This is something that comes by default in the works by Hardy. The novel takes very grave and sentimental turns, as you might expect a Hardy’s piece to do, and the readers are often rendered into metal boxes oozing tears, magically. Jude and Sue have two children from their illicit relationship and one supposedly from Arabella (Jude’s wife whom he divorces). Eventually, her return to Jude and her fear of having sex going away with time compel Jude and Sue to live aloof from the social set-up and they lead a life that is much more like that of nomadic people – going from one place to another because society won’t accept their ‘illicit relationship’. In an apparent hurried manner, Sue marries Philloston but with her reservations and complications that do not allow the marriage to continue happily. However, with the entry of Jude’s teacher, Mr Philloston, changes everything. Eventually and naturally, after the initial reluctance in their approach, these both cousins fall in love – a love that was considered forbidden at that time (and today as well). When Jude reaches Christminster, he meets his cousin, Sue Bridehead, who is an open-minded woman with a free spirit. Christminster, scholars agree and it seems valid, was a city that Hardy modelled on Oxford. He wants to further his intellect and thus, wants admission into the university at Christminster. Jude is a dreaming personality who wants to become a learned man, a scholar. The novel follows the life of a young man Jude Fawley. The parts are based on the names of the places. Running up to 416 pages, the book has 6 different parts. The edition I read was a 1995 edition published by Wordsworth Editions. Jude the Obscure was first published in 1895. Let’s have a detailed look at the title of Thomas Hardy and we will learn more about available perspectives that we can use to construe this novel. Jude has the same fate as most of the heroes of Hardy but his agony doesn’t find the equaliser that we see with Oak and Dick. Moreover, Jude the Obscure also got lost in the same web of pessimism and loneliness. Still, his attempt could not bring much of the difference that could distinguish his approach. Thomas Hardy’s last completed novel, Jude the Obscure, was also perhaps his very first attempt at writing something beyond his usual periphery of pessimistic, silent and prolonged love-goals.

Thomas hardy the obscure