Thomas Hardy's Jude The Obscure is a romantic Victorian bildungsroman that tells the story of Jude Fawley, a hopeful working-class scholar who falls in love with Sue Bridehead, his cousin. Finding that their relationship attracts the anger and criticism of their community, Jude and Sue experience isolation and tragedy throughout the novel. Jude The Obscure is set in fictional Wessex, an area located southwest of England; however, many subtleties throughout the story suggest that the places Jude visits are based on real cities from Thomas Hardy's life. For example, Christminster, a collegiate city, is said to be modeled on Oxford, while Marygreen and Melchester are modeled on Fawley and Salisbury, respectively. Though Jude The Obscure is filled with several themes involving religion, love, class, and dreams, its central theme focuses on marriage and its societal constructs during Hardy's time. When it was first published, Jude The Obscure was censured by critics for attacking the institution of marriage. It even strained the relationship between Thomas Hardy and his wife, who feared that readers would think that the novel was describing her own marriage. Jude and Sue are married to other people, even though they have little to no contact with them. Despite this fact, others around them view their marriage as illegitimate because, according to societal constructs, Jude and Sue are doing wrong against the Church. Society thus ostracizes the two causing tragedy to befall upon them.
During Hardy's time, divorce wasn't as prevalent as it is today, and usually only wealthy men were able to leave their wives. A man could divorce his wife on grounds as simple as adultery, while a woman had to prove cruelty, rape, sodomy, incest or big...
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...cause that's just what society says people must do. She says that even though her name is Mrs. Richard Phillotson on paper, she is still Sue Bridehead on the inside. Because Hardy wrote Jude the Obscure when his first wife was still alive, the dissatisfaction with marriage in the novel seems to reflect Hardy's already strained relationship with his wife, and Sue can be seen as a character that Hardy wished to have as his wife.
Overall, Jude the Obscure attacks the conventional view of marriage during Hardy's time. Hardy offended many with his novel, including his wife. And after the social response to his book, Hardy gave up writing fiction for good and began writing poetry, which he felt would give him greater intellectual freedom. Marriage during the Victorian era was nothing like it is today, and those who went against its institutions suffered the consequences.
Thomas Hardy challenges the sexual principles of the late nineteenth century in his novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Tess Durbeyfield, a young woman, looks for work at Trantridge, where she meets the charming Alec Stoke-d'Urberville. Alec becomes attracted to Tess and later rapes her in a forest. This drives Tess to look for work elsewhere, and she meets Angel Clare at Talbothays Dairy, where they fall in love with each other and marry. However, when Tess tells Angel what happened to her at Trantridge, he leaves her and goes to Brazil. Hardy presents two men who inflict different types of pain on Tess; while Alec harms Tess physically, Angel harms Tess psychologically. Hardy establishes that people are victims of fate and, although both men have many faults, Angel is the better man.
	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.
In the story about Jude and Sue, Thomas Hardy was able to interconnect the story of a rabbit and a couple in such a way that the significance of the scene was not detracted from, and he was still able to convey his point. He used diction that denotes confinement and a tone that captures the separation that Jude and Sue feel in order to reflect his actual thoughts on marriage, and he symbolized a very important interaction by way of a seemingly insignificant act in order to show a hidden but powerful connection. Through all this, Hardy fully exposes the nature and predicament of both Sue and Jude so that the reader is able to understand, and anyone can relate to the universal, core feelings expressed in this excerpt.
Jude, Nel’s husband, and Sula have intercourse and betray Nel. Yet, it is Sula, not Jude who hurts Nel the most. Now Nel's " thighs were really empty” (1037) and it was Sula who had taken the life from them. Nel's happiness left when her thighs went dead. It was too much. “To lose Jude and not have Sula to talk to about it because it was Sula that he had left her for” (1037). Sula was confused. “They had always shared the affection of other people” (1041). “Marriage, apparently had changed all that” (1041). The friends no longer benefited from each other's company. Nel was no longer a host for
Jane Austen never married which influenced her portrayal of marriage throughout many of her novels. Every character exposes different marital standards expected in the time period. In a biography about Jane Austen, edited by Jack Lynch, Rosemary Reisman explains that while neither Jane Austen nor her sister, Cassandra never married, both were engaged at one point. Jane’s engagement was not long lived, in fact it only lasted one night, and she rejected the suitor in the morning (8). Austen’s marital status and limited interaction outside her family led her to develop a keen sense of human interactions. Through her experiences “grieving and rejoicing with family members and friends, mothering nieces and nephews, worrying about the effects of her unstable times on those she loved” she is able to portray the time through her characters (9).
The setting or settings in a novel are often an important element in the work. Many novels use contrasting places such as cities or towns, to represent opposing forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the work. In Thomas Hardy's novel, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, the contrasting settings of Talbothays Dairy and Flintcomb-Ash represent the opposing forces of good and evil in Tess' life.
