Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure (1894-95)

The novel's title was chosen over "The Simpletons" and several others. What associations would "Jude the Obscure" have had for Hardy's audience? To which aspects of the book does it draw attention?

Why may the novel have been divided into six "parts"?

According to Hardy's first preface, what were his aims? (5) Do you believe that he has achieved these?

In his second preface, how does he respond to critics? Do any introduce responses with which you agree?

I-1
What are some features of Hardy’s style? The narrative tone? The use of diction, pace of sentences, choice of images and descriptions? What kinds of intrusions are made by the narrator?

What do we learn about the schoolmaster from the opening chapter?

What do we learn about Jude’s character and situation? What are some of the roles literature will play in his life?

What is significant about the physical environment of Marygreen?

What will be ironic about Phillotson's casual invitation to Jude to seek him out in Christminster?

I-2
What is Jude’s family situation? What is his aunt's character and behavior toward him? What hints do we glean about his family and past in this chapter? On what kinds of general principles does he reflect?

In what contexts is his past history evoked?

How do we hear of Sue Bridehead?

How is his character shown in his behavior to the birds he is hired to scarce off the farm?

What does Jude come to feel is a defect in the nature of things? (17) Would this have reflected nineteenth-century scientific ideas?

I-3
What is the symbolic function of Jude’s view of Christminster? (a religious vision) What are aspects of its description? (beautiful description, 19, constant biblical echoes, 20)

What purpose is served by his interview with the carters? What does he hear of Christminster by the man who has never been there?

I-4
What means does Jude resort to to obtain classical grammars? What in them brings him disappointment? (26)

I-5
What kind of scholar does Jude become? (concerned with spirit of original, turns to religious works)

How does he decide on his life occupation? (30)

I-6

On what is Jude meditating when he encounters Arabella? What is the sexual symbolism of her advances, and why does he respond? How is she described?

How does the reader know that Arabella is not honest?

Why is Jude attracted to her? Does the narrator believe he is responsible for his attraction? (37) Do you agree? What seems to be Hardy's view of the ability to control sexual instinct?

I-7
What do we learn about Arabella from their first outing together? In what ways is Jude the victim of entrapment? How do Jude and Arabella differ in their responses toward each other?

I-8
What devices does she use to entice Jude into bed?

I-9
How does Arabella deceive Jude into marriage? Had she been advised to feign pregnancy? (50) Is it an extenuating circumstance that others prompt her?

In what other ways is Arabella deceitful? (feigned dimples, 51)

What views does Jude/Hardy give on marriage? (52) Do his remonstrances ignore any aspect of social responsibility? (need to provide parental stability for children, etc.)

I-10
What is the significance of the pig-killing scene? To what level has their marriage descended? (the killing of pig an image of the end of marriage--sacrificial)

How does the pig react to being slaughtered?

What are Jude's attitudes toward the killing of animals? Are there any social movements of his time which embodied similar views?

I-11
What seems to be Arabella’s motive in attempting to precipitate violence? What effect on the reader does this scene have?

What does Jude learn from his aunt about his parents? What are her opinions on the suitability of the Frawleys for marriage?

What self-destructive action does he attempt, and how does he interpret its failure?

What radical decision does Arabella make? How is the marriage finally dissolved? Do they quarrel over possessions?

What associations would Australia have had for Hardy's audience? What final act of callousness breaks his emotional tie with her? (sale of his picture, 61) After buying it, what does he do with the picture?

What new resolve does he take at the end of the book? What geographical positioning suggests the cyclical nature of human experience? (61)

What expectations have been set up so far?

Part Second: At Christminster

II-1
What kind of reception does Christminster give him? (63)

What are his responses and reactions to the city? (64, 65 isolation) How is Christminster different by night and day? (65)

What elements and historical events does he mention from Christminster's (Oxford's) past?

II-2
How is Christminster described? (in disrepair, 68; poetical, 69; separated from scholars, 70)

What is the significance of the fact that neo-Victorian Gothic architecture is passing from fashion?

