Jude the Obscure

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Summary: The Evils of Women and Marriage
Review: Reading this novel, it seems that Hardy is putting women and the organization of marriage down. But at the same time as reading this novel I was also learning that in Hardy's time women were sex-crazed harlots and men the picture of virtue who were deceived by the evil women. This helped me to understand that Hardy wasn't exactly putting down women, but that he was depicting them as the world saw them at that time. As for the whole marriage issue, Hardy just slams that into the ground. He uses the characters in happy times and in sad times to show how distasteful marriage is. One of the biggest things that points out how Hardy thinks of marriage is how others look upon those who are married and those who are simply a couple. Sue sees that those who are not yet married are happy with one another and still find joy in each other's presence. But when she looks upon those who are married she sees that they no longer are happy and find joy in other places. Arabella also sees this when she comes upon Jude and Sue together without their knowing that she is there. She is told that they have supposedly been married, but when she sees them she thinks that they are not because of how they hold hands and still wish to be with each other. This is rather ironic because she and her husband are at the same event but prefer to go their separate ways. By this example Hardy shows that happiness need not be found in marriage.
Further he shows some of the consequences of a bad marriage through little Father Time. This boy comes to thinking of himself as a hindrance since he could understand what a hindrance was. If he had been born into a good marriage he would have felt loved and he would have felt as though he belonged. However, he was born to a mother who did not want him and a father who did not even know that he existed. Because he was not raised in a healthy home-life, he began to see the world before he was ready. His death portrays an extreme end to an unhappy marriage, but it all shows what can happen to those who are not wary. Father Time also helps to go back to Hardy showing how evil women were considered at that time. Today many people would consider it very immoral to simply leave their child to another to care for, whatever the circumstances may be. Arabella does not seem to mind though, she only cares when it seems that he has been with these people too long. So instead of taking him back, she simply sends him to Jude. Hardy portrays Sue as evil through Father Time by her talk with him right before his death. She tells him that it would actually be better had he and the rest of the children never been born at all. Now, she may not have meant it in quite that way, but that is how he took it, and so the passing away of the children soon after.
There may have been something good about marriage and women in the book, but if there was it was hidden well. As a story it is good, but it is not something that I would want to be judged by, or to base my life on.

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Summary: Women: the scourge of life
Review: As with many of Thomas Hardy's books, Jude the Obscure is a book that satirizes society's views-this one of relationships and commitment. At the beginning of the novel, Jude is a young boy in Marygreen (a part of Wessex) gains an interest for the city of Christminster. At this young age he committed himself to becoming educated enough to one day attend one of the many colleges at Christminster and become a decorated scholar or minister of the church. One day while returning to Marygreen from a job as a stone mason, he meets Arabella. Her entire view of marriage is a social engagement by which a woman attaches herself to a man and allows him to care for her and carry her expenses. She attracts Jude's attention by throwing a piece of raw pig meat at him, and coerces him into marriage by making him believe that she was pregnant. This arrangement, Jude believed, would only postpone his ability to attend a mighty school in Christminster. After their divorce, and a lengthy intermission, Arabella again gets Jude to marry her by keeping him drunk for several days. As made manifest by her use of a false hairpiece and the way she artificially produces a dimple in her cheek, Arabella is a character that portrays the façade of marriage. Her view of relationships was entirely superficial, something for society to see. There was no substance to her or to any relationship she was engaged in.
After their divorce, Jude finally moves up to Christminster where he is rejected by all the colleges. He realized that what he had hoped for as a boy was just a fantasy. Here he meets Sue, a cousin of his, and falls in love. Sue, who really loved Jude, only wanted the security from a relationship without ever having to give a commitment (why she always avoided marriage with Jude). This later led to Jude's downfall. Sue was extremely manipulative and controlled Jude and his emotions as though she were merely pulling and releasing strings. She was often childish and impulsive by drastically doing things and making rash decisions. She knew how Jude felt about her, but seemed to find more enjoyment by avoiding that which she felt was the natural course of nature. Ultimately, she only brought suffering upon herself, and unimaginable anguish upon Jude.
Jude was a boy who wanted nothing more than to "be somebody." He had great goals that were thrashed before his eyes by selfish women who knew his weaknesses. Had Jude been a confirmed bachelor, he would have had little problem in achieving his goals, and Hardy would have been without a book that illustrated the follies of marriage in his day. For example, it is pretty sad by knowing that two people were married by their indifference and mal disposition toward each other. Whenever he recovered from a folly with either of the aforementioned women, he would return to his roots at Marygreen-more going back to the basics-reset his goals (which ultimately led to Christminster) and set out to only be shoved off course by a pretty dame. Hardy's book, being well written and easy to follow and read, if nothing else illustrates what I definitely do not want in a relationship. It is a story like you find in the Bible, one that shows the potholes in life so that you may avoid them.

