by G. Jack
Urso
Thomas
Hardy’s novels, The Return of the Native,
The Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of the D’Urbenvilles, and Jude the Obscure all share a common
element in the catalyst to the action in their plots — the strict social
stratification of Great Britain. The major characters in these novels all
struggle with the limitations of their social class and the resulting conflict
contributes to the overall dark tone in these novels, not to mention Hardy’s
own depressed psychological outlook.
Hey Jude
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| First edition. |
At the
beginning of Jude the Obscure, Hardy
introduces us to the village townsfolk, though not always by names. Instead,
Hardy refers to some by their occupation, such as Phillotson, a major character
who is introduced as “the schoolmaster.” In the first few paragraphs we are
introduced to “the miller . . . the managers . . . the rector . . . the
blacksmith . . . the farm-baliff,” and throughout the book a person’s
individual worth is determined by the nature of their vocation. Indeed, it is
Jude’s search for his ideal vocation that consumes his life for part of the
novel.
Consider,
for example, the letter Jude receives from Biblioll College in Christminster.
Though brief, it is indicative of how much thought the “upper class” gave to
people in the working class that Jude belonged. The letter states, in part,
“you will have a much better chance of success in life by remaining in your own
sphere and sticking to your own trade than by adopting any other course” (Hardy
121). As far as the college is concerned, Jude has as much chance of becoming a
scholar as the master of the college has of becoming a stonemason (Jude’s
profession).
Within his
own class, Jude could have established himself as an experienced master of his
craft; as a scholar, Jude would always be considered an outsider by virtue of
his class. Jude’s ideas, no matter how credible, would be dismissed based
solely on his class alone. Hardy himself acknowledges this social
stratification several paragraphs later as we follow Jude around the town as he
deals with his disappointment, “It was literally teaming, stratified with the
shades of human groups” (Hardy 121).
Jude
expresses his anger at being shut out of the lofty heights of academia by
scrawling on a wall a verse from Job, chapter 12, verse 3:
“I have understanding as well as you; I am not
inferior to you; yea, who knoweth not such things as these?”
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| Scene from the 1996 film adaptation starring Christopher Eccleston. |
First
published in 1895, Jude the Obscure
was written while the British Empire was at its height and the reign of the
Victorian Age’s titular queen nearly at an end. Wars of aggression in Africa
and the Sepoy mutinies in India, exposed the dark under belly of the empire,
which reached its heights by maintaining as firm a grip on the destiny of its
subjects at home as well as abroad. Cultural imperialism is in its last years
during Hardy’s lifetime. The oppressive atmosphere in Jude the Obscure is, in part, a symptom of a culture in its death
throes.
Bridehead
Revisited
Sue
Bridehead is not my favorite character in the book. While I may share her
disapproval of organized religion and her preference for ancient Greco-Roman
culture, she seems a bit too self-prepossessed. Like Jude, she is seeking her
own place in society and is likewise frustrated that her desires cannot be
realized. Her dalliance with the undergraduate and her relationship with Jude
pushed, if not violates, the boundaries that a young, middle-class, British
woman was expected to stay within at the time. Sue’s relationship with
Phillotson is appropriate because, despite the age difference, both are of the
same class. Sue also aspires to the same profession as Phillotson and, unlike
her and Jude, she and Phillotson are not cousins.
The
training school Sue attends is the very model of Victorian social assimilation.
There are restrictive rules, a repressed headmistress, and a curriculum
designed to teach women their place in society; however, despite all that, Sue
has a dissenter’s mind. She questions the absolute authority, and even the
relevance of the church. While she stays overnight with the undergraduate, she
does not have sex with him. This may be regarded as an innocent enough act
today, in Hardy’s time this would have been absolutely scandalous behavior for
a young, middle-class woman. Sue further sets her own rules by living with
Jude, rather than marrying him, yet as she lives more and more as a free
spirit, the seeds of her misfortune, and her eventual return to the embrace of
class-consciousness, is sown.
The underlying
message to the Victorian mind is that by not staying within the boundaries of
the expectations placed upon you by virtue of your gender and class, you
yourself are responsible for the consequences. Indeed, the death of the
children, Sue’s continuing unhappiness, and Jude’s death all seem to be the
result of their attempt to live outside their class and society.
In the
hands of another author more conventional than Hardy, this story would surely
end up as a cautionary tale, but that is not the thrust of message Hardy is
trying to convey. He exposes the limitations and hypocrisy of Victorian society
and how it seems to operate against the one basic need of all humans, the right
to pursue happiness. To work at the vocation of your choice, to believe in your
convictions, and love whomever you please, are not realities to Hardy, Sue, or
Jude. Rather than a cautionary tale of woe, Jude
the Obscure is more of a treatise against the society that allows Hardy to
pursue his vocation of a writer. Hardy clearly champions the cause of those
from classes below his own; it is little wonder then that the book received so
much negative criticism when it was first published.
Certainly,
Jude and Sue are flawed characters. One wonders how this story might have ended
up had the tale not been set in so rigid a society as 19th century England, if
Sue was a bit more circumspect, and Jude a bit less so.
Hardy and
Marriage
Jude’s
relationship with Sue actually comes after his marriage with the course, pig
farmer’s daughter Arabella. Jude’s relationship with Arabella is as earthy as
his relationship with Sue is cerebral. While one may blame Arabella’s
anti-intellectualism and coarse habits as being to blame for the end of the
marriage, Hardy hints that it is Jude’s own sexual urges that compel him into
such a loveless marriage. One wonders if it is not Hardy’s own relationship
with his wife that manifests itself in this aspect of Jude’s character.
Hardy uses
the institution of marriage not only to show the differences between the classes
in general, but also Jude and women in particular. Primarily, though, I believe
it is a reflection of Hardy’s own negative experience. While not distracting
from the literary value of his work, Hardy’s novels can be viewed as
personifying his psychological makeup in a kind of therapy. Hardy creates a
place in his novels where he can give voice to his frustrations and fears. Of
course, all writers do this. Indeed, it is for that very reason that many do
take up the pen, to exorcise their own demons. One of Hardy’s legacies to
modern literature is the way in which he used his inner struggles to fuel his
stories.
In the
end, both Jude and Sue go back to their first marriages. After so much
misfortune, to return to the class from whence they came not only seems like
the right thing to do, but just the ticket to get their lives back on track. Of
course, it does neither. It seems as though Jude and Sue are born in the wrong
time and in the wrong country.
Jude’s
Child
Little
Father Time, Jude’s child from his marriage to Arabella, is a reminder to Jude
of his place in society. To Sue, the child is a reminder of how different are
the classes she and Jude come from. While it was not a much of a social stretch
for Jude, a stonemason, to marry a pig farmer’s daughter, one has a more
difficult time imagining Sue marrying a pig farmer’s son. If both Sue and Jude
cannot live in the netherworld between classes, outside societal norms, then
what chance will their children have who will belong to neither class?
Little
Father Time perceives what neither Jude nor Sue have yet to understand; there
is no happiness or security in this world when you choose to reject the society
you live in. The children are a burden, but only because Jude and Sue cannot
make their way in society while ignoring the class structure. Sue appreciates
this hard truth when she goes back to Phillotson, saying:
“I see marriage differently now. My babies
have been taken from me to show me this! Arabella’s child killing mine was a
judgment-the right slaying the wrong.” (344-346)
Sue, who
Jude had considered his intellectual equal, abandons him. She runs back to the
security of the conventional middle-class life with Phillotson. After having
brought Jude about to her line of thinking regarding Christianity, Sue then
seeks refuge in it. While she claims Jude does not see things as they are, in
fact, he sees all too clearly. Unable to find his place in the world, in his
society, he leaves it. His love of learning, of the Church, of Christminster,
of Sue, all fall away. None have served him well.
Jude’s
death at the end of the book is a type of crucifixion. As it has been pointed
out, Jude could have simply decided not to waste away to death if he chose not
to. In a similar manner, if Jesus was the son of God, why did he not just get
down off the cross? The traditional response is that the crucifixion of Jesus
Christ was a final sacrifice, opening up a new era in the gospel of love and
forgiveness. Likewise, it can be argued that Jude’s death was a sacrifice,
opening up an era of new opportunities, regardless of class. Nevertheless, it
can also be asserted that Hardy is simply showing that those who seek
enlightenment, true love, and all the world has to offer, will forever be
denied.
The Temple
of God
The rigid
structures that held Hardy’s society together were like the old Gothic churches
on which Jude himself worked. Indeed, in the book, the churches, and
Christminster itself are symbols of the society that rejects Jude and which
eventually Jude rejects as well. The great irony is that Jude’s profession
employed him in maintaining and repairing the symbols of the hierarchical
society in which he felt trapped. That is the paradox of our existence in this
world. The very same society that we criticize also created us, as we in turn
inherit the world our children will one day also question and criticize.
Jude the Obscure is an
allegory of existence in modern society. It is set amidst familiar surroundings
(the locations are based on actual places) and features a range of social
problems such as abuse, adultery, alcoholism, and suicide. Such societal ills
have a melodramatic aspect, so at first we see Jude the Obscure as just another conventional drama, but it is more
than that. It is an artistic criticism of Gilded Age values and a social record
of the twilight of the Victorian class structure. Jude is a modern, doomed
Everyman fated to seek a kingdom “not of this world;” martyred to an ideal of
existence that our hearts dream of, but our hands cannot build.
Work Cited
Hardy, Thomas. Jude the Obscure. New York: NAL Penguin, 1980.Print.
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Have to love the art, whether a book, a song, or a sculpture, that pours out of a society on the decline. Well done.
ReplyDeleteYes indeed. Good insight.
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