The fate of anybody named Jude, it seems, is to die depressed.  Little Jude (or Little Father Time as he is at this point in the story) is almost exactly like Jude, Sr. was when he was a child.  Jude, Sr. thought that his existence was an unnecessary one.  Likewise, Little Jude says "if we children was gone, there'd be no trouble at all" (363).  This is reflective of how Jude, Sr. thought because, as he was often told by his aunt, it would have been better for everyone if he hadn't been born.

The innate depression in Jude's genes shows through Little Jude also when he says "All laughing comes from misapprehension.  Rightly looked at there is no laughable thing under the sun." (306).  The world that surrounds the Judes is a depressing and dark one.  Through their supposed understanding of everything, they are denied the simple joys that seem to be taken for granted by the masses.

The climax of Jude's ineffectiveness in life happens when Sue leaves him a second time, and to add insult to injury, she ends up with Phillotson again.  When Jude is about to die, he becomes almost uncaring about what happens to him.  He allows Arabella and her father to talk him into marrying him once again.  This decision signals that Jude will no longer try to find anything to live for, and he dies soon after. 

Upon Jude's return to Christminster, we see that he still has a fascination with the education that goes on here, but he does not seem to care very much about the art that he spent his life pursuing.  Hardy explains Jude's excitement at perhaps seeing the Doctorates pass by, but Jude's feelings are not strong enough to be pointed out when he "describe[s] the carving of the frieze...and...criticize[s] some details of masonry in other college fronts about the city" (353).  He still has an opinion about the architecture, but it no longer brings out any feelings in him.  Life has become almost emotionally empty for Jude, and this will eventually affect his health and cause his death.