The key themes within Thomas Hardy’s “Jude the Obscure” include relationship development and how education affects one’s quality of life. Within the novel, Mr. Phillotson’s relationships with Jude and Sue emphasize these central themes through his yearning for knowledge, as well as his unconscious desire to eventually find love. As a young boy, Jude idolizes Mr Phillotson, vowing to follow him to Christminster in the pursuit of an education. This instance is one of many within the novel in which Hardy draws attention to the importance of education, and it allows the characters to move towards an objective. Being one of the only adult male role models in Jude’s young life, Mr. Phillotson takes on a fatherly role. In addition to visiting Christminster in the pursuit of an education, Jude wishes to pursue his former teacher in order to continue their relationship. Though Mr. Phillotson sees himself as only a teacher, Jude believes that their relationship is special, attaching importance to everything that he says. Early in the novel, Mr. Phillotson, Jude’s teacher and role model, leaves 11 year old Jude to pursue a university education in the town of Christminster. In leaving, Phillotson leaves Jude with a seemingly generic goodbye, saying to “Be a good boy, remember; and be kind to animals and birds, and read all you can. And if ever you come to Christminster remember you hunt me out for old acquaintance’ sake” (Hardy 11). Jude, interpreting everything that Phillotson says as law, proceeds to disregard his job of shooing birds away from a field in order to allow them to feast on the crops (Hardy 14). Jude’s sympathies with the birds are partially driven by Phillotsons’ final wisdom. Jude is able to empathize with the birds, underst... ... middle of paper ... ...s with both Jude and Sue. Early in the novel, Phillotson leaves town in order to pursue his passion, enticing a young Jude to follow suit. Jude is enamoured with Phillotson and Christminster throughout his childhood, eventually deciding that his primary objective is to follow suit, with the goal of enrolling in University. When Jude learns of Sue, he immediately feels an attraction that is only inflamed once he learns of her blossoming relationship with Phillotson. The schoolmaster eventually allows Jude and Sue’s love to live, though it dries up after the death of their children. Sue finally returns to Phillotson, deciding that God was punishing her for abandoning her first marriage. Hardy compares the schoolmaster and his student several times throughout the novel, emphasizing the impact that Phillotson has on all aspects of Jude’s life, and therefore, the novel.
In the true crime/sociology story, “Best Intentions: The Education and Killing of Edmund Perry” the author, Robert Sam Anson had provided an immense amount of information from reportings about Edmund Perry’s death and life before he died. Anson has developed Edmund’s character and experiences through reporting that I have related and connected to. Information reported by Anson has helped me find a deep connection towards Edmund Perry’s home environment, junior high experiences, and personality at Philips Exeter. Themes such as hopes and dreams, loyalty and betrayal, journey, and family ties are intertwined in the story and becomes blatant. The congruences between our lives have better my understanding of the story and Edmund’s life.
I thought of the reading as just another environmental writing trying to bring light to extinction of a species of bird. Then once I sat down a few nights ago I read the passage and I started to tear up reading about these poor birds brutally hunted. I started to feel the same emotions as Stratton-Porter did when she saw the bag of birds at her neighbor’s house. What really shocked me about how these birds went extinct. No one else saw them as Stratton-Porters father did, biblically. Her father told the other men in their neighborhood about how killing off the quails were bad for farming. Stratton-Porter states, “These things he studied out and began to pass along to his neighbors, even to put in his sermons that he preached in the pulpit” (196). Towards the end, I really enjoyed with how Stratton-Porter saw the wild pigeon after they were thought to be extinct, with a price for its capture and had no desire to disturb the bird. Stratton-Porter states, “So here I was looking with all my soul at one specimen of a bird bearing on its head a price ranging from one hundred up, with no way and no desire to capture it” (204). The very last part of this piece blew me away by the emotion wave I got feeling the bird voicing his thoughts. With the extinction of the passenger pigeon, there has been conservation movements to protect the wildlife and there habitat from
Early into the novel Overton gives an overview of the conditions Theobald is growing up in; along with most boys of the upper class Theobald’s father “thrashed his boys two or three times a week and some weeks a good deal oftener, but in those days fathers were always thrashing their boys.” (Butler, 17). “As a child, (Ernest) believes all that is told: that he is, for example, a wicked, ungrateful boy who deserves Theobald’s frequent beatings,” Deborah Core analyzes Butler’s novel as focusing on how naïve Ernest is as a result of the way his father has treated him (Core). In continuation to Core, Butler points out how the parenting styles of the time period work against their main goal; Ernest ended up in prison and against Christianity entirely after attending Cambridge University at the orders of his
1. Jude wants to hurry up and graduate from high school so he can assume his place in the family business and be able marry the girl next door. He has never really considered any other girl, and he says he is "lucky" he has never had to worry about what career he would choose!
The first and most evident example of alienation and isolation in the novel is Len...
