characters' dialects emphasise their local roots and working-class status. This attention to linguistic detail creates a vivid sense of place and reinforces the novel's realist credentials.

Symbolic descriptions

Hardy's descriptive passages frequently carry symbolic significance beyond their literal content. Rather than merely setting scenes, his descriptions often reflect characters' emotional states or foreshadow coming events. Nature descriptions, in particular, frequently mirror Tess's feelings and experiences. For instance, descriptions of the natural environment often parallel the unfolding of her tragic story, with changing weather, seasons, and landscapes echoing her emotional journey from hope to despair.

Key symbols and their meanings

The D'Urberville name

The surname 'd'Urberville' functions as a powerful symbol throughout the novel, representing both aristocratic heritage and the weight of the past. For Tess, this connection to an ancient family brings both pride and curse. The name promises social elevation but ultimately leads to her downfall, as it draws her into Alec's orbit and shapes others' perceptions of her. The symbol highlights how heritage and history can burden individuals rather than simply honour them.

Stonehenge

The ancient monument of Stonehenge appears near the novel's end as a symbol of unchangeable fate and timeless forces beyond human control. When Tess takes refuge at Stonehenge, the location signifies her acceptance of her destiny and the inevitability of her tragic conclusion. The ancient stones represent enduring, impersonal forces that dwarf individual human struggles, suggesting that Tess's fate was sealed by powers greater than herself.

The red ribbon

Tess's red ribbon emerges as a recurring symbol of her sexuality and the societal judgements she faces because of it. The ribbon appears at significant moments throughout her life, from her seduction by Alec through her subsequent experiences of shame and despair. As a motif, it marks turning points in Tess's story, serving as a visual reminder of how her sexual history continues to define her in others' eyes and her own consciousness.

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