...

Damn Women, once again.

Wow. Talk about a shocking ending for an otherwise entertaining and enjoyable book. Honestly, since I didn't take the time to read the entirety of the book, I had to piece information together. However, I have a pretty good idea of how things came to be and am even more aware of how it turned bad.

So Sue, I am really quite sad with your revelation. I can't imagine the trauma caused by the nasty event in the lodging. In fact, I sympathize with the conclusion that she draws about herself. How else could someone reconcile such a terrible event without appealing to something beyond their understanding and out of their hands? So Sue appeals to God, and asks for forgiveness. "I want a humble heart; and a chastened mind; and I have never had them yet!" she exclaims, all the while Jude watches her helplessly as Sue and himself travel mentally "in opposite directions (333, 334)."

Skipping through the lament and the drama, Sue goes back to Richard, entirely against her deepest will, and Arabella goes back to Jude, entirely against his sober will. The two end up remarrying the mistakes of their past, basically to sort of fix those mistakes. It was absolutely frustrating to see Sue go back "willingly" to Richard, only to cower from his kiss and be completely averse to his touch. It seems to be an act of "extraordinary blindness" from someone who used to be so driven by extreme rationality (339). At one time, Jude painted Sue as an elite specimen of a woman, if not human kind. Now, however, I can't blame Jude's bewilderment. Sue now rationalizes she is "a vile creature, too worthless to mix with ordinary human beings" and Jude, in the face of this new logic shouts, "You make me hate Christianity, or mysticism, or Sacerdotalism, or whatever it may be called, if it's that which has caused this deterioration in you! (338, 339)"

And I hate it too. It seems that the saving grace of the book, Sue, has taken the same nasty path Hardy would like you to think all women take. I changed my mind about Arabella's role, and assumed she was just an extreme case of a particularly crappy woman. However, once Sue collapses into a nervous and paranoid being, Jude wonders "Is it peculiar to you, or is it common to Woman? Is a woman a thinking unit at all. (339)" This is Hardies way of reintroducing his confusion about and his mild disgust with the allusive female spirit. Jude, who fell in love with this perfect girl, must soon face the facts that women, deep down inside, are all the same. Sue explains that their love, and their eventual consummation of that love, was a game from the start. Sure it was a milder game than was played with him and Arabella. Sue "did not exactly flirt with [him]," she just couldn't control "that inborn craving which undermines some women's morals almost more than unbridled passion; the craving to attract and captivate, regardless of the injury it may do the man. (341)" And so it was settled; Sue ended up being just like the despised Arabella. Hardy would like you to ponder how different the two situations really were. Arabella ensnared Jude in her web— sure so she could marry him, but on a deeper level it was a game she played to see if she could get him in the first place. And that was what Sue did, even though initially she had no intention of falling for him herself.

So, what else could Jude do but go back to Arabella, his rightful wife? Since all women are the same anyways, Jude might as well have just given up like he did and whither away. Everything had forsaken him—his dreams, Christminster, his education, his Sue, fate. Hardy would like to point out that Jude's eventual and final downfall can be attributed to two things, his "weakness for womankind, and [his] impulse to strong liquor. (342)" If it wasn't for the latter, or even the former subject, Jude would have never gotten remarried to Arabella. The hag once again manipulated poor Jude, and in order to protect the little honor he had left, he married Arabella. I could go on a rant about how much I detest the character Arabella, and how it saddens me that women like this create a bad image for all women, but that would be unnecessary. She's a gossipy, manipulative and deceitful tart.

Jude decides it is best he dies. I don't blame him. It seems the dark tone the book undertook only lent itself for Jude's eventual death. I love his dying rants—the exclamations that were half-truths. I particularly reveled in his death threat to Arabella, who then retorted, "You couldn't kill a pig, but you could kill me! (374)" Though Jude admits he wouldn't kill her, it was a triumphant line in the book because at that point I would have liked nothing more than Arabella getting out of the picture and Jude dying a peaceful man. Instead, Jude has to deal with her constant badgering. Though Jude, in en eerie similarity to the words of little Jude, wants to "put an end to a feverish life which ought never to have been begun," it takes him a good several months to finally end his suffering (380). Hardy has Jude die on a day his wife appropriately goes off and fools around with some local men, and he closed the last chapters of the book with little quips here and there against women. However, it was over, and I couldn't help but feel a little upset that this book which was so beautiful and wonderful to read ended up being so pessimistic and without much hope.