What is shown by Jude's kissing of Sue's photograph? Is there irony to his aunt's criticism of her propriety?

Are there other ironic elements of his view of her? (his first sight of her and her responses are ironic, 72, 74, view of her in church, 75)

How is Sue described? (73) How is she contrasted with Arabella?

II-3

What do we learn about Sue from her purchase of the statues and her covering of them? (wraps and conceals them-strange night scene; her love for the classical is seen as an identification with sexual directness of ancient culture) May this scene foreshadow later events?

How does Sue first address Jude? (81, letter, desires to have nice times with him)

What is revealed about her character in their first meeting? (82, dislikes the cross!) What seems to be her attitude toward Jude? Why does Sue wish to change her occupation?

What disappointments does he suffer on meeting his old schoolmaster? (has forgotten Jude, has failed to acquire degree) Are these expressed?

II-5
How does Sue behave at the exhibition of Jerusalem, and what is the significance of the scene? What do you think of her manner toward her cousin? (assumes a psychic bond before actually knowing him, 87)
At this point, Phillotson begins to court Sue. Is he a likely suitor by Victorian standards?

II-6
What does Jude learn from his aunt's friend about Sue's childhood, and what does the anecdote about the slide reveal about her character? (91)

Why cannot Jude attend Christminster? (94) What does Hardy think of the justice of his exclusion? What social attitudes are implied in the letter of rejection sent by the Master? (95, biblical response, 97)

II-7
What episode causes Jude to leave Christminster, and why is his leavetaking symbolic? Why do you think Jude has no other human ties? (no male friends, dependent on Sue)

Part Three: At Melchester

III-1 Jude moves to Melchester to be near Sue. Does this choice seem to make conflict inevitable? (inevitable fatality)

How do you account for the frequent gloomy consequences of sexual relations in fiction toward the close of the century? (a reflection of the novel's focus on more ordinary lives and rising expectations? end-of-century determinism? the view that human fate is a result of inherent biological drives and irrational cravings, and the overintricate psychology of human beings? Certainly this is a not much more cheerful a doctrine than original sin had been).

Under what circumstances does Sue announce her engagement? (urgently invites him to meet her, holds his hand, 107, 108) How do you judge her treatment of him? (coy and petulant).

What activities does Jude engage in to distract himself? (reads religious books, practices chants)

What qualities in Sue seem to attract Jude? (possibly even attracted to her distaste for consistency and her emotional unresponsiveness, for he seems to pity these things rather than turn away from her)

III-2
What occurs on their expedition into the country? (forced to sleep overnight, she gives him her picture, thus symbolically reinforcing tie). How does this episode resemble other moments in their relationship? (situation suggests but fails to confirm intimacy)

III-3
What confines Sue to her room, and why does she escape? (115) What is the gist of her remarks on the "weaker sex"? (112) What seems the significance of the narratator's allusion to her "slightly independent tones"?

What are some connotations of her wearing of Jude's clothes? (sense of daring and unconvention, also of intimacy)

III-4 What do you make of Sue's conversation? On what subjects does it turn? (118, on herself and her distain for sex) Are these appropriate subjects for discussion with a married man?

What do you make of her description of her past relationship with an undergraduate?

Does her conversation shift in tone? (119, 120) What are some of her ideas? (120-22, plays him against others) What are her goals? (wishes "to ennoble some man to higher aims"-Is this a common Victorian ideal for women? What are its limitations? Surely he can make up his own mind on religion)

III-5

What are Sue's comments on Phillotson? (124, changes mind) Who first mentions love? (124, Sue)

What do you think are Sue's motives in sending her letter to Jude? (exaggerates, plays on his emotions, 125)

Does Hardy intend to present a favorable portrait of her? (125)
--she is genuinely flirtations in a devious way-dismisses Phillotson, 124.
--alludes to marriage, 126, blames Jude for his love!
--sends letter, teases with allusions to Phillotson, 127, keeps describing his love, 126
--enjoys constant game playing, yet another letter, 127