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Summary: A book about dreams, reality, and society
Review: Jude The Obscure goes against the normal strain in its treatment of topics ranging from marriage, ambition, dreams, and class-society. The book takes shocking twists and turns, and even though the subjects are often depressing, the sheer shock of what has just happened makes you want to read more. Hardy's main character is Jude, a poor, parentless boy whose ambitions far exceed the restrictions his class would put on him. Throughout his childhood he pushed himself in the studies of academia, he would always be seen with Latin books while delivering bread to the villagers. Eventually, as Jude grows he decides to move to Chirstminister-Jude's dream starting from his very early days of youth. Christminister is the center of all academic pursuit and home to the greatest colleges of learning. We follow Jude's adventures there, along with all of his attempts to being admitted into one of these institutions. This is not easy for a young man who has no money or family status behind him. One of Jude's great battles is between his burning desire to achieve higher learning, and his weakness towards women which draw him away from this goal. The elements which Jude's eventual children present, make an outlandish story even stranger by their actions. Certainly Hardy intended the children to present us with some additional lessons to consider while contemplating the book.

The book was difficult for me to read, as mentioned in other reviews, the depressing subject matter and gloominess is not inherently an inviting thing. However, by unfolding the story as Hardy did, following the dreams and failures of young Jude, I learned some lessons that I do not think I could have otherwise. I received a strong personal impression in the importance of not giving up on yourself. That even if your opportunities are not optimal, or you environment is not perfect, that you still have the ability to reach for your dreams. And at all costs you should not give up on your dreams, or believe that you are not capable of accomplishing them. I also thought a lot about the acts the society would have us perform, which are not securely right. Having read the book forced me to reflect about the daily choices I make, how many of those are really mine, and how many are artificial restraints institutions would have me believe I must make.

While I have read more entertaining books, I would have to recommend this one because of the unique perspective it presents. Hardy message allows us to think about important issues in a light not often seen through.

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Summary: Jude the Obscure...Very Obscure!
Review: Jude the Obscure was a very interesting novel, but I would not call it enjoyable. Hardy illustrates many different ambivalent characters, none of whom carry any heroic or acclaimed traits. The characters consist of Jude who has great potential, and aspirations but most of them are largely crushed by the way he handles his life and decisions. He lets the two female characters of the novel twist him and turn him in any, and every direction. He carries no stability and does not resemble any type of human being that has nobility. He has so many dreams and he works so hard to achieve them, but often he lets outside forces influence him and sway his priorities. This is the character that Hardy bases the book around, a man who has goals but they are continually cut down throughout the book. It also irritates me that the two characters who have this great amount of influence on him actually have no honor themselves. Arabella, his first wife is a woman who gets her way through life by dishonesty. She lies about anything and everything that will get her what she wants. In the beginning she gets Jude's attention by throwing pig lard at him showing from the start her lack of refinement. She is the first character that sways Jude from his long time dream of becoming a scholar, doing this through her many lies and deceptions. The second character that contributes to the degradation of Jude's character is Sue. This woman who is in actuality his cousin not only contributes in the detour of Jude's many dreams, but she also ruins the small reputation that he has. By teasing him, and refusing to marry him she creates a relationship that causes a great deal of controversy in their society. She continues to drag Jude's emotions until the very end never coming up with any achievements, and helping Jude do the same.
Although I didn't particularly enjoy any of the characters that the novel consisted of, there were some major issues that are important especially looking at the time period that the novel was written. Having been published in a time period where sensitive issues were rarely spoken about such as the ones that are addressed made the book very unique. At that time period rarely topics were addressed like they are in Jude the Obscure. The book ventures into a great deal on the issue of society and it's constrictions. Having society be one of the main topics was not what caused the most uproar at the time. The references of the church and education probably did not attain a pleasant reaction preventing many of the readers from observing the more major theme of the novel. No I did not enjoy the book, but I do not thoroughly understand the time period that the first publication occurred at, or the type of society that it was released to. Knowing that such information would probably make the book a little more appealing to me, but overall I can not say that it was an uplifting read.