Edith Wharton was the author of The Age of Innocence, a novel published in 1920. In the book, many topics were considered, such as divorce, the empowerment of women, and the lifestyle of the wealthy. The inspiration for these motifs occurred throughout her life. Although Edith Wharton’s work was not well-received, the topics included in her writings held many truths about upper-class society in the late 1800s; therefore, Edith Wharton was influenced by her past and societal experiences.
Victor Frankenstein experiences an idealic youth, his parents were “indulgent” and his companions were “amiable” (21) His parents’ encouraged their children to pursue their schooling with dedication by “having the end placed in view” (21) and teaching them short-cuts, eliminateing tedious lessons, rather then viewing school as punishment or “the voice of command” (26) Therefore Frankstein would have learned a greater amount and have...
	Love, with its power to create agony or ecstasy, is a dependable source of drama, whether it be for the novel or the soap opera. As we see in Jude the Obscure and The Dead, the tension of the love relationship is increased with the addition of a third party. Jude and Sue’s relationship may likely have been quite simpler without the presence of Philotson. He would not have been an option for Sue’s need to rectify the death of the children. In fact, she may have seen marriage to Jude as the right thing to do. They may have actually gotten married and been very happy. But for some reason, Hardy did not allow this to happen. Instead, he preferred to leave the reader with the dark view of love, where there is not always a happy ending. As for Gabriel and Greta’s relationship, if Greta had not told of Michael, Gabriel’s evening may have ended much differently. He would most likely have satisfied his lust, yet the novel would lack the epiphany Greta’s confession causes him to have. The components of guilt, duty, and unrequited love, though not universal traits, do well to maintain the complexity and efficacy of these particular love triangles.
Even when Jim is in this awful war-stricken place, one thing that he can still find comfort in, and which reminds him of his peaceful home is the birds, which are everywhere, still living their lives unaffected by mans war. This shows how nature is unaltered by mans cruel antics against other man, and how life and nature must, and will go on through all circumstances.
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
Victor’s initial isolation as a child foreshadows the motif of detachment that occurs throughout the novel. As Victor Frankenstein recounts his informative tale to a seafaring Robert Walton, he makes it known that he was a child of nobility; however it is sadly transparent that combined with insufficient parenting Victor’s rare perspective on life pushes him towards a lifestyle of conditional love. Children are considered symbolic of innocence but as a child Victor’s arrogance was fueled by his parents. With his family being “one of the most
Pride and prejudice, isolating behaviors, create a path of unnecessary destruction through the life of Victor Frankenstein. All that remains for us the reader is to figure out where our sympathies lie. What lessons we can learn from this tragic tale of the ego driven scientist and his monstrous creation.
The Bildungsroman genre entails a character’s formative years and his or her development from childhood. The characters from this type of novel recall, in detail, past relationships and experiences that impacted the characters growth, maturity, and exemplar for their relationships with other characters. An important component to Bildungsroman novels is the concentration on the characters childhood (Gottfried & Miles, 122). In Jane Eyre and David Copperfield, both characters childhoods were despondent. Both characters experience the loss of a parent: Jane is a literal orphan; David’s loss is metaphorical, then literal. When Jane Eyre begins, Jane has already lost both parents and is under the guardianship of her aunt, Sarah Reed. Reed and her children, Jane’s cousins, are abusive to Jane and never accept Jane as family. Jane has lost both parents and with the death of her uncle, Sarah’s husband and an advocate for Jane, Jane is without any caring relationship. In addition to being without affection, Jane must endure torment. It is this lack of adoration that leads Jane to seek acceptance throughout her life, while attempting t...
Austen was a recondite writer with a new inside perspective with an outside view on life in the early 19th century. Born on December 16, 1775, Austen was a curious child given the unseal luxury of an education. Her father was a part of the gentry class and raised a family of ten, but was not well off by any means (Grochowski). Sense and Sensibility, written by Jane Austen, tells a dramatic story of three sisters and their emotional journey where they encounter love and betrayal. Because Jane Austen was raised in a liberal family and received a comprehensive education, her dramatic analysis of societal behavior in Sense and Sensibility was comparable to the hidden truths of social and class distinctions in 18th and 19th century Europe.
Hardy originated from a working class family. The son of a master mason, Hardy was slightly above that of his agricultural peers. Hardy’s examination of transition between classes is usually similar to that of D.H. Lawrence, that if you step outside your circle you will die. The ambitious lives of the characters within Hardy’s novels like Jude and Tess usually end fatally; as they attempt to break away from the constraints of their class, thus, depicting Hardy’s view upon the transition between classes. Hardy valued lower class morals and traditions, it is apparent through reading Tess that her struggles are evidently permeated through the social sufferings of the working class. A central theme running throughout Hardy’s novels is the decline of old families. It is said Hardy himself traced the Dorset Hardy’s lineage and found once they were of great i...