Thomas Hardy was a Victorian author born in 1840 to a working class family. He received some education but lacked a university background. This informed his novel Jude the Obscure, where the protagonist Jude is denied university access due to his class. The novel shocked readers with its unconventional treatment of relationships and marriage. It depicts Jude and his cousin Sue's relationship and their struggles in a society where opportunities for women were limited and marriage was encouraged. The novel was controversial and led Hardy to abandon writing novels.

1. *
Thomas Hardy (1895)

2. *
*Born in Dorset in 1840 to a humble but
ambitious family.
*Originally trained as an architect, he
supplemented his basic education with private
tuition and considerable wider reading and in
1867 returned home from London.
*Always regretted not going to Uni
*The story of Jude reflects Hardy’s own
resentment that that opportunity was routinely
denied men of his class.

3. *
*Famously complex (reminds me of Boris)
*First wife – Emma Gifford – strained by the time
of writing Jude. Publication of the novel didn’t
help.
*Emma was afraid that the public would read the
book as autobiographical.
*Hardy professed his undying love to his best
friend Florence Henniket (writer) and his cousin
Tryphena (teacher).

4. *
*Shocking for the day, Jude caused something of
a furore on its publication and Hardy resolved to
abandon novel-writing from then on.

5. *
*This refers to mental, spiritual and emotional
closeness rather than physical intimacy

6. *
*In late Victorian times, opportunities for a
woman were still limited and marriage was seen
as her noblest calling. One of the many tricks a
woman was encouraged to play to ‘catch’ a
husband was to be less open thatn he was in
expressing feelings: forthrightness in women
was frowned on as unfeminine.

7. *
*Despite his flaws and his miserable social status
(exacerbated by public condemnation of his
relations with Sue), Jude still sees himself as a
man who possesses refined judgment.

8. *
*Jude’s first marriage was to Arabella, a woman
who tricked him into marriage by pretending to
be pregnant, after seducing him into a
relationship by playing hot and cold with him;
hence Hardy’s fencing metaphor here and Jude’s
scathing references to the game of elusiveness
woman such as Arabella play.

9. *
*In Greek mythology, Nemesis was the spirit of
divine retribution who meted out
justice, particularly to people who set
themselves up against the gods and claimed
more for themselves than they were due.

10. *
*Hardy presents Sue, too, as somewhat prone to
games-playing, although her wiles are less
conscious than Arabella’s and seem to result
from her own confusion; she is torn between her
wish to do right by the men in her life and her
fears of commitment.

11. *
*Sue’s behaviour has been so unorthodox that
she can expect no one to stand by her; and, as a
woman with relatively little freedom, this
isolation is alarming.

12. *
*This is a key statement and one that caused
offence to some of Hardy’s readers. Though
considerable numbers of people, especially of
Sue’s and Jude’s class, lived as common-law
spouses in late Victorian times, it was
unacceptable to condone the practice publicly –
particularly since its justification here is in the
mouth of a woman.

13. *
*Jude presents an idealistic view of their
partnership, envisaging Sue as both lover and
best friend.

14. *
*Hardy is obliged to use euphemisms for sexual
matters

15. *
*Sulky and irritable