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Summary: Jude
Review: Jude the Obscure is a saddening book that deals with the oppression that society can force onto people. Jude Fawley's many attempts to rise above his social class and to become something better than he was born to are crushed time and again through society or the forces of nature. The writing itself is very readable; in the beginning of the book, I was very amused by how naive Jude was and enjoyed the way that Thomas Hardy used the language. The quality of writing never suffered through the book, but the plot becomes more and more depressing. In the final scene of the book, where Jude is finally dying after his life of oppression and tragedy, you feel incredibly sorry for all that Jude had to go through. Throughout his entire life he had been mocked by Christminster and all that it represented for Jude. Jude did all that he could to get there and become a scholar, but he was told to stay in his class and be content with what he had. Oppression through marriage of all of the main characters (Jude, Sue, Phillotson, and Arabella) was also explored through the entire book. Arabella is the mistake that Jude made that he cannot escape from. His one wrong choice early in his life ruins his chance for having a normal relationship with Sue, and in his final days he has to live with that choice. The underlying themes here are explored well by Hardy and give the reader a chance to see life from a different angle and hopefully appreciate what they have.

One thing I disliked about the book was the constant tragic events. I understand that Hardy was trying to explore certain themes by using such depressing events, but it was too much sometimes. When little Father Time and the children of Jude and Sue died, I was probably as crushed as Sue was. That is perhaps the saddest point of any book that I have read and it caught me by surprise. The tragedy of it was much more than I was expecting, and that is probably what Hardy was looking for. I didn't appreciate being bombarded by such emotional manipulators by Hardy.

The characterizations in the book were wonderful. Jude's aspirations that continued to be subverted by his weaknesses made him the perfect tragic hero. Sue was realistic, but she was never strong enough to earn my sympathy. She was just too weak, despite being the "liberatedEwoman. I came to dislike Arabella right from the start, and my dislike grew with each appearance she made. Phillotson was perhaps the most pitiable character in the novel, especially when he is persecuted for letting Sue go. The minor characters in the story add to these main characters and help to reveal who that are and why they do what they do.

Overall, Jude the Obscure is an excellent novel, but it does have its bad points. The thematic elements in the novel are explored in a thought-provoking way and the characters are portrayed in a realistic and poignant way that helps the reader to understand who they are and why they are being slammed by forces outside of their control. Those forces, though, are sometimes too strong and detract from what Hardy is trying to do with the novel. I would recommend this book, but be prepared to leave aside time to think about it afterwards. This book makes you sit down and think after you read it. If you don't do this afterwards, there will be so much that you miss.

Rating:
Summary: Good read if there is ample time
Review: Jude the Obscure is a tale of a young orphan boy who has a perfect picture of his future painted. Being an orphan, he has very little going for him. He is not shown affection by anyone, especially his caretaker-his great aunt. He is constantly being chastised for the way he lives his life. Because there is not a single significant influence at home, Jude looks elsewhere for guidance and direction. He finds this positive influence in his school teacher, Mr. Phillotson. Jude sees good and potential in this school teacher, and wants to emulate him to the best of his ability. However, Jude comes face to face with his major weak point... a woman. Upon encountering Arabella the pig killer, Jude almost instantly forgets his aspirations of attending Christminster to gain an education and instead decides to marry Arabella.

After having sacrificed time, money, and his dream of school, Arabella decides that she is going to leave Jude and move on with life. After drinking away his problems, Jude finally decides to move on and try to accomplish his dream of a Christminster education. It is in this town that Jude finds and falls in love with his cousin Sue. Upon befriending Sue, Jude takes a walk with her to find his old mentor and see how he has fared over the years. During their discussion with Mr. Phillotson, Sue is drawn to him, because he is able to teach her how to be a teacher. Jude worries about this, but has few options. Eventually Mr. Phillotson courts Sue and they are wed. Once again Jude is thrown into a fit of depression and drinking. Eventually Sue grows tired of Phillotson that she pursues Jude. However, staying true to the theme of the book, as soon as you have the person you love, you instantly fall out of love with them-and this happens to Sue.

This book is story of more than love, marriage, and the problems associated with each. This book has a deeper meaning that Hardy means to convey. It is a story of life in general. Although love is the underlying theme, there are more problems addressed in the book. Those that have a worthwhile goal in life are rarely able to accomplish their dreams, and even when they do, they aren't happy as they envisioned they would be. This book is one of depression and failure. Somehow Hardy is able to make the worst-case scenario out of nearly every situation. A good read, but there are more uplifting stories out there if that is what the reader is looking for.

