Sue and Arabella in Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure

1419 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: the atmosphere and tone of Thomas Hardy Jude the obscure

Sue and Arabella in Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure

Thomas Hardy's diary contains an entry that explains how he will show the world something it needs to be shown in a story about a poor, struggling young man who has to deal with ultimate failure (Howe 132). This brief description of a story has turned into Hardy's phenomenal Jude the Obscure. Jude is emotionally torn between the two main women in the novel, Sue and Arabella, because each woman can only partially satisfy his urges. The stark difference in emotion, conversation, and sexual appetite make Sue and Arabella polar opposites in Hardy's Jude the Obscure.

Jude is ripped between the pure sexuality of Arabella and the pure intellect of Sue (Draper 252). Ronald P. Draper writes that Jude is sexually more comfortable with Arabella so, in this sense, she is Jude?s true partner (252). ?Arabella represents the classical entrapment by sex: the entrapment of an ?innocent? sensual man by a hard, needy, shackling woman? (Hardwick 69). Bernard D. N. Grebanier goes even farther, saying that Arabella with stop at nothing to get Jude (713). Sue is a complicated mesh of sexual aversion and the power of female intellect (Hardwick 68). As Elizabeth Hardwick puts it, Sue ?thinks and that is her mystery? (67). Sue has radical ideas, especially for a woman, and it is commonplace for her to question society and it?s problems (Hardwick 68). Sue, to Jude?s dismay, also dismisses much of religion (Hardwick 68).

The sacred act of marriage is questioned in Jude the Obscure (Saldivar 192). Marriage is seen as an institution open to criticism that is violated by need, chance, and the choices made by the characters (Hardwick 68). For Sue, violations in wholeness and freedom are agoni...

... middle of paper ...

... K. Hall & Company, 1990. 243-254.

Grebanier, Bernard D. N. The Essentials of English Literature. Volume Two. New York: Barron?s Educational Series, Incorporated, 1948.

Hardwick, Elizabeth. ?Sue and Arabella.? The Genius of Thomas Hardy. Margaret Drabble. New York: George Weidenfeld and Nicolson Limited, 1976. 67-73.

Hardy, Thomas. Jude the Obscure. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983.

Howe, Irving. Masters of World Literature: Thomas Hardy. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1967.

Saldivar, Ramon. ?Jude the Obscure: Redaing and the Spirit of the Law.? Modern Critical Views: Thomas Hardy.Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. 191-205.

Weinstein, Philip M. ??The Spirit Unappeased and Peregrine?: Jude the Obscure.? Critical Essays on Thomas Hardy: The Novels. Dale Kramer. New York: G. K. Hall & Company, 1990. 228-243.

Show More
Related

  • Sula And Nel Friendship Analysis

    769 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jude, Nel’s husband, and Sula have intercourse and betray Nel. Yet, it is Sula, not Jude who hurts Nel the most. Now Nel's " thighs were really empty” (1037) and it was Sula who had taken the life from them. Nel's happiness left when her thighs went dead. It was too much. “To lose Jude and not have Sula to talk to about it because it was Sula that he had left her for” (1037). Sula was confused. “They had always shared the affection of other people” (1041). “Marriage, apparently had changed all that” (1041). The friends no longer benefited from each other's company. Nel was no longer a host for

    Read More

  • Jude and Ajax: Drawing a Picture of Masculinity in Sula

    645 Words  | 2 Pages

    The character of Jude is one of an inwardly emasculated man. He has a job as a waiter but it is not enough to support a family of his own. He desperately desires a construction job at the tunnel but cannot get one, and he feels less than a man because of this. Since he cannot get a man’s job to fulfil himself, he decides to get married: “So it was rage, rage and a determination to take on a man’s role anyhow that made him press Nel about settling down. He needed some of his appetites filled, some posture of adulthood recognized, but mostly he wanted someone to care about his hurt, to care very deeply” (82). He feels like the only way that he will be a man is to get married and have a female at his disposal, but he is also looking for a comforting mother figure as well. Jude wants a woman to complete him: “With her he was head of a household pinned to an unsatisfactory job out of necessity. The two of them together would make one Jude” (83). Jude’s attitude toward women is shown in his belief that women should be submissive: “He chose the girl who had alw...

    Read More

  • Introduction To Archetypal Lens: The Mayor Of Casterbridge

    1229 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hardy attempts to illustrate Michael as a common man, which ultimately serves his purpose of exposing the archetypal and somewhat psychological realities of typical, everyday people. According to archetypal literary critics, “archetypes determine the form and function of literary works and … a text's meaning is shaped by cultural and psychological myths.” For that reason, Henchard is a perfect example of the archetypal fall because Thomas Hardy is demonstrating how Henchard reacts to situations like a real person would and that life is not always as simple as it is depicted in fictional fairytales. The archetype of Michael’s fall functions as Hardy’s vehicle to relay the meaning behind his work.

    Read More

  • Frankenstein, Community, and the Individual

    1689 Words  | 4 Pages

    Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.

    Read More

  • References to Sue's Homosexuality in Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure

    979 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ingham, Patricia. Introduction. Jude the Obscure. By Thomas Hardy. Ed. Ingham. New York: Oxford, 1985. xi-xxii.

