Jude, the Obscure
Some think that Tess of the D'Urberville's was the greatest of Thomas Hardy's novels; many high school students read his The Return of the Native. His last book was Jude the Obscure. He lived another 33 years after it was published but chose never to write another novel when Jude received such great criticism. In one sense, that decision is lamentable because Hardy was a very talented writer. However, if he were going to continue along the lines in this tale, it is probably best.
Written toward the end of the Victorian era in England, Hardy was at odds with the customs of his time. Jude was motivated by his schoolmaster, Mr. Phillotson, to be a scholar and maybe hold an office in the Church someday. He studied at every opportunity, learning Latin and Greek. He desperately wanted to live in a university town, but he was a poor lad without funds to enroll. And when he finally does arrive there, it is not the glorious place he thought it was.
Hardy challenges the scholarly system, which probably did not ingratiate him with the intellectual community, but that's not the reason for rejecting this work. When Jude reaches the age of 19, he discovers a particular female named Arabella. She virtually smacks him in the face and gets his attention. Thinking she might marry Jude someday, her friends advise her how to trap him into marriage sooner rather than later.
First, she seduces him, and then confides to him that she is pregnant, knowing he will do the honorable thing. After they are married, it turns out she was not with child after all. Despite the subject matter, none of this is told in a lurid or racy manner. The Victorians did not care for the subject matter. Some contemporary reviewers referred to the book as "Jude The Obscene" because the subject of sex is a recurring theme.
The Main Thesis
One asks, "Why is Hardy writing this novel?" Jude, who has become a stonecutter instead of a scholar, is willing to throw away (literally) his books for the privilege of being married and the fringe benefits accompanying that relationship. "It was better to love a woman than to be a graduate, or a parson; ay, or a pope!" (49). However, paradise quickly crumbles: Jude and Arabella begin fighting and squabbling. The flame, which once burned hot quickly cooled and was soon extinguished. Their lives were ruined "by the fundamental error of their matrimonial union: that of having based a permanent contract on a temporary feeling…" (71).
This is the main complaint found in the book—the permanence of marriage. The couple separated. Jude does not see her for years and does not even know where she is. In the meantime, he falls in love with the picture of his cousin Sue (played by Kate Winslet in the 1996 movie—made 100 years after the novel).
Sue is living in the same college town to which Jude has moved—and where his former teacher Phillotson lives. She plans to move soon; in order to keep her there, Jude begs his former teacher to give her a job, which he does. Unfortunately, although he is 18-years older than Sue, Phillotson also falls in love with her—and wants to marry her. She agrees that, after she completes her training, she would marry him, and they would operate a school together.
The reader also discovers that Sue had lived with a man for 15 months—but totally without a sexual relationship. He later died of consumption. Of course, this arrangement would lack propriety, but it would not be the last time it existed. Because Sue did not return home by curfew one night and stayed away until morning, she was punished by her school. She and Jude traveled too far into the country to get back in time and spent the night in a cottage with a woman and her son. The men stayed in one room and the women in the other; so, there was nothing immoral that occurred.
The school, however, would not listen to any explanation. Sue escaped, traveling through a river to do so, and arrived at the only point of refuge she could think of—Jude's quarters. This time they actually did spend the night together—but, no, everything was copasetic. The school expelled her; therefore, Sue and Mr. Phillotson decided to move up their marriage date. And Jude gave her away! At this point, the reader may wonder why the book is not titled Jude the Obtuse. He was duped by Arabella, and now he cooperates in bringing about a marriage which is certainly doomed to fail.
The Plot Thickens
It soon becomes evident that Sue does not love Phillotson; so, what is she to do? He treats her very well and is kind, but she basically can't stand him. She asks: "What is the use of thinking of laws and ordinances if they make you miserable when you know you are committing no sin?" Sue had thought little of marriage in the past (society's conventions), and now she wishes for a divorce because she made a mistake. She adds: "For a man and woman to live on intimate terms when one feels as I do is adultery, in any circumstance, however legal" (229). The two agree to set each other free. Phillotson explains to a friend: "…I wouldn't be cruel to her in the name of the law" (242). They divorce.
Jude likewise disparages marriage: "I had not the remotest idea…that merely taking a woman to church and putting a ring upon her finger could by any possibility involve one in such a daily, continuous tragedy as that now shared by her and me!" (238). Come to find out, Arabella moved to Australia and married a man there—without benefit of divorce, which made her a bigamist. Jude agrees to divorce her. All obstacles being removed, Jude and Sue are free to marry.
A Happy Ending?