III-6

How is Phillotson described? (128-29, resembles Jude, rather sympathetically portrayed)

Does Jude give Sue a good account of his past? (no-never explains the horror of his marriage)

What is Sue's response? (clearly jealous, 133) On what grounds does Hardy find Sue's responses defensible? (narrowly womanly humors necessary to her sex, 134)

III-7

What are painful features of Sue's wedding to Phillotson? What are some of Jude's/Hardy's reflections on women? (140)

What kind of farewell do Sue and Jude have? (plays on his emotions, 139, emotion-fraught farewell, 140)

General Questions:

What is the sigificance of Jude’s name? His occupation?
--Jude the apostle of apostasy, the last days, writer of an obscure epistle which precedes the Apocalypse
--the figure of the mason was associated with the Victorian Gothic revival; Carlyle had celebrated the mason as the obscure worker who held society together in Past and Present; Ruskin had praised the artisan stone carver in “The Nature of Gothic”

What are some features of Jude’s character? Does he seem consistent to you?
--a masoschism in telling his thoughts to those who scorn them (of course this is a useful novelistic device)
--doesn’t fight back or protect self--e. g. doesn’t seek divorce; ensnared by Arabella the second time
--not given to half-way ambitions; there were more humble universities to which he could have gone

What is Sue Bridehead like? Do you agree with criticism of her as an “interesting girl,” “the modern woman,” and so on?
--Sue is a Victorian woman who believes that sexuality will destroy dignity of personality; to the usual attitudes she adds some education and independence. Perhaps Hardy is more honest in describing the effects of Victorian female education--if consistently applied--than authors who end their portrayals at marriage.
--Also Sue seems coy, 117, 121, 124, 138, 139, 168, 172-73, 175, 189, 190; she takes pleasure in male admiration, company, and sexual interest, yet prides herself on chastity. She seems to demand constant approval (described as petulant hussy, 205).

Jude has the equivalent male Victorian complex--he sleeps with a woman he despises, contemns himself for the union, is a victim of unverbalized and unwanted drives (his attraction to Arabella inexplicable in novel’s overt terms), and admires Sue for her frigidity even though he complains against it (194, 205, 210, 271, 273, 279, 281)

Do you think Hardy’s treatment of Sue is adequate? What traits do Jude or the narrator specifically consider “womanly”?
--jealousy (220, Jude; 133, narrator)
--woman’s eye keen for material things, 288
--irrationality (278, 309, 318, Jude; 133, Hardy; 189, Sue)

What do you think of Sue’s and Jude’s response to marriage? Why do they finally decide against it? (226)

Later, why does Sue finally decide to marry Jude? To sleep with him? (she wants to be a respectable mother)

Are sex and companionship incompatible in this novel? Does the novel present any exceptions to these mutually exclusive alternatives?
(Arabella and Sue constitute the only choices for the protagonist; compare Stephen and Philip in The Mill on the Floss)

Do you think Arabella is consistently drawn?

What is the function of Old Testament references? The use of religious and traditional associations and structures for background? (267, intensifies sense of loss and betrayal)

What are some of the ways the novel uses irony, and to what ends?
--Jude introduces Sue to Phillotson, comes to Christminster because of Phillotson
--After the children die, the chapel organist plays, “Truly God is loving unto Israel,” 267

How is Jude’s child used symbolically?
--little Time, 218-19, 266
--child of Jude and Arabella kills all the rest

Is Sue at all responsible for the murder?

What function is served by the widow Edlin?
--represents common public opinion; a kindly chorus, gossip
--even she thinks Sue ought to live with Jude, 289, 290

If the novel is not specifically concerned with the marriage laws, what is the philosophic reason for presenting Jude and Sue’s frustrations in marriage?

The Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and Far from the Madding Crowd are also preoccupied with the theme of an unfortunate early marriage. According to Albert Guerard (Hardy, 27), “For whatever reasons, Hardy conceived of marriage as a dramatic illustration of the human impulse to work at cross-purposes long before he wrote Jude the Obscure. Far more often than not it exemplified the ‘circumstantial will against enjoyment’ which ever frustrates the ‘inherent will to enjoy.’” (compare Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents--something in the constitution of things forbids enjoyment)

What type of society does the novel represent?
--one of social change, “between two worlds, one dead, the other waiting to be born“
--fin de siecle world, nostalgia for loss of imagined former rural social harmony, and a sense of the limited possibilities for human happiness
--loss of faith, skepticism in religion.
Skepticism had not been a problem for the protagonists of most earlier novelists, or if so, skepicism had ended in the return of faith (in part this was a result of the censorship of the novel through institutions such as Mudie’s Circulating Library). Even George Eliot’s protagonists were not skepticial, although she herself espoused a non-theistic ethic; her heroines don’t debate theology, they practice ethics.
--concern with conflict between human sexuality and aspirations for happiness--what are perceived as two sides of personality destroy each other (compare The Mill on the Floss).
--protagonist is defeated in his attempts at achieving a better social and intellectual status; upward mobility is thwarted; contrast the mid-Victorian “success” novel

Are Jude and Sue’s problems individual, universal, or representative of the conditions of a particular time?
--226, Time
--opposition in things, 141, 267, 271 (see Guerard quotation below)
--an old civilization, 285
--fin de siecle sense of decadence

How are animals used in the novel? (they and man are linked in a natural pattern of suffering; compare the beating of horses in Olive Schreiner’s From Man to Man)

What do you think of the book’s improbabilities? Do these reinforce or detract from its basic themes?

What is the significance of the book’s ending? What do you think of its consistency and appropriateness?

Hardy’s changes to the book version of Jude:
abusive quotations from reviewers, 261-62
his statements on his return to poetry 262
1903 version substantially alters the first scene between Jude and Arabella to lessen references to pig’s offal
1912 text, details more sexual, 270-71
softens Sue’s character, 271-73
1895 edition continued to be reprinted in U. S. until 1957!

Some Final Questions:

1. What are some resemblances between Jude the Obscure and a Greek tragedy? (constant use of ironic reversal, recognition) Which aspects of Hardy’s plot would Aristotle have found untragic?

2. Albert Guerard, in comparing Hardy with Conrad:
In the end he [Hardy] did write, and seemingly with full consciousness of what he was doing, three very great novels: Tess of the D’Urbervilles, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and Jude the Obscure. But only two of these explore at all the great theme of nineteenth- and twentieth-century fiction: the myth of the morallly isolated individualist lost in a world he never made; who searches for freedom, though bereft of faith, and who wills his own destruction (Hardy, 159).

The fury aroused by Jude the Obscure was the fury of outraged optimism, not of outraged prudery; the book suggested that life was an unpleasant experience afor all but a privileged or insensitive few and an incoherent experience for all (37). [He notes that Hardy was criticized for his presentation of cruelty to a dog, 37].

Do you think Guerard was correct in his assessments of Hardy’s motives and audience? What may his remarks indicate about the nature of mid-twentieth century assessments of the Victorians?

3. In what ways may this novel be autobiographical (despite Hardy's disclaimers)?

3. How does this novel reflect aspects of late-Victorian views on sexuality?

4. What do you think of the effectiveness of the novel’s style? Its use of irony and parallelism?

5. What are the some of the best features and strengths of this novel? Its defects, if any? Do you find this a compelling book, and if so, in what ways?

6. What judgments does this novel present on human life? On the deflation of hopes?

7. What view does this novel present on the social determinants of happiness? To what extent can the hero affect his/her fate? How do Hardy’s views resemble those of other Victorian novelists?

8. Does this novel suggest other novels of the 1890s and early twentieth century?

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