'Jude the Obscure' by Thomas Hardy

Hello readers! I write this blog in response to a Thinking activity assigned by Dilip Barad Sir. In this blog I am going to write about the novel written by Thomas Hardy 'Jude the Obscure' and symbols of the novel.

Born date - 2 June 1840

Died - 11 January 1928 

Resting place -  Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey

Occupation - Novelist, poet, and short story writer

Literary movement -Naturalism, Victorian literature

Notable works - 

• Tess of the d'Urbervilles
• Far from the Madding Crowd
• The Mayor of Casterbridge
• Collected Poems
• Jude the Obscure 

Thomas Hardy is one of the most renowned poets and novelists in English literary history. Thomas Hardy was born in the English village of Higher Bockhampton in the county of Dorset. They reveal him to be a kind and gentle man, terribly aware of the pain human beings suffer in their struggle for life. 

Early Life:

The first of four children, Hardy was born small and thought at birth to be dead. He grew to be a small man only a little over five feet tall. Hardy learned to love books through his mother, Jemina, and was able to read before starting school. He was taught by his father, also to play the violin. 

Hardy attended a private school in Dorchester, England, where he learned Latin, French, and German. In 1862 he went to London, England, to work. Also at this time, Hardy began writing poetry after being impressed by Reverend William Barnes, a local poet. One of the poorest and most backward of the counties, rural life in Dorset had changed little in hundreds of years, which Hardy explored through the rustic characters in many of his novels. Strongly identifying himself and his work with Dorset, Hardy saw himself as a successor to the Dorset dialect poet William Barnes.

Hardy began his writing career as a novelist and was soon successful enough to leave the field of architecture for writing.Hardy’s poetry explores a fatalist outlook against the dark, rugged landscape of his native Dorset. He rejected the Victorian belief in a benevolent God, and much of his poetry reads as a sardonic lament on the bleakness of the human condition. When Hardy died in 1928, his ashes were deposited in the Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey and his heart, having been removed before cremation, was interred in the graveyard at Stinsford Church where his parents, grandparents, and his first wife were buried.  

Introduction:

A novel 'Jude the Obscure' set in southwest England from about 1855. Novel published in serial form in Harper’s Magazine in 1894-95 and published in book form in 1895. A central aspect of Jude the Obscure is Jude’s boyhood dream of attending the great university at Christ-minister in Hardy’s fictional world of Wessex. When Jude was a child, in the late 1850s, day schools of various sorts provided the only access to education for children of the lower classes. These days independent schools run by religious dissenters from outside the Church of England.

Hardy renders many ways to convey his deep understanding of the society and the human being through the novel. Hardy takes risks with the themes of this book that you don't find much in movies now. For its time, Jude the Obscure was incredibly controversial. Hardy's approach to subjects like love, marriage, class, religion, and sex didn't jibe with the views of a lot of The Powers that Be, and some of those Powers weren't above banning or burning the book. in 'Jude the Obscure', Hardy tackles the moral and legal status of marriage, women's liberation, loss of religious faith and problems of conformity and social isolation. The book’s themes of class, marriage, education, and opportunities make it still relevant and relatable today. 

Definition of Symbolism:

According to Merriam Webster,

The art or practice of using symbols especially by investing things with a symbolic meaning or by expressing the invisible or intangible by means of visible or sensuous representations: such as the use of conventional or traditional signs in the representation of divine beings and spirits.

According to Oxford Dictionary,

The use of symbols to represent things, especially in art and literature.

Symbolism is an artistic movement in the late 19th century that tried to express abstract or mystical ideas through the symbolic use of images. In literature, it is a writing style of using something to stand for something else by reasoning of relationship, association, accident resemblance, or a visible sign of something invisible. 

Symbols in 'Jude the Obscure':

However, the use of symbols in Jude the Obscure and in Hardy's other novels occupy the most prominent position. In the modern period, in the decades after World War I, was a notable era of symbolism in literature.A character or a pattern of images  so fundamental that it has never been absent from literature, religion, myth, and dream. Symbolism in English literature has a great tradition, and it plays an important role in Hardy's 'Jude the Obscure'.  As in Hardy's other novels, symbolism in Jude the Obscure tends to be taken from nature and religion. 

Christ minister:

One of the most important symbols in the novel is Christminster. It is a symbol of all his dreams and aspirations, an ideal that he longs for. In his mind he calls it the New Jerusalem. Even at the end of the novel, when he is broken and beaten by life, Christminster continues to exert its fascination over him, and he chooses to return to it to die there.

"It is a city of light” 

“The tree of knowledge grows there"

Little Father:

Little Father Time also is a heavily symbolic figure. The reader is told he is "Age masquerading as Juvenility and doing it so badly that his real self showed through crevices" He is in the habit of sitting silent and solemn, with a pale, prematurely aged face and with large "saucer eyes." He seems extremely unlike a real child, and Hardy's characterization of Little Father Time has often been harshly criticized as lacking credibility. Perhaps Hardy intended him to be not a child, but a symbolic representation of fate and despair. His utterances are reminiscent of the Greek Chorus, which commented on the proceedings of the play. 