According to the Scriptures, Jude probably does have a Scriptural divorce, in light of Arabella's actions. However, Sue does not. Simply agreeing to terminate a marriage contradicts the teaching of Matthew 19:3-9. Jude and Sue begin living together, but as with her 15-month stint with her former boyfriend, Sue wants no sexual relationship with Jude. A frustrated Jude actually tells her, "I think you are incapable of real love" (247), but he chooses to live with her on those terms.
The title of the book comes from a conversation on page 264. Jude says that Arabella got away with bigamy for awhile and that he and Sue could live together without being married because they were obscure people—and not well-known by the populace. However, he is not as obscure as he thought. He was fired from a job (refurbishing the ten commandments) because people suspected he and Sue were not married. Surprisingly, the book contains an old saying: "marry in haste, and repent at leisure" (294).
One night Arabela comes late to the place Jude and Sue live. She wants to talk to him, but Sue begs him not to walk back to her lodgings with her (she has not yet remarried her Australian husband). She thinks Arabella would seduce him again; so, she begs him to stay and offers him intimacy if he will. He remains, and that becomes a part of their relationship henceforth. Time passes; children enter the picture.
Comments on God and Marriage
A profound tragedy occurs, and Sue is shaken to the core. She has always rebelled against convention, but now she cries: "We must conform!" She believes God is punishing them for their actions (they never did marry). "It is no use fighting against God!" (351). She decides that she is still Phillotson's wife, which, according to the Scriptures, is true. Jude objects vociferously.
Sue says, among other things, "we have been selfish, careless, even impious…. Our life has been a vain attempt at self-delight. We should mortify the flesh…" 353). Of course, that has never been difficult for Sue to do. She is determined to return to her first husband: "I sacramentally joined myself to him for life. Nothing can alter it!" (359). The question is, "Does the author believe this statement, or do his sympathies lie with Jude? Sue was the one who did not care about conventions—or even what God thought. Can she change so swiftly?
Jude argues that they are husband and wife by Nature; Sue responds, "But not Heaven's" (360). She further states: "I can't help being as I am. I am convinced I am right—that I see the light at last." Jude begs Sue, "Do not do an immoral thing for moral reasons!" (362). But she will not be deterred. She returns to her first husband though she does not love him. Hardy pits love and emotion against law and duty. He does his best to make following the Law of God look bad. People's feelings ought to be followed instead (he obviously thinks).
The Conflict
Most of the time, the anti-marriage comments are aimed at the Church. It almost seems as if Hardy would have his readers believe that the Church (either the Catholic Church or the Church of England) made up the ordinance of marriage, and while they may have modifications concerning it, marriage was devised by God in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2:18-25). Hardy knows that. He quotes many verses of Scripture throughout the book and makes several allusions to Biblical events.
He does not usually attack the Scriptures head on, but near the conclusion of the narrative a clergyman quotes Matthew 19:6: "What God hath joined together let not man put asunder." Recently, Arabella's Australian and later her English husband (for they were married again after her divorce from Jude) died. The widow decided that she wanted Jude back. She got him drunk and cajoled him into marrying her a second time. Jude told Arabella that Sue had said he ought to marry her again, "and I have straightway. It's true religion! Ha—ha—ha!" (395). Obviously, Jude is mocking the Word of God.
Jude and Arabella's landlord wondered if they were actually married, but he heard them fighting one night; Arabella threw a shoe at Jude's head. This convinced the landlord they were married; "he recognized the note of genuine wedlock…" (394).
The Final Insult
Jude sees Sue one last time, begging her to return to him (though neither are now free). He cries out: "Sue! Sue! we are acting by the letter; and 'the letter killeth'!" (398). The verse in question (2 Cor. 3:6) is taken out of context. The reader should not be surprised because on the very first page he reads:
JUDE THE OBSCURE
"The Letter Killeth."
The note is explained at the end of the novel: "The letter killeth": The reference is to the Bible, 2 Corinthians 3:6: "Who also made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life" (419).
The verse involves a comparison between the old law and the new covenant. The Old law killed because the penalty for sin was death. It is only in Christ that sinners can have life. The verse has nothing to do with marriage. Hardy apparently thought that if people kept the vows they made when they got married, they were legalists and deserved death (or at least an awful earthly existence) for keeping their word (Sue's return to Phillotson).
Living by the spirit (according to Hardy) would follow "love" in and out of marriages and affairs—and serve as life. Jude and Sue should have been able to live together whether married or not, as they willed. Ultimately, this novel is an attack on God's plan for marriage and a plea that says to everyone: "Follow your heart."