Review of Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure

The book I am reviewing this week, Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure, was originally published in 1895 and, as such, has aged considerably. Some of the plot points throughout the story could be considered cliché to a modern audience (though certainly not cliché for 1895) and the setting will certainly be unfamiliar to readers who are not used to England during this era. That said I found that the character interactions and themes of the novel were universal enough such that I could easily associate with the action of the story.

Straightforward is what I would call the story of Jude. With very few exceptions it avoids unexpected twists and turns which I think strengthens the work as a whole. There are also no attempts to hide character action and motivation from the reader (with one notable exception that I will return to in a bit) which allows the novel to progress and develop in a natural and uninhibited manner that is not commonly matched today. Though a bit slower than the vast majority of contemporary pieces I found that I wanted to keep reading, if only to better understand why exactly Jude was both the focal point of an entire novel and yet still considered obscure.

The major issue that I had with the novel was that Hardy couldn’t end it. That isn’t to say the story has no end, it absolutely does, but that the ending was…forced. Though certainly there were a lot of reasons for this, the one that I felt caused the biggest problem stems from Jude’s main love interest, Sue. Through a variety of story action the reader learns that Sue has doubts about the Christian religion and is wiling to discard tradition if it fails to suit her happiness. Unfortunately the reader is never informed of why she doubts, and there is no real explanation of her religious history or her exact opinions on the subject. So when she begins to backtrack on previous decisions she had made, which separates the two lovers and generally causes discord in each of their lives, the reader has no real explanation as to why. To me it felt like Sue was simply rubbing salt in an already deep and painful wound, which I could accept under certain circumstances, but which did not feel earned in this instance.

Overall Jude the Obscure is an honest and forthcoming story about the possible resistances a normal English citizen of that time might encounter. It is a story about how social status and religious doctrine intermingle to prevent Jude’s desire for betterment and contentedness and, with a few exceptions, this quiet and slow moving novel pretty much accomplishes what it sets out to do. Though I can’t suggest this for the average modern day reader, largely due its slow pace and forced ending, its universal themes of love, the desire for happiness and fulfillment, and the mortality of man intermix to make a successful and thought provoking read.

Hardy, Thomas. Jude the Obscure. Ed. Irving Howe. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1965.