Trope of Disillusionment in Thomas Hardy’s Jude The Obscure (original) (raw)

Contemporary Relevance in Hardys Jude the Obscure

ISSN 2278-9529 Galaxy: International Multidisciplinary Research Journal, 2013

The purpose of this paper is to concentrate on the contemporariness of Hardy’s novel, Jude the Obscure and how far it problematizes the elements of Victorian society that has relevance in connection to the context of modern society. The further focus is on Hardy’s effort to stand against the institutionalized notion of ‘Marriage’ and ‘Education’ where the female characters are portrayed as a text that reproduces the history of Victorian society. The paper also questions the strong feeling of Victorian compromise that forces Hardy to stay back. Hardy’s subversive nature is personified in the name of Jude, ultimately submits himself as a scapegoat to the Victorian social construct. Therefore, the paper is dealing with those hidden features that are yet to be explored in hardy.

Thomas Hardy’nin Jude The Obscure Eserinde Tek Boyutlu İnsan

Uludağ Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 2018

Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure (1895) successfully represents the conflict between the individuals and the bourgeois industrial society in the late Victorian period. Herbert Marcuse’s criticism of the contemporary industrial society, which is actually a one dimensional society that imposes absolute norms on the individuals who are forced to become one dimensional wo/men, is quite relevant for a critical approach on this conflict. Marcuse’s approach enables a critical analysis of the social hegemony on such characters as Jude Fawley and Sue Bridehead in the novel. The institutionalised form of social oppression on the individuals aims to force these characters to lead one dimensional lives in accordance with dominant social norms. Hence, the protection of social harmony and the established bourgeois social order depends on the subjection of these individuals to the rules of the one dimensional society. So, this article argues that, viewed from Herbert Marcuse’s perspective, social o...

Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure: the Women's Existential Vacuum

Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure: the Women's Existential Vacuum, 2020

The present paper deals with the Victorian realist writers' search for voicing the women's existential voice within a rigid society through subverting the romanticist literary style and themes. The chosen corpus of this study is Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure. The study, therefore, focuses on the female protagonist Sue Bridehead's suffering and journey towards creating a life that subverts the Victorian social norms. Introduction:

Sexual Ideology and Narrative Form in 'Jude the Obscure

English, 1989

This paper attempts to explore the narrative structure Hardy employed in Jude the Obscure. Based on close reading and textual analysis of Jude the Obscure, the essay argues that the text takes on the form of circular structure and contrastive symmetry. With such pluralistic forms, a perfect harmony is thus achieved between the content, especially in the tragic themes, and form so as to enhance the tragic effect and irony of the text. It is concluded that both in time span and narrative structure Hardy transcends the 19 th century Victorian norms, thus Hardy may be also acknowledged as a modernist writer.

Orality in Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure: Diachronic Approach

2015

The paper unveils some salient issues in Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure in order to further illuminate the obscure nature of the web of meanings in the novel through recourse to psychoanalysis and the place of orality in the explication of the behaviour of Jude. The search for meaning may take the form of review of the text as well as the application of psychoanalysis in order to provide a scientific backing to the claims that are made therein. The unwritten historical scripts of the people of Wessex are also considered as instrumental in the semantic import of the text. The paper sums up the challenges that Jude faces to be borne out of the deep and dark level of the unconscious typifying the family lineage. It is, therefore, the inability of Jude to cross the boundary between his own ego and that of the family that is responsible for his inability to live a normal life and to this, the oral environment provides a clue.

An Analysis of Female Characters in Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure

2019

La finalidad de esta tesis será el análisis de la novela de Thomas Hardy Jude the Obscure. Más concretamente, el estudio y comparación de los dos personajes protagonistas femeninos: Sue Bridehead y Arabella Donn, dos mujeres atrapadas en un contexto determinista y naturalista, marcadas por sus diferentes orígenes y posiciones en la obra. Sue es la individualista, la mujer con ideas muy avanzadas para su tiempo, mientras que Arabella forma parte del folclore rural, y está siempre dispuesta a adaptarse para poder sobrevivir. El trabajo mostrará cómo la dicotomía entre ambas mujeres ofrece una crítica abierta a instituciones como el matrimonio. Asimismo, Hardy ofrece un final que no deja indiferente. La incapacidad de Jude de adaptarse solo le traerá desgracias. La última novela de Thomas Hardy muestra, por consiguiente, la incertidumbre del fin-de-siècle y las diferentes reacciones que sus personajes principales muestran ante esta época de grandes cambios. ABSTRACT The main purpose of...

“Jude the Liminal: A Catastrophic Pursuit?”

DTCF Journal, 2016

Thomas Hardy's last novel Jude the Obscure (1895) is centred on its working-class protagonist Jude Fawley's efforts first to become a scholar, then his experiences of resisting the orthodoxies of his society and lastly defying Christianity as a restrictive social force on the individuals. This paper aims to discuss Jude's liminal character from the cultural perspectives on liminality respectively developed by the French ethnographer Arnold van Gennep and the British cultural anthropologist Victor Turner. Jude as a liminal character experiences similar transitions or rites of passage as defined and categorized by van Gennep. Yet, Jude's liminality remains permanent in each stage of his life since he cannot thoroughly perform the transition rites to leave one social position behind and undertake a new one. Also, analysed as a liminal character from Turner's understanding of the term, Jude fails to use the potential that his liminality provides him with to challenge the societal dogmas. However, he terribly suffers from the consequences of his liminal identity throughout the story. Jude's tragic end displays how he is punished for his lifelong liminality that prevents him from moving either to the centre or the margins of his Victorian society. This essay argues that Hardy's portrayal of Jude as a liminal figure reminds the definitions of the term, developed by van Gennep and Turner, but produces a literary example that is quite antithetical to their conceptions particularly due to his apparent pessimism. For, Hardy depicts Jude's threshold identity as an obstacle in his efforts to belong to any particular social, cultural, economic, or intellectual group rather than an opportunity to challenge each social position.

An Ecocritical Reading of Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure

Филолог – часопис за језик књижевност и културу

Jude the Obscure (1895) is traditionally interpreted as Thomas Hardy’s bleakest and most pessimistic novel. From the perspective of ecocriticism, it may be viewed as the author’s endeavour to challenge the dominant anthropocentric attitude of the nineteenth century. Relying on Darwin’s theory of the common origin of species, Hardy believed that people should recognise their connectedness and dependence on the whole living world. The novel implies that man should abandon his self-centeredness and embrace other perspectives. This, however, does not mean that Hardy does not see people as valuable and important. In a world where religion loses its power we should rely on other people. The implication of Jude the Obscure is that the way we treat each other is linked to the way we treat nature. Hardy’s pessimism is the consequence of his realisation that ideas of Darwin were manipulated and (mal)adjusted to society. The character of Jude Fawley is doomed to tragedy due to his hypersensiti...

Tragic Richness in the Major Novels of Thomas Hardy-V. Sudhakar Naidu

IJ-ELTS, 2013

Thomas Hardy is a poet, short story writer and novelist of eminence. He has freely adopted ideas from classical drama, Christian tragic element and Shakespearean tragedy and framed his own tragic pattern. He has explored the depth of silent sorrow and suffering in all his great tragedies. His heroes and heroines are all star-crossed souls, struggling against the powerful cosmic forces. Henchard, Giles Winterborne, Clym, Eustacia Vye, Tess, Jude, Sue and the other characters of Hardy meet with an end that is tragic or miserable. For them, happiness is an interlude in the general drama of pain. It is seen that the wrong choices and temperamental differences led to tragic gloom in love and marriage. The elements of chance, fate or coincidence also play a vital role in creating tragedy. To him, life is a struggle between man and impersonal forces and life is a fruitless effort of man. This tragic content in his major novels, which is considered as an important aspect of his novels by many critics, has been investigated and explored from a critical perspective in the present article. Key words: Thomas Hardy’s Novels, Tragic conflict, Temperamental differences, Impersonal forces, Fate.