Gossip as an Instrument of Tragedy in Tess of the D’urbervilles
Gossip as an Instrument of Tragedy in Tess of the D’urbervilles

Summary/Abstract: Studies in Victorian literature have tended to regard gossip as a form of social talk without considering its significance as a social interaction that communicates information in fictional societies. This article takes a different approach and examines the novel, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, as a case study. Using contemporary research on the sociology of gossip, rumours, legends and scandal, it attempts to understand the function and importance of these various forms of social judgement utilized by Thomas Hardy in his novel. Thispaper argues that the informal circuitries of information greatly influence the plot and Tess’s decisions and eventually lead to her tragedy. Furthermore, this study of gossip in fiction adds to the existing literary criticism of novels in Victorian literature, and prompts that gossip’s unacknowledged and varied role in literature should be assessed in future research.

• Details
• Contents