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marc129 's review for:
Jude the Obscure
by Thomas Hardy
The real protagonist of this novel is Sue: she explores the boundaries of individual freedom in Victorian society and is very unconventional in her behaviour). But her freedom expresses itself in a negative way, even destructive; she cannot give herself, not even to Jude, unless to keep him away of another woman. Her behaviour is inconsistent and that's just what makes it credible, though not sympathetic. Jude is the darling of the story, but also a kind of cue ball; he