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Summary: Jude is Obscure
Review: Jude the Obscure is a depressing book. Thomas Hardy portrays the main character, Jude, as a man with no morals and no backbone. The novel is full of immorality, beginning when Arabella reveals she is pregnant just to get Jude to marry her. Later in the book, Jude and Sue live together and have children, but they do not marry. These instances highlight the immorality and wickedness portrayed in the novel. Another quality Jude possesses is the lack of a backbone. He lets women run over him and tell him what to do. They also trick him and lie to him.
Another thing I do not like about this book are the characters in general. None of them seem to have any redeeming qualities. There is no character that I liked. Each character has many evil things about him or her, and they lack positive traits. Arabella can be described as a "woman of the world" without feelings and sympathy. Sue appears at first to be a good, moral person, but she turns out to play with Jude's thoughts. Jude is just a miserable man who lacks courage.
This book is full of tragedy and misery. It is inevitable the reader will feel sorry for Jude. I caught myself saying "Awww, poor Jude" many times throughout the novel. Then at times I would remember he brought much of the tragedy on by his own actions.
Hardy's attitude to his novel is unclear. When reading the book, we are taken through Jude's life, and we witness many things that seem to only affect Jude. Even though we are allowed to enter into the consciousness of the other characters, their motivation seems based on selfishness. The book is full of lies and deceptions. There is no serenity, peace, or understanding in the novel. It seems like the world is moving so fast, and when Jude attempts to comprehend what is going on, he is left behind.
Love has the power to create suffering or happiness. In this book, the tension of the love relationship is increased when a third party comes into the picture. Without the presence of Phillotson, Jude and Sue's relationship may have been quite simpler. She may have seen marrying Jude as the right thing to do. They could have gotten married and could have been a happy couple. Hardy did not let this happen; he chose to leave the reader with the dark view of love.
The only thing that redeems this book in any way is one of the themes it contains. This is the marriage theme, which is ambiguous in the novel. One could suppose Hardy's view of marriage is one of abhorrence. This may be because of Jude's cynical view of the issue. On the other hand, marriage can also be seen as a good thing because if Jude would have gotten married for the right reasons and if he really wanted to, he would not have married Arabella in the first place. Plus, great tragedy comes from the decision not to marry Sue, but to live with her and pretend they were married. I agree with the second view of marriage. I like how Hardy leaves it up to the reader to decide which view he has of marriage. This is probably the only thing I like about the book.

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Summary: Jude in Review
Review: A thought provoking book about the troubles of life in the real world (especially regarding marriage), Thomas Hardy's "Jude the Obscure" is a worthwhile read. The story is quite good in its own right, though I thought the end to be too abrupt and a little too cynical. I have never in any of Hardy's writings, however, known him to end on a happy note.

The book begins with Jude's childhood, when his schoolmaster leaves their small town for the city of Christminster, a college town renowned for learning, where the schoolmaster hopes to become a student. The boy Jude soon resolves to follow his schoolmaster, and obtaining several texts on Greek and Latin (the languages spoken in the colleges of Christminster), he begins his studies with a feverish fascination. As he gains proficiency in these languages and as he slowly obtains books, he expands his studies. Then one day when he is a young man apprenticed to become a stonemason, he meets a young woman named Arabella, who convinces him that he loves her. They have a romantic relationship until Arabella tells Jude that she thinks that she is pregnant. Being honorable, he marries her for the sake of the child, but there is no child after all, and Jude is married to a girl that he soon discovers that he does not love. She makes him neglect the studies he holds so dear and soon they both begin to be quite miserable. Finally, she asks Jude to let her leave him, which he consents to. She moves to Australia and he to Christminster, where he meets another woman who captures his heart. Sue is his lasting love, and though she is his cousin (they had never before met), they fall in love.

The book is ultimately one focused around romances. First, there is Jude's romantic and unrealistic dream of going to the city of Christminster and becoming a scholar. And secondly, there is his romance with Sue, a young, intelligent, and independent woman. The first question Hardy asks deals with the first romance and goes something like this: "Why does social position stop a man that is otherwise eminently qualified from achieving his dreams?" And the second question is "Is it better to remain unmarried-always in the state of a lover, giving rather than expecting anything from your companion, or is it better to be married, bound to each other for all of life in order to gain acceptance of men?" Jude and Sue are constantly frustrated by the society they dwell in as they try to live out their very unconventional lives together in peace and happiness, taking care to harm no one.

The book is very well written, and I enjoyed it more than "Tess of the D'Ubervilles," another book that I have read that was written by Hardy. I'd recommend this book for deep thinkers and people not afraid of a disappointing ending. Jude and Sue's unconventionality causes you to question what you once held for granted. A careful analysis of those institutions seems necessary after reading "Jude the Obscure." I hold that to be one of this novel's greatest values within the world of literature.