The Symbolism in Nature Environment:

The various symbols from nature intensifies the cruelty of natural laws, and they foreshadow the fate of the main characters. Symbolism from nature can be discussed from the following levels. As far as symbols of animals are concerned, Hardy connects his characters with various animal images. In terms of weather, such as fog, mists, wind, and rain, are important in reflecting the emotional conflicts of Jude the Obscure. Likewise, Hardy's skilled use of symbols of places is of significance. They all have their symbolic meanings. 

Animals:

In the novel, Hardy used some animals’ images to represent the main characters and their destiny. Firstly, Hardy shaped Arabella‘s image associated with a pig. Pig has the meaning "sacrifice" in the novel. Jude for animals’ pity implied his own destiny like a butcher killed a pig. Arabella represented the nature of false and evil. The book also twice showed Arabella as a female tiger. When Sue visited her in the hotel, Arabella shouted out just like a beast. She ignored any type of her husband’s obligation and responsibility.

Meanwhile, falling into the trap of rabbit eludes the fate of Jude. Arabella is representative of sensuality. Sue is representative of spiritual freedom. Sue likes a bird, a wounded bird in Jude’s heart. She is longing for a nest full of love and warm. Sue sets pigeon free to impress her desire for freedom. In Hardy’s works, birds are an inherent symbolic object. Jude’s heart grew sympathetic with the birds. They seemed, like himself, to be living in a world which did not want them. So Jude didn’t frighten them away.

"Poor little dears!" said Jude, aloud. "You shall have some dinner—you shall. There is enough for us all. Farmer Troutham can afford to let you have some. Eat, then, my dear little birdies, and make a good meal!" 

Church Scenes:

There are many scenes taking place in churches, which are quite significant. We can also see clearly the falseness of Jude's beliefs and assumptions, for example, in the scene describing Jude's first attempt to meet Sue. The setting is Chrisminster Cathedral, the chapel of Cardinal College. Jude initially holds Sue in his idealistic fascination not merely as a personification of the spirit of Christianity but more a sexually attractive woman. But in the later parts of this chapter he discovers that although Sue is ready to observe the forms and practices of Christian belief and worship. The reader may further doubt other members in the cathedral in a similar way. Therefore, the passage connects the church setting with the background of a Christian service with a sense of pretense and hypocrisy.

Another church playing an important role in the novel is the church of St. Silas in the suburb of Beersheba. It is the place where Sue makes up her mind to leave Jude and return to Phillotson. It is in this church that she comes to believe she will always remain Phillotson's wife in the eyes of God. Jude has found out that Sue has begun to attend services in the St Silas Church. She declares to Jude that she should not live with any other man except Phillotson. Then a few days later, Jude finds Sue at St Silas', utterly broken and determined to fulfill what she now believes to be her duty:

"High overhead, above the chancel steps, Jude could discern a huge, solidly constructed Iatin cross-as large, probably, as the original it was designed to commemorate."

The reader can feel in this passage the contrast between the power and importance in the huge cross and the insignificance of human suffering. Sue is perceived in this scene as an object rather than a human being.This suggests again Christianity's indifference to the fate of man. Sue's determination to make self-sacrifice in the name of Christian law can be regarded as the most direct protest against the cruelty of the ethical and legal system of Christianity. The novel then goes back to the church described at the beginning of the book, the new parish church of Marygreen. The scene is of Sue's remarriage to Phillotson. The church becomes a witness of the self- sacrifice of the woman on the altar of what she was pleased to call her principles. This symbol represents conflict between the laws of Christian religion and the natural feelings of humans. 

Church Architecture:

The image of the old church being pulled down and its original stones used in various ways in the passage is quite meaningful. It also indicates Hardy's philosophical attitude. The passage first expressed Hardy's belief in the importance of churches as historical buildings and embodiments of the common cultural heritage and local tradition.

This novel is the most direct expression of Hardy's professional experience as an architect and of his fascination with architecture. At the same time, Jude is the most outspoken manifesto of Hardy's views on religion and morality, particularly with regard to questions of sex and marriage. Architectural motifs are frequently used throughout the book. The images about church architecture guide the reader to draw some conclusions of the author's opinions in respect to the fundamental problems of the Christian religion and the Christian Church. There are numerous architectural symbols and metaphors throughout the novel. Jude's life is in many senses a reflection of Thomas Hardy's own. By the directness of its psychological and emotional insights, the novel suggests to the reader that Jude's perception of reality is strongly related to that of the author.

Colors:

In the novel, color’s description plays an important role. Those colors descriptions create a gloomy world. Obscure" is a description of Jude’s personality and his social position. The word "Obscure" also can be used in the visual image of the description. "Obscure" has many definitions in the English dictionary. Such as, dark,gloomy, dim and sorrowful. In the beginning of the story, Jude described the natural scene:

"The brown surface of the field went right up towards the sky all round, where it was lost by degrees in the mist that shut out the actual verge and accentuated the solitude. The only marks on the uniformity of the scene were a rick of last year’s produce standing in the midst of the arable..his dead family."

There are many places using the color "brown", because brown has the meaning of dark, gloomy and depressing. At the same time, Jude is lonely and depressed.

Thus, these images from nature and those symbolic actions anticipate the main themes of the novel. Hardy talks about marriage, sex and darkness of the church over the human bondage. This symbols represents the main ideas of this novel. 

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