...

Finally!

While Jude the Obscure is a much easier and more enjoyable read than Portrait, I find the story and implications of Jude to be troubling. I appreciate Jude's hearty thirst for knowledge and his ultimate dream to better himself. Jude seems to be an authentically open-minded and hopeful young boy; he is someone I would truly admire if I were to meet him in his academic state. Jude's respect for nature really touches me as well, and his thoughtful consideration and connection to the blackbirds added another depth of appreciation I have for this character. And in his musings, Jude came upon one of the more troubling aspects of life that plagues me as well: "Nature's logic was too horrid for him to care for. That mercy towards one set of creatures was cruelty towards another. (12)" This book seemed to be full of promise, of inspiration, of kindred likeness to my soul. Then alas, Arabella waltzes into Jude's life.

Now while I relate completely with Jude when he is pulled away from his studies and goals by a lofty relationship with another being of sexual interest, I feel Hardy approached this relationship with a sort of disdainful grudge towards woman-kind. Jude, on the walk that eventually introduced him to Arabella, mused about his future as a powerful, intellectual man. Suddenly, "something smacked him sharply in the ear," and the attack was done upon him by the girl (33). THE GIRL. A girl. After this first encounter with Arabella, Jude immediately forsakes all of his studying. "Jude was lost to all conditions of things in the advent of a fresh and wild pleasure," and while falling for another often does distract your mind and emotions, Hardy paints this distraction as a calculating effect that WOMEN have on men (36). Arabella and her girly friends were not intelligent, and were described rather vapidly. The girls "laughed before talking; the world seemed funny to them without saying it," and it was this sort of levity that they approached life (54). So while Jude seriously pined after this girl, fondly walking past and reflecting upon the spot where he had kissed her, "she passed unheedingly the scene of the kiss, though chattering freely on the subject to the other two. (44)" Arabella continued to feed the fodder of women-stereotypes as the manipulative seductress that wittingly ensnares Jude into her evil web of plots. She exclaimed to her cronies, "I must have him" and they assured her that "he's to be had as a husband, if you set about catching him in the right way. (44)" And like any bona fide vamp, Arabella secretly decides that she'll "try it," referring to her friends' advice (45). Hardy continues to paint women through Arabella as the destructors of dreams. When her parents speak of Jude's plans to better himself in Christminster, Arabella becomes devilishly overbearing, asking "Have you heard that lately, quite lately?" in a vicious manner, for she had already put the plans in motion to secure our poor, helpless Jude as a husband (49).

And alas, Jude, "who had now for weeks ceased to look into a book of Greek, Latin, or any other tongue" was cornered by Arabella scheming (49). She had used her womanly ways and seduced Jude. And not only that, he was now FORCED to marry her because of her "baby." Jude was not happy about the union, but "For his own soothing he kept up a facetious belief in her. (52)" It turns out, much to Jude's discontent, Arabella herself was spoiled imp of a girl, dripping in wanton falsity. She had false hair, false dimples, and had informed him of a false pregnancy. She had her way under pretense. She nabbed Jude, and Jude was paying the price, and not in his mistake of forsaking his dreams for another, oh no, for being a man who happened to fall into the unfortunate path of a woman. Hardy is barbarous in his far-sweeping implications about women. Jude, still a loving person, was basically coerced by his wife, the woman, to murder the pig that they had been raising since their marriage. Jude, the kind soul, took pity on the creature, and "would have sooner have gone without the pig than have had this to do! (58)" "Don't be such a tender-hearted fool!" she exclaims, insisting that he make the pig die for 10 minutes or so, and then chastising him when he mercifully goes deeper to end the pigs life sooner (58). This little incident in particular illustrates the barren soul of women-kind. Heartless and calculating, Arabella not only blandly says "Pigs must be killed," in their eventual split, she coldly auctions off Jude's wedding present to her in which he finds later at a resale shop (59).

Jude takes the escape from their relationship without much fuss; he has grown disgusted by her. Women were a trap, and even his aunt advised him that he should have nothing to do with marriage. As soon as Arabella was out of the picture, his gusto for his future was soon reignited, and "he would go to Christminster as soon as the terms of his apprenticeship expired. (68)"