Jude the Obscure :: Jude the Obscure

Jude the Obscure In Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy presents the characters Jude Fawley and Sue Bridehead, who assail the conventions of the repressive Victorian society while attempting to follow their natural instincts. By studying the novel, one sees that Hardys intentions in doing this ar to arouse the readers savvy for the characters, and to fall in in their ridicule of the codes of conduct they are breaking. The trial of Jude and Sue wake up a sympathetic response from the reader because the couple reflects the values which are prevalent in modern society. They suffer persecution for yielding to emotions which are no longer considered unacceptable or forbidden, as they were then. This portrays Victorian society as being cruel and unnatural, thus creating affection for the characters. Hardy understood the design for society to swing like a pendulum from one extreme to the other. He knew that the Victorian era would not last indefinately, and that future generations woul d become much liberated. This is beautifully illustrated in this reflection of Sues When people of a later jump on look back upon the barbarous customs and superstitions of the times that we have the gloominess to support in, what will they think? (p.276) According to modern values, it is wrong to reprobate people for following their pure and natural instincts, though they have wronged no man, condemned no man, defrauded no man. (p.378) Therefore, by predicting these shifts, and exposing the injustice of Victorian society, Hardy evokes sympathy in the reader for Sue and Jude. Hardy also uses the two characters to display that he finds the society in which they live ridiculous. He joins Sue and Jude as they antic at the artificial system of things, under which the normal sex-impulses are turned into devilish domestic gins and springes to noose and hold back those who fate to progress. (p.279) In rare times of Greek joyousness (p.366) Jude and Sue live by Natures law and are able to enjoy, unabated, the instincts which civilization has taken upon itself to thwart. (p.413) It is during these times that the two are truly able to laugh at the conventions they have violated, as they are content and unaffected by the repercussions.