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Summary: An Insight to My Actions
Review: As soon as Thomas Hardy was named as the author, I knew that it was bound to be depressing. However, for a depressing novel, it was quite powerful. Its power lies in the prose laden with Biblical allusions, the contrasting characters of Sue and Arabella and in the universal truths about the thoughts of women and men that it brings to the surface.
Hardy is a very eloquent writer. His passages of prose are always meaningful.
One of the reasons that his prose in Jude the Obscure is so powerful is because of the allusions that Hardy makes. This book is essentially arguing against the organized religions of his day, but he does it with beautiful Christian allusions. He compares his characters to Christian characters that have done and had similar experiences. It weaves the two books together so that it almost seems that Hardy's characters are really these good Christian people and that the people who belong to the organized Christian church are far removed from the real point of the Bible. His references to the Bible give the text new levels of meaning that simply stating what the character felt like would not have done.
Another way that Hardy made his message more powerful was through the use of foiling two characters, Sue and Arabella. They both misuse the protagonist, Jude. Although they are quite different in their backgrounds and mannerisms, they both have the same personality flaws, such as selfishness. Because Hardy made them seem really different from the outset, it makes it all the more noticeable when they start to mistreat Jude in the same way. It is through Hardy's use of devices such as foiling in order to point out character flaws of two totally different women that he is able to point at some fundamental truths about women and men.
He foils Sue and Arabella to show some of the defects of women, but he also compares Jude to Phillotson to point out the flaws of the male sex. This was the most intriguing factor in the book to me. There were many times when I would see some of my actions right there before me on the page with a nineteenth century twist. It really didn't feel like Hardy had just written this book in the nineteenth century because there were so many universal truths. But since I knew that he had written it a long time ago it convinced me all the more that what I saw in Hardy's characters that was also in me must be a trait possessed to me degree by all women in all ages. Hardy understood men's and women's timeless character traits well enough that he could create somewhat realistic characters for us to see ourselves in them.
Jude the Obscure is worth while if you are interested in exploring the unconventional views of organized religion in the nineteenth century. It is also worth reading for anyone seeking insights into the mind of the opposite sex or why the sex you belong to behaves the way they do.

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Summary: Jude finds himself trapped
Review: This tragic book brings forth issues relating to class, love, and marriage. Hardy illustrates the ties they have to one another and the different ways they trap individuals. In the early stages of his life, being in a lower class sets the stage for the traps that Jude will find himself in through out his life. He is limited in the things that he can do, but still he continues to have a goal reaching towards an education, even though it is next to impossible. The desire and the potential preside in him, but the situations he encounters quickly throw his dreams of gaining an education aside. The class barrier once again blocks his path when he falls in love with Sue. At first she marries another as a way to get ahead socially in life. After suffering through that marriage, she turns to Jude. The two never marry and the people of the town find their relationship to be inappropriate, and that situation doesn't better its self after Sue bears two children. The social class barriers that prevail during this time period trap Jude and don't allow him to move on and find the life that he searches for.

Jude struggles with relationships and marriage all the way through this book. His affections and marriage to Arabella never have a chance of working because they only touch the surface of true emotion. Arabella's social status is even lower than Jude's so she only marries into a higher social class to benefit herself. There is no true affection, and that results only in misery. His relationship with Sue has the potential to be a great one. But, there are many factors that lead to the deterioration of their relationship. When Arabella returns claiming that Jude has a son that begins to tear apart the relationship that has already been ridiculed by the town people. The attempts to keep their relationship are shattered by the murder and suicide of all Jude's children. Sue leaves Jude and returns to her ex-husband to live out her life in misery and sorrow. Jude's life is ultimately run by these relationships and keeps him trapped until his death.

Although I have never read Hardy before, it seems as if his views on marriage are very negative. Every single marriage in the book falls to pieces. None of the characters seem to realize the divinity in marriage. Marriage is just a thing that people do. It's a social trap. At one point in the book Arabella compares her ring to a padlock. From this work it shows that Hardy doesn't even believes that marriage works. None of the characters marry for love; they all marry for social reasons. The thought of giving yourself for the relationship and to build it, never even crosses their minds. I wonder if this same theme crosses over into other of Hardy's works. The never ending mishaps in this book frustrate me. In some ways I felt sympathy for Jude because he couldn't release himself from the women that in a sense hold him captive. But in the end Jude the Obscure is a great tragic tale of a man that never gets the courage to stand up for himself and get what he wants.