In the early 1900’s divorce rates were low and you could not get a divorce without showing significant proof of abuse, abandonment, or adultery. In the nineteenth century, society individuals did not think too much about the importance of love and compassion in a marriage. It was
Even though today Jane Austen is regarded for her writing, during her time she couldn’t even publish her work under her own name, because it was considered unladylike for women to be intellectual figures. Unlike J. K. Rowling and other English female writers today, who are well known for their works even without using their full names, Jane Austen lived within the sanctuary of a close-knit family and always published her works under a pseudonym that could not be traced back to her (jasna.org). Writing at the time was a male-dominated profession and women depended completely on men for their livelihood. During her upbringing she knew the importance of money to women in a severely classist and patriarchal society, and so marriage was the answer to the survival of women during this time (Helms 32). Even knowing these qualities were important in her life she criticized them. Jane’s writing is somewhat comical, because even while criticising those normal discriminations in her book Pride and Prejudice, the book was published with a prejudiced nameless cover, shedding even greater light on the lack of sense and shortcoming of sensibility of eighteenth century Great Britain. So in order for women to hide their identity while writing about things that were highly controversial they used male pen names. Female authors resorted to pseudonyms to become published and to not be shunned away by their readers, and only after they did this their work was taken as serious literature. Although we ask why do we see Jane Austen’s name printed on all her classical works? That is because we see it “today” in the current year. During her lifetime Jane Austen remained pretty much unidentified because all her novels were published anonymously unde...
In life it is important that each person thinks rationally in every decision they make, but it is equally important that everyone follows their heart, too. For some people, thinking rationally while following their heart is not an easy task, and it often causes more tragedy than good. Thomas Hardy, a famous British author, repeatedly wrote novels depicting the cross between logical thinking and following one’s heart. For example, his first novel, Far from the Madding Crowd, involves a love circle during a period when women were trying to prove their independence. Bathsheba, the main character, manages a farm on her own and strives to continuously prove her dominance in a male dominant world. She finds herself distracted and stressed due to the fact that three men wish to marry her. Bathsheba significantly wishes to keep her independence, so she turns down the first two men. However, Troy, an untrustworthy womanizer, steals her heart for a moment until she again thinks realistic enough to not fall under his love traps. Far from the Madding Crowd, by Thomas Hardy, depicts the cross between thinking both rationally and irrationally once love is present in one’s life, which is common in all of Hardy’s books through the character development, central themes involving love, and gender confusion.
For example, Mr. Collins and Charlotte’s marriage is dysfunctional due to the fact that they married simply for the benefit of each other; Mr. Collins married because he was in need of a wife whoever it may be, and Charlotte married because she was in need of husband who was wealthy. In the following quote “When Mr. Collins could be forgotten, there was really an air of great comfort throughout, and by Charlotte’s evident enjoyment of it, Elizabeth supposed he must be forgotten,” (189) it shows how Charlotte tries to remain as distanced as possible from Mr. Collins. However, although Charlotte is not quite fond of Mr. Collins, he is happy in the marriage. It is quite ironic that Mr. Collins is happy in such a dysfunctional marriage where his own wife cannot stand him. Because of the irony in the relationship, it shows how dysfunctional a marriage solely based on sheer benefit. By having such a marriage in the novel it shows the negativity of the norms in the 1800s. However, in order to argue that not all marriages are dysfunctional
Jane Austen's Persuasion is a dark novel. From the jolting breaks in the romantic drama--the falls of little Charles and Louisa Musgrove--to the heroine's depressing existence--Anne Elliot has a "great tendency to lowness" (Austen 66)-- to the overall autumnal mood, the work is at times a gloomy, though always interesting, read. Perhaps its darkest facet though is the ubiquitous presence of an antagonist. While Mr. Elliot appears, most blatantly, to be the villain, in actuality, it is Lady Russell, whose persuasions are both manipulative and, frighteningly, pervasive, who should truly bear that stigma.
Thomas Hardy wrote about society in the mid 1800's and his tales have rural settings in the fictional name he gave to the South-West of England, Wessex. The short stories reflect this time and the author also demonstrates the class division in rural society - rich and poor - and the closeness of the communities. Almost everyone belonged to the 'labouring classes' and worked on the land.
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...
The book of Jude is an epistle or letter to Jewish Christians in the early church written in order to warn them about false teachers that will come before them. Its literary genre is referred to as an epistle or letter as I have described. Biblical scholars believe that it was written by Jude, who was a half-brother of Jesus. The book of Jude was most likely written sometime between 60 AD and 140 AD. (Wallace, 2004) This book of the bible is rather short in length but it is able to get across two key themes such as apostasy, and false teachers. (Jude 1:3-16, Jude 1: 17-25) By analyzing the key themes in the Book of Jude is not difficult to figure out what the purpose was behind Jude’s writing. There were two purposes of this book, the first one was to encourage the members of this early church to stay grounded in their faith following the deaths of Paul and Peter. (Jude 1: 24-25) The second purpose was to warn them that false teachers had infiltrated the church just as Peter and Paul said they would. (Jude 1:3, Jude 1: 17) (Wallace, 2004)
Thomas Hardy was a famous author and poet he lived from 1840 to 1928. During his long life of 88 years he wrote fifteen novels and one thousand poems. He lived for the majority of his life near Dorchester. Hardy got many ideas for his stories while he was growing up. An example of this was that he knew of a lady who had had her blood turned by a convict’s corpse and he used this in the story ‘The Withered Arm’. The existence of witches and witchcraft was accepted in his lifetime and it was not unusual for several people to be killed for crimes of witchcraft every year.