    Read More

  • The Presentation Of Relationships Within Three Short Stories By Thomas Hardy

    1509 Words  | 4 Pages

    Thomas Hardy considers the relationship between the two women and when they first meet and there is already a consistent amount of jealousy and competition between them.

    Read More

  • Jude And Sue Literary Devices

    501 Words  | 2 Pages

    Despite the fact that Jude and Sue are friends, their failure to deeply associate with each other uncovers the anguish and solitude that happens in numerous relations.

    Read More

  • Middlemarch by George Eliot and Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

    1445 Words  | 3 Pages

    Central to the story lines of Middlemarch, written by George Eliot, and Jude the Obscure, by Thomas Hardy, is the theme of ambition and the tempering of expectations both to social difficulties, and on a broader scale, human frailty. Dorthea Brooke and Sue Brideshead display elements of the “new woman” and both are driven to accomplish what each desires. Both are intelligent and educated women. The contrast in the two comes from the different motives each has to separate themselves from the norm. Sue is self-centered in her “independence,” while Dorthea is an ardent spokeswoman for social reform and justice. Both women follow different paths, neither ending up at a position they once knew they would attain. Dorthea is depicted early in the novel as having an intimidating presence; however, at a dinner with the supposedly learned and intelligent Mr. Casaubon, she feels quite uneasy. He is an older man with an unattractive appearance which goes completely unnoticed to the “lovestruck” Dorthea. Her sister Celia comments, “How very ugly Mr. Casaubon is!” Dorthea responds by comparing him to a portrait of Locke and says he is a “distinguished looking gentleman.” Later, after dinner, Casaubon and Dorthea discuss religious matters and she looks at him in awe because of his supposed superior intellect. “Here was a man who could understand the higher inward life…a man who’s learning almost amounted to proof of whatever he believed!”(p. 24). As intelligent as Dorthea is, she failed to see Casaubon for the man he really is, and will be, in marriage. Casaubon proposes to her and she accepts. She sees this as an opportunity to further advance her own intellectual abilities and help a great man complete his studies.

    Read More

  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

    1147 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Sixth Edition Volume1. Ed. M.H.Abrams. New York: W.W.Norton and Company, Inc., 1993.

    Read More

  • A Feminist Perspective of The Lady of Shalott

    2170 Words  | 5 Pages

    Abrams, M.H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 1993.

    Read More

  • Victorian Era Literature

    1153 Words  | 3 Pages

    Lets begin by outlining the lives of both men. Bourn a mere four years apart, Hardy in 1840 and Hopkins in 1844 both men bloomed during the peak of Victorian culture in England. Not only were both men bourn within the same decade, but both men also had similar backgrounds in regards to literature. Hopkins studied the classics at Oxford, and Hardy through strictly regimented self study became intimately acquainted with similar classics such as the Odyssey. Hopkins converted to Catholicism in 1866 with the scorn of his parents in tow. For Hopkins religion would remain a point of contention for the rest of his life, causing him to burn much of his poetry with the idea that the sermon was the only worthy for literary discourse. Despite Hopkins early admonition of writing he would continue to do so, often as an outlet for his religious and personal strugg...

    Read More

  • Close critical analysis of Coleridges Frost at Midnight

    1692 Words  | 4 Pages

    Abrams, M. & Greenblatt, S. 2000. The Norton Anthology of English Literature 7th ed. Vol. 2. London: Norton.

    Read More

  • The Withered Arm, by Thomas Hardy

    1256 Words  | 3 Pages

    Thomas Hardy was a famous author and poet he lived from 1840 to 1928. During his long life of 88 years he wrote fifteen novels and one thousand poems. He lived for the majority of his life near Dorchester. Hardy got many ideas for his stories while he was growing up. An example of this was that he knew of a lady who had had her blood turned by a convict’s corpse and he used this in the story ‘The Withered Arm’. The existence of witches and witchcraft was accepted in his lifetime and it was not unusual for several people to be killed for crimes of witchcraft every year.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Ah, Are you Digging on My Grace?

    1202 Words  | 3 Pages

    Clarke, R. (n.d.). The Poetry of Thomas Hardy. rlwclarke. Retrieved February 1, 2014, from http://www.rlwclarke.net/Courses/LITS2002/2008-2009/12AHardy'sPoetry.pdf

    Read More

  • Depiction of Class in Tess of the d’Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy

    2548 Words  | 6 Pages

    Hardy originated from a working class family. The son of a master mason, Hardy was slightly above that of his agricultural peers. Hardy’s examination of transition between classes is usually similar to that of D.H. Lawrence, that if you step outside your circle you will die. The ambitious lives of the characters within Hardy’s novels like Jude and Tess usually end fatally; as they attempt to break away from the constraints of their class, thus, depicting Hardy’s view upon the transition between classes. Hardy valued lower class morals and traditions, it is apparent through reading Tess that her struggles are evidently permeated through the social sufferings of the working class. A central theme running throughout Hardy’s novels is the decline of old families. It is said Hardy himself traced the Dorset Hardy’s lineage and found once they were of great i...

    Read More

More about Sue and Arabella in Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure

Open Document