Jude the Obscure

Little Father Time is Jude and Arabella's son. He is called Little Father Time because, although he is young in body, his spirit is old. He has a strong sense of time as transitory, meaning he is...

Some of the elements that make Hardy’s Jude the Obscure a modern novel is its perspective on modern marriage, religion, and individualism. Jude is searching for meaning in what are supposed to be...

As defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, the word “obscure” has a number of meanings that seem relevant to the life of Jude Fawley, the central character of Thomas Hardy’s novel Jude the...

Both Arabella and Sue, the wife and partner, respectively, of Jude, are strong female characters, unlike the stereotypical Victorian woman. Both are strong, but in different ways. Arabella is...

Thomas Hardy constructs Jude the Obscure with a third-person omniscient point of view, through which he gives readers access to multiple characters' thoughts and feelings. Had Hardy used a...

Marriage is the central issue in this novel. This is true in the practical aspects of marriage as well as the ideological elements of the institution. Jude's marriage to Sue is the most...

Hardy critiques marriage and the way it limits individuals in this novel. Jude, for example, finds himself trapped in a loveless marriage with Arabella, a woman with whom he has no affinity. Sue,...

Religion drives two things in particular in this novel. First, religion and religious ideas initially define Jude's self-image and later his ambition. The moral precepts of Christianity also form...

Jude, the protagonist of the novel, is a conflicted person. However, the conflicts that exist within his character at the outset of the novel appear to be very different from those that conflict...

The answer above explains the core of fatalism in the novel and how it explains the paths of the protagonists. The modern reader might struggle to understand why the protagonists do not simply move...

Hardy's "Jude The Obscure" has several themes, but the most evident is one that recurs in several of Hardy's writings. The morality issue is large. Jude does what he can do the best he can do it....

One theme in "Jude the Obscure" by Thomas Hardy is the contrast between rural and urban culture. Jude begins as a country boy whose love of books and knowledge makes him yearn for the...

In Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy uses his characteristic omniscient third-person narrative voice to provide a running commentary on the mental state of his characters, along with their...

Jude's dreams of Christminster are dreams of discovering his place in the world. At home in Marygreen, Jude is a common boy, without parents and without much hope for attaining any position in the...

To put it bluntly, wickedness does not characterize the educational experiences of the characters in this novel. Jude, Phillotson, and Sue each have different relationships to education as a...

Jude attaches special significance to biblical names and places, of which Beersheeba is one - a city in the region of modern day Israel. When Jude and Sue begin to move from place to place after...

Jude's romantic and idealistic approach to life is most evident in the way that he stubbornly pursues his dream of becoming a renowned scholar at Christminster. The circumstances of his life make...

Jude dreams of becoming a scholar. A rather romantic dream, none-the-less, this vision for himself never quite releases its grip on Jude, who comes back again and again to the city where he hoped...

I'll give you a sampling of some of the criticism of this novel. The introduction to the eNotes study guide mentions that when the novel was first published it received negative reviews. The theme...

Though Jude is willing to go against social conventions and to be an individual before he meets Sue, Jude's individuality is considerably less distinct than Sue's individuality. More than any...

Primarily, this episode suggests that Jude is not a practical person. Rather, he is a dreamer; a romantic. We see his earlier as well when Jude is fired from his first job, having allowed the...

Jude is only marginally successful in realizing his dreams. His failure is due largely to the circumstances from which he begins but also partly due to his romantic idealism. The success that Jude...

If learning and science are equated together, it is easy to see how the rather ambivalent presentation of these factors is presented in the form of the city of Christminster, where Jude hopes to...

Religion and social conventions are aligned in this novel. One reinforces the other, with religion forming the perceived basis for morality and moral action in the general populace. However, this...

I think the pictures you are referring to are the ones found on Sue's dressing table by the school mistress when Sue did not come home the evening she went out with Jude. One of the pictures was...

No, it would not be correct to say that Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy "is the last of the Victorian novels and the first of the modern ones." First, this assumes that there is a clear...

The rabbit in Chapter Two of the section entitled "At Shaston" most obviously symbolizes entrapment. Entrapment is one of Hardy's major themes in the novel, as he investigates how Sue is...

It is important to also understand the emotional dynamic and gender double standards of behavior for women and for men in the novel Thomas Hardy wrote before 'Jude The Obscure.' This is because the...

[NOTE: eNotes allows us to answer one question and one close follow-up, so I'll answer the two I've moved to the top but leave your others as rhetorical background to your thoughts.] This is the...

Sue wants to be a teacher. Phillotson is a professor. When Sue goes back to Phillotson, she works as a teaching assistant in his school. She is learning how to be a teacher from Phillotson. This is...

I think you are referring to their visit to Wardour Castle which is not really a ruin as they wander through several galleries in the castle. It is only to Sue that a preserved castle would be a...

With the appearance of Little Father Time, the child that Jude allegedly fathered by Arabella, Jude becomes even more resolved the he and Sue should be married. While Sue is not the boy's real...