This is my class presentation of M.A, Sem-1 on Paper no.: 104: Literature of the Victorians. In this presentation I am dealing with the Theme of Marriage in The Novel Jude The Obscure and The Marriages in Present time with illustration of T.V. serial Anupama.

1. Marriage:
Thematic Study
of Thomas
Hardy’s Jude
the Obscure
Prepared by- Jheel Barad
Department of English, MKBU

2. Hello!
I am Jheel Barad
Roll No.: 18 Enrollment no,: 4069206420210003
Sem.: 1 (M.A.)
Paper no.: 104 Paper code: 22395
Paper name: Literature of Victorians
Topic: Theme of thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure: A Marriage
Submitted to: Smt S.B. Gardi, Department of English, M.K.B.U
E-mail- jheelbarad@gmail.com
2

3. Content-
3
1
3
5
6
4
2
Existence of
Marriage in
society
Hardy’s
personal
experience
of marriage
Hardy about
institution of
marriage
Marriage in
Victorian
era
Marriages in
Jude The
Obscure
Marriage in
Contemporary
time
1
Conclusion

4. How the institution of marriage
got introduced in Society?
Most Anthropologists believe;
Cavemen used to have relation with any
women they wish.
The child born was only women’s
responsibility.
Later, realised to take responsibility of their
child and along with of lady too.
4

5. This gave birth to an institution of marriage.
In the betrothal ceremony of ancient Greece,
a father would hand over his daughter with
these words: "I pledge my daughter for the
purpose of producing legitimate offspring."
5

6. Marriages in Victorian era
6
● The Victorian society held rigid views on marriage
and the role of women in life.
● Reproduction was considered a women only
correct occupation.
● Marriage and divorce legislation regulated the
relations between men and women.
● Women were seen, As belonging to the domestic
sphere
● When a Victorian man and woman married, the
rights of the woman were legally given over to
her spouse.

7. 7
● Their mutual matrimonial consent therefore became a
contract to give herself to her husband as he desired
● The rights and privileges of Victorian women were
limited.
● Under ‘The Common-law Doctrine of Couverture’,
when a woman married she lost her independent
legal personality as a femme sole (single woman)
and became a femme couvert (covered woman).
● Divorce indifferences in men and women.Divorce was
very expensive, mostly only available to the rich.
● The ‘Matrimonial Causes Act of 1923’ equalized the
grounds for divorce by allowing woman to sue an
adulterous husband for divorce.

8. Hardy’s personal experience of
marriage
8
● In 1870, while on an architectural mission in
Cornwall, Hardy met and fell in love with Emma
Gifford whom he married in Kensington in late 1874.
● Later in 1885 they became estranged, Emma's
subsequent death in 1912 had a traumatic effect on
him
● In 1914, Hardy married his secretary Florence
Dugdale who was 39 years his junior.
● He remained preoccupied with his first wife's death
and tried to overcome his remorse by writing poetry

9. 9
Jude Fawley
Arabella Donne
Sue Bridehead
Richard Phillotson
Second marriage
in Australia
Marriages in Jude the Obscure

10. Hardy about institution of marriage
10
● He felt that the institution of marriage damaged
through ‘overregulation’, what it sought to protect.
● It was absurd to force two people to vow to love
each other forever and even if that did not happen,
the couple was socially required to stay together.
● Divorce was not only expensive, but it went
against the social mores of the Victorian years, as
can be discerned from the legislation described
above. Hardy was no so much against marriage as
he was against the idea that it was ‘an irrevocable
contract.’

11. 11
● Hardy seems to be saying that marriage cannot be solely
defined by passion and lust; it must instead be grounded in
something substantial and real.
● Passion quickly dies as seen in Bathsheba and Troy’s
relationship, but Bathsheba and Gabriel Oak will enjoy
longevity together.
● Class plays an important role in whether or not a marriage is
successful. Having a similar heritage and social standing is a
requirement.
● We may conclude that Hardy felt practicality should rule
marriage. If two people have similar interests and work well
together, they should be united by marriage in order to enjoy
the physical pleasures of a relationship in a socially
acceptable way. However, if two people should grow apart
and be utterly miserable with one another, Hardy believes
that the practical course is separation and divorce.

