Jude Fawley's hopes of a university education are lost when he is trapped into marrying the earthy Arabella, who later abandons him. Moving to the town of Christminster where he finds work as a stonemason, Jude meets and falls in love with his cousin Sue Bridehead, a sensitive, freethinking 'New Woman'.
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy, first published in 1895, is a tragic novel that explores themes of class, ambition, love, and societal constraints. It follows the life of Jude Fawley, a working-class man who aspires to study at the prestigious Christminster University (modeled after Oxford). Despite his intelligence and determination, his dreams are continuously thwarted by social barriers and personal misfortunes.
Jude’s life becomes further complicated by his entanglements with two women: Arabella Donn, a manipulative and practical woman who ensnares him into marriage, and Sue Bridehead, his free-spirited and intellectual cousin, with whom he shares a deep but ultimately doomed love. Their unconventional relationship and rejection of traditional marriage norms lead to societal condemnation and personal tragedy.
The novel was controversial for its criticism of marriage, religion, and the rigid class system, leading to public outrage upon its release. Jude the Obscure is Hardy’s final novel, marking his disillusionment with Victorian society and its moral hypocrisies. It remains a powerful and heartbreaking critique of social injustice and the limitations imposed on personal dreams.
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Categories: Fiction Historical Literature Classics