GCSE English Literature: Analysing a 19th-Century Novel Guide

Narrative voice

Consider who is telling the story and how that shapes what the reader knows and trusts — a first-person narrator gives a limited, personal view, while a third-person narrator may reveal more than any one character knows.

Characterisation

19th-century novelists often use a character to represent wider ideas about Victorian society, such as class, morality or gender expectations — consider what a character's actions and treatment by others reveal about these ideas.

Setting and social context

Settings in 19th-century novels are rarely just backdrop — a slum, a grand house or a workhouse often reflects and reinforces the novel's wider themes about Victorian society.

Structure

Consider how the novel is structured — serialised Victorian novels often used cliffhangers and repetition to keep readers engaged across instalments, shaping how tension builds.

Common mistakes

• Treating the novel's events as simply "what happens" rather than choices the writer made for effect.
• Ignoring how Victorian social attitudes differ from modern ones when interpreting a character's actions.
• Focusing only on the extract provided rather than the novel as a whole.