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Jude the Obscure
(1895)
Jude The Obscure, an almost unbearably sad story about love and sexual desire mapped into the peculiar English matrixes of class and destiny in the Victorian 19th century, has come to be recognized as one of Hardy's most important novels. It tells the tragic story of Jude Fawley, a kid from the country whose aspirations to university scholarship are thwarted; his socially unacceptable love affair is also a disaster.
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Jude The Obscure is a great novel written by Thomas Hardy. Jude Fawley is an orphan boy, fostered by his Aunt. Disqualified from university because he belongs to a poor family, he tries to survive but fails in both love and education. Jude is confused between sensual love, which is represented by Arabella, and spiritual love, represented by Sue Bridehead.--Submitted by fahim.
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The most terrible bit
If your cursor is hovering over this thread beware it contains a spoiler. I doubt I'll ever read this book. I more or less decided that when I watched the DVD. I liked quite a lot of it, but there was a terrible scene in which Jude comes home to find his son has hanged himself and his two little sisters. I thought, come on - is that necessary? Here they are, struggling but just about scraping through. Then this happens. The rest of the story seemed naturalistic, but this bit seemed like a visitation from an angry god. I thought the remainder of the film would be about Jude being tried for murder, but in the next scene they were at the funeral and the police seem to be satisfied with the explanation. Surely a child hanging himself and his two sisters from the guilt of being a burden to his parents is implausible. I have never heard of a news story like it. It would certainly make national news if it did happen. I could believe a child committing suicide for that reason, but the killing of siblings too? Besides, if Hardy wanted to make Jude's son the cause of Sue's daughters' deaths then he could do it some other way: perhaps by passing on a disease or starting a fire. I thought it was too melodramatic. After that I marked Hardy down as an author who thinks piling on the misery makes for good writing.
Posted By kev67 at Fri 8 Jun 2012, 3:09 AM in Jude the Obscure || 10 Replies
The Foot of the Cross - hymn
Does anyone know about which hymn Hardy is talking here? I would just like to see the lyrics, but I am no good at hymns and when they were composed... It seems there are several versions now and I can't figure out which. Anybody help?
Posted By kiki1982 at Tue 3 Aug 2010, 7:21 AM in Jude the Obscure || 4 Replies
what do you think?
I'm thinking of reading jude the obscure by thomas hardy. please tell me what you think of it. Thanks. Bethy
Posted By beth01081 at Sat 7 Feb 2009, 12:40 PM in Jude the Obscure || 7 Replies
"story about love and sexual desire”?
I disagree with the introduction to Jude the Obscure on this page for the reasons mentioned here:saillingtheseasofcheese.blogspot.com/2008/01/online-literaturecom-on-hardys-jude.htm What do you reckon?
Posted By herrpozzo at Sat 5 Jan 2008, 12:32 PM in Jude the Obscure || 1 Reply
marriage
Please reflect on the theme of marriage...the novel had quite an impact on me precisely because of Hardy's treatment of marriage...you cannot but believe him.If you want to talk to me about that, pleasa write me on my e-mail adress.Thank you.
Posted By katalenik iulia at Tue 24 May 2005, 5:07 PM in Jude the Obscure || 0 Replies
No Subject
THROUGHOUT HARDY'S FRANK TREATMENT OF THE SEXUAL THEME
jude the obscure is one the book that we have to study this year.i am a BA student at cheikh anta diop university (senegal).the reception of the book was very negative because the narrative represent desire as a force whose violence succeeds in overcoming the human will and morality.it was considered as an assault to sexual morality.indeed the character of arabella ,described as a sexual animal who is out of any moral value goes from a man to another .that unreligious anti conformist fickle girl behaves as she likes absolutly dominated, harassed by her animal and sexual impulses.
jude and Sue takes some advances but in a very reserved way .fled from their former respective marriages ,they choose to live as husband and wife and go as far as giving birth to a child .that illegal union is actually offensive to sexual morality that's the reason why it shocked that community.
these were some lines i wanted to write about the vision that i have on this specific point. if you any kind of remark write to me.my mail is available. thanks...
Posted By ibou at Tue 24 May 2005, 5:07 PM in Jude the Obscure || 1 Reply
English / History
One must be alert to the word obscure when reading 'Jude'. What is obscure about him, what is there to be obscure about? Even the very word obscure seems, obsure.
The opening chapters give little away to the nature of obscurity. Jude is a simple boy living with his aging aunt. But Jude lives within 'accelerating' times. The world is radically changing, including one's passions. The lasting impression left to him by the departing Philloston casts an indelible stain upon the boy's consciousness. His kindness to animals soon reveal to Jude that the world is not what it is supposed to be; contradictions lie deeply embedded within society. His former teacher tells him to be kind to animals, yet his act of letting the birds briefly feed off Farmer Troutham's field soon brings the wrath of Troutham down hard upon the boy: "So it's "Eat, my dear birdies," is it, young man?... I'll tickle your breeches,".
The contradiction of life Jude has brutally become aware of at such an early age is that of humanity / profit. This is once again shown in the act of killing their only pig, Challow. Jude's conscience retains Phillostons words, and Hardy's language compounds the sentimentality of Jude's love of nature: 'A robin peered down at the preparations from the nearest tree, and, not liking the sinister look of the scene flew away, though hungry.' Hardy, never once allowing us to forget nature's need before our own. Jude has been made aware to killing the pig in such a quick manner, but the previous teaching prevents him from commiting such a bloodthirsty act of letting a pid slowly bleed to death, for the sole sake of profit. We are beginning to understand the nature of Jude's obscurity, that of him being obscure to the changing nature of the world.
But Hardy's attitude to his novel is obscure in itself. We ride upon a tide of utterly purgatorial scenes, affecting, it seems, Jude solely. Even though we are allowed to enter into the consciousness of the other characters, their motivation seems wholly selfish and contrived. Dr Vilbert soon considers Jude as his protege, yet we must consider what kind of protege Jude has become. It is of course a lie, as most of the characters seem to do, lie that is. There is no serenity in the book, no peace and no understanding. The world is moving at such a pace, that when Jude attempts to try and understand it he is left irrevocably behind, standing on a platform, just missing his connection, so to speak.
There is love in the book but -that is for my feminist reading- it so estranged that we imagine it to be a personal tragedy rather than a ficticious creation. The book created outrage upon its unabridged publication, and Hardy's wife left him soon after. But the consciousness of Hardy, through his masterly use of language, could not be appeased. This is a book which will send the reader into the bowls of hell, only to realise it was needed to see how far humanity had descended. The moral, spiritual, and emotional face of society passes the reader by, as the characters continually do in relation to Jude. There is no community, something quite obscure with regards to Hardy's previous novels, and the humour, which often delicately compliments previous Hardy novels is vacant; one would have to be brave or depraved to laugh at the degradation of a simple boy who tried to make good.
Posted By Barbara Shaw at Thu 6 Feb 2003, 12:00 AM in Jude the Obscure || 1 Reply
No Subject
Jude is Great but gosh is so romantic!!! Hardy steps a typical character we met on Rennaiscense manner. It is the pure, the perfect Heroe for the Round Table of Arthur's but this kind of persons has not a prototype in reality. I liked the way she turned him down from church to humanity and so on... this is a book you hardly can find in Hardy's library...
Posted By chris b at Tue 24 May 2005, 5:07 PM in Jude the Obscure || 0 Replies
Why the last novel?
The depressing nature of Jude is surely a reflection of Hardy's own attitude at the time of writing it. It expresses a negative view of marriage, ambition, the church and the education system, all of which are part of Jude's dream that eventually becomes Jude's nightmare. It is often said that Hardy gave up writing novels because of the poor reception given to the publication of Jude, but it seems equally likely that Hardy's decision to turn entirely to poetry writing was a result of his own feelings of failure at the time. The rejection of this ultimately black novel was no more than the last straw that forced him to accept what was already in his heart, if not in his mind.
Other Victorian novelists were as keen to address the deficiences of Victorian society, and attacked various institutions from slavery and child labour to the school system and the workhouse. However, they did not normally ensconce their ideas within such a dark and oppressive narrative, nor did they give up in the face of their failure to achieve instantaneous change within society.
Posted By david p at Tue 24 May 2005, 5:07 PM in Jude the Obscure || 2 Replies
No Subject
this book is an incredibly hard read, i find that it lacks any interesting strong points that the reader can truly appreciate and then become increasingly interested. While reading the first few chapters of the Obscure there is a desperate and intense need to throw the book across the room or send out fliers warning people of this old fashioned literature. The story and baseline is seen as descent but the unfolding and order of events is unstimulating and boring.
Posted By Unregistered at Tue 24 May 2005, 5:07 PM in Jude the Obscure || 0 Replies