512 Hardy, Thomas
leaving him; this noble trait is revoked, however,
when he takes back devastated Sue in the end. This,
as a side-effect, amplifies his career again. Like all
the other characters of the novel, he is a contradic-
tory person.
Jude, in the end, will never see the interior of a
college. For him, ambition has resulted in restless
wandering. Consequently, Jude and Sue have the
happiest time of their lives when they have given up
their ambitions and live together as an unmarried
couple with their children. Sue says “We gave up
all ambition, and were never so happy in our lives.
.. .” This kind of happiness is terminal; this time
the reason is not social immobility as determined by
class structure but Sue and Jude’s offense against the
rigidity of Victorian morality.
A fascinating aspect of these two social factors
is that class structure and moral code are not solely
affecting the protagonists from without, but they are
rather a part of the collective subconscious within
the individual. Sue’s regression into devoutness, after
the catastrophe has befallen her and Jude’s shared
life, demonstrates this. The pessimism of the novel
pivots around the two issues apparent here. The
longing for love is constrained by a repressive con-
temporary moral code, and the longing for cultural
education (which equals social ascent) is blocked
by impenetrable social barriers. Thus, the repressive
Victorian society prevents individuals from achiev-
ing happiness.
Thomas Schares
love in Jude the Obscure
Jude the Obscure is the tragic love story of Jude Faw-
ley and his cousin Sue Bridehead. The whole plot of
the novel is focused on and determined by their love,
which is outlined as an elective affinity: Irrefutably,
both are drawn to each other. Jude pursues Sue in
Christminster, he even changes his plans and resi-
dence when she moves. Sue flees from the training
school to Jude, and they always meet again in spite
of all vows not to. The notion that the two are meant
for each other is maintained throughout the novel,
and even by antagonist characters: “They seem to
be one person split in two!” This recurrent image of
“two in one” alludes to the story of the separation
of the two sexes by Aristophanes as given in Plato’s
Symposium: As a punishment, the gods cut the origi-
nal whole human creature in half. They then went
about separated and in unquenchable longing for
their lost other half—a primeval desire for fusion
through love.
But the love of Sue and Jude in the whole course
of events is not much more than a promise—a prom-
ise, maybe an ideal, never to be fulfilled, a tragic love
that will end in catastrophe. They share only a brief
period of living together happily. But during most
of the novel’s events, they have to bear being apart,
and Jude also has to cope with the experience of
being abandoned repeatedly. Although there seems
to be nothing more desirable to both of them than
being together, there are always events preventing
this—up to the tragic ending. Why this has to be,
the novel refuses a definite answer, but there is far
more to it than foreshadowings of dark hereditary
family pathology. The novel reaches deeply into the
psychology of its protagonists and offers various
explanations and hints. But one social fact in the
novel is a prominent obstacle and a concept most
contradictory to Sue and Jude’s love: marriage.
Discussed widely and repeatedly within the text
and by the protagonists, Sue and Jude both believe
it is the institution of marriage that destroys them.
In fact, each marries another person: In his younger
years, Jude is lured into marriage by the voluptuous
Arabella, but she is disappointed and leaves him
soon. Jude comes to consider this marriage “a per-
manent contract on a temporary feeling.” Sue, while
ambitious to become a teacher, marries her patron
and Jude’s former teacher Phillotson, because she
feels like “a woman tossed about, all alone, with
aberrant passions, . . .” although she certainly loves
Jude. The strange magnetism between Jude and Sue
soon brings this marriage to an end, too. Phillotson
consents to divorce and Sue and Jude start living
together. But their brief period of physical union,
the joys of two children and a third on the way are
marred by their different attitudes toward sexuality,
as well as the reappearance of Arabella and miser-
able material circumstances. After their respective
divorces, Jude and Sue attempt a couple of times to
marry “to make their natural marriage a legal one”
but always resolve “to go home without killing their
dream.”