Jude the Obscure in Reading the Classics

Feb 02, 2021 Sidharth Panwar rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I think if you're reading this review to choose whether to read this book or not, you may not find it as useful. I think this review may serve better those who have already gone through the book and find themselves thinking about the things that happened in it. My only complaint with the book was that it was a hundred pages too long but is it worth a read? Yes! But, I think it can be best appreciated when life has hurt you a little.

Jude the Obscure is a story about a young man who hailed from a I think if you're reading this review to choose whether to read this book or not, you may not find it as useful. I think this review may serve better those who have already gone through the book and find themselves thinking about the things that happened in it. My only complaint with the book was that it was a hundred pages too long but is it worth a read? Yes! But, I think it can be best appreciated when life has hurt you a little.

Jude the Obscure is a story about a young man who hailed from a working class background and aspired to enter a university and follow in the footsteps of famous philosophers and thinkers. At least that's what the cover said but after finishing this book I found that this is not what it's about. This was what originally motivated my desire to read this book, the premise, but this book is so much more about other things, in a sense other characters as well than Jude and his yearning to enter a university.

I found that the most significant theme in this book was the almost suffocating stranglehold of society and societal norms on the life of an individual, especially those who naively believe that they are different and maybe beyond the norms of society. Hardy skillfully paints several portraits where those holding such independent views come to tragic ends and suffer much humiliation and misery and those who adhere to the norms (no matter how disgusting and inhumane there conduct is) are always better off than the formers. Hardy doesn't preach that it's the right way, of course. He's not trying to change our opinion to make us better adhere to social conventions. Rather, he shows how this society doesn't allow individual thought to breathe and prosper. This is chiefly the reason why all the "bad" or "unsympathetic" characters are always the ones who conduct themselves as per convention - and this is regardless of whether it's a prominent character like Arabella or a side character like Gillingham.

The masterfulness in Hardy's work is that he even holds our finger and take us to this conclusion by placing a character right in the middle who changes from being of independent mind and suffering profusely because of this and later changing his mind to conform with societal norms and comes to a happy end (a selfish and despicable end but for this person a happy end nonetheless). And I'm not talking about Sue here.

Much of the oppression felt by our protagonists is through the focus on marriage and marital conventions or lack thereof. But, in my opinion Hardy didn't write this solely to critique on how marriage was perceived but rather how individuality was perceived and attacked. This book shows us time and again that it is the duty of society to crush, repeatedly, the individuality and non-conformity of people with ruthless precision. Jude and Sue are crushed by this machine not through a decisive blow but by a thousand little cuts that eventually bleed them dry of purpose and hope. ...more

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Jan 18, 2014 Susan from MD rated it really liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Yikes, it is bleak. Jude is an orphan who grows up to lead an obscure life. He has dreams that are thwarted, loves that are lost and beliefs that shift over time. The writing is lovely, but the story felt a little long/repetitious to me in some places. The characters are an interesting mix of qualities and the examination of their thoughts as well as actions is part of what Hardy does so well.

**POTENTIAL SPOILERS**

Jude the orphan is as sad as any Dickens orphan ever written. Poor little guy real Yikes, it is bleak. Jude is an orphan who grows up to lead an obscure life. He has dreams that are thwarted, loves that are lost and beliefs that shift over time. The writing is lovely, but the story felt a little long/repetitious to me in some places. The characters are an interesting mix of qualities and the examination of their thoughts as well as actions is part of what Hardy does so well.

**POTENTIAL SPOILERS**

Jude the orphan is as sad as any Dickens orphan ever written. Poor little guy really isn't loved or wanted and doesn't fit in with the "average folk" in the village, though his aunt raises and cares for him and a few others in town take a sporadic interest in him. He has the goal of a classical education at the equivalent of Oxford - and he teaches himself Latin and Greek! His intelligence sets him apart from others and eventually draws him to his cousin Sue, who also has an interest in classical literature, myths and principles. The feeling of being different plays out in many ways for both of these characters, as they often dispense with social mores of the time. Their love of intellectual debate on religion and principles to live by is lovely to read. It is very apparent that these two belong together and don't relate well to others.

Jude and Sue are engaged by each other physically and intellectually and, to some extent (particularly for Jude) emotionally. Sue is an odd duck. She is very independent and looks askance at religion, marriage and most of other accepted conventions. But, she is so extreme, inconsistent and difficult to follow that I had a hard time really liking her. For all her intellectual adherence to her principles and beliefs, she seemed to lack the emotional component - unlike Jude, who sought acceptance and love, in addition to intellectual growth. She is so focused on maintaining her independence and promoting her own beliefs that she can be off-putting to others. This obsessive quality borders on (or crosses into) mental illness. However, later in life she becomes fanatically religious - driven by guilt of her perceived sins - and her mental illness becomes more profound (understandably given some tragic turns).

In many ways, the views of marriage espoused by Jude and Sue would be in the mainstream today, but at the time (1890s) it was scandalous. Sue completely rejected religion and the construct of marriage; Jude was less strident on both but was certainly out-of-step with the prevailing views of proper behavior. Certainly women are better regarded now and the notion of obedience to one's husband has, for many people, given way to a balance of power. Yet, the views of marriage guide the story to lurch from one reality to another and then to another. Jude and Sue marry others for honor and desperation, respectively, then divorce and live together, then remarry their original spouses again for honor and desperation. The gossip about their unusual living arrangements affected their ability to work and live where they want. Their respective spouses (Arabella and Richard) play interesting roles - often manipulating the situation to their own advantage.

The lack of opportunity for poor and middle-class students was highlighted, as both Jude and Sue could have been in the academic circles. Instead, they were common laborers - obscure in the eyes of society. Those with whom they worked and lived among thought them strange; those they would have liked to interact with barely acknowledged their existance. They hoped for more for their children, but a horrible turn of events ended those dreams and plunged Jude and Sue into a new level of obscurity - poverty for him and subjugation for her.

This story also highlights the consequences of early actions. Jude marries Arabella because he thinks she is pregnant - she isn't. Sue marries Richard largely because Jude is already married when they meet and she is afraid that she has nowhere to go. Those early actions have far-reaching consequences that change the course of their lives, individually and as a couple.

I've left out details of the horrible tragedy, as it really is something to experience. I give it a 4/5 because of the aforementioned repetition and because I wish Sue had been less extreme, so that I could have enjoyed her character more. ...more

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