12. The Victorian ideal of the tirelessly patient, sacrificing wife is depicted in The
Angel in the House, a popular poem by ‘Coventry Patmore’, published in 1854:
‘Virginia Woolf’ described the Angel as:
“immensely sympathetic, immensely charming, utterly unselfish. She excelled in
the difficult arts of family life. She sacrificed herself daily ... in short, she was so
constituted that she never had a mind but preferred to sympathize always with
the minds and wishes of others. Above all ... she was pure. Her purity was
supposed to be her chief beauty.”
Virginia Woolf was unshakable. In a lecture to the Women's Service League in
1941, she said "killing the Angel in the House was part of the occupation of a
woman writer."
12

13. Contemporary era and marriages
Is marriage institution still inevitable?
Today women are strong enough and independent.
Laws have changed but sufferings of women are still
prevailing.
Women are trained for a after married life.
There are improvements in laws and ideology but not to
mark.
Various marriages are seen today but letting down of
women, not complete independence, social mores are
still stones to be broken.
13

14. The television serial Anupama starred by Rupali
Ganguly illustrates multiple type of marriages.
Leela - Hasmukh (arranged, happy marriage)
Anupama- Vanraj (arranged,unhappy marriage)
Kavya -Vanraj (love, unhappy marriage)
Kinjal- Paritosh (love, unhappy marriage)
Nandani- Samar (engaged, in- love)
Anupama- Anuj (not married)
Devika (Divorced woman)
14
Anupama- TV serial- Romesh Kalra

15. Concluding-
A high-profile couple, Jean-
Paul and Simone de
Beauvoir always expressed
opposition to marriage.
Brian Sawyer says
"Marriage, understood
existentially, proposes to
join two free selves into one
heading, thus denying the
freedom, the complete
foundation, of each self."
15
"The traditional
elements of marriage
have not completely
disappeared in
western societies,
even in the case of
employed, highly
educated and well
paid professional
women".
Sheila Jeffreys- ‘The Industial
Vagina’
Brian Sawyer -‘Bad Faith and de
Beauvoir's Gendered self

16. 16
Work cited
● Galbraith, Gretchen R. “Joan Perkin. Victorian Women. New York: New York University
Press, 1993. Pp. Vii, 264. Paper $17.95.” History of Education Quarterly 36, no. 3 (ed
1996): 337–38. https://doi.org/10.2307/369406.
● Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women : The
Traditions in English. New York : W. W. Norton & Co., 1996.
http://archive.org/details/nortonanthologyo00sand.
● Hardy, Emma Lavinia Gifford, and Thomas Hardy. Some Recollections by Emma Hardy.
London; New York: Oxford University Press, 1961.
● Hardy, Thomas. Far from the Madding Crowd: Original. Independently Published, 2020.
● ———. “Jude the Obscure, by Thomas Hardy.” Accessed December 9, 2021.
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/153/pg153-images.html.
● Holmes, Ann Sumner. “The Double Standard in the English Divorce Laws, 1857–1923.”
Law & Social Inquiry 20, no. 2 (ed 1995): 601–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-

17. 17
● Jeffreys, Sheila. The Industrial Vagina: The Political Economy of the Global Sex Trade. Taylor
& Francis, 2008.
● Marcus, Jane. New Feminist Essays on Virginia Woolf. University of Nebraska Press, 1981.
● Page, Professor Norman, ed. The Oxford Reader’s Companion to Hardy. Oxford England ;
New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
● Sawyer, Brian. “Chapter 4: Bad Faith and de Beauvoir’s Gendered Self.” Brian Sawyer (blog),
November 20, 2003. https://briansawyer.net/2003/11/20/chapter-4-bad-faith-and-de-
beauvoirs-gendered-self/.
● Stretton, Tim, and Krista J. Kesselring. Married Women and the Law: Coverture in England
and the Common Law World. 1st edition. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University
Press, 2013.
● The Week. “The Origins of Marriage.” Accessed December 9, 2021.
https://theweek.com/articles/528746/origins-marriage.
● Tomalin, Claire. “At Home with the Wizard.” The Guardian, September 29, 2006, sec. Books.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/sep/30/biography.thomashardy.

18. 18