Jude the Obscure: Week 4: Part Fourth - At Shasta

[Kerstin, Moderator]

At Shaston
Drusilla dies and Jude is at Marygreen to attend the funeral. Sue attends as well and in their conversations it is clear that she doesn’t love her husband and feels trapped. She admits to having blindly gone into marriage without thinking much about it, even though she should have. Both are starting to admit they have feelings for one another and under other circumstances would be married to each other. Sue voices that marriage is merely a contract if you strip away the sacrament of marriage.
After Sue left for home he burns his theological books.

Sue wishes to leave Phillotson . To her the life-long bond of marriage is “as primitive Christians believed.” Phillotson is stunned. To his friend he admits, “She is one of the oddest creatures I ever met.” Gillingham states, "But if people did as you want to do, there'd be a general domestic disintegration. The family would no longer be the social unit."
In the end Phillotson lets her go, for he doesn’t want to force her to stay against her own will.

Jude meets Sue in the train and takes her to Albrickham. He wishes for them to live in a place nobody knows them. After he reveals to her he already booked a room for them at a hotel she objects. After much back and forth they agree to find another hotel and book two rooms. Jude thinks this is a strange elopement…

Sue’s prolonged absence at Shasta gets noticed, and when chins got wagging the schoolmaster pays a visit. Phillotson loses his job on account of allowing his wife to commit adultery. A teacher must be morally upright in order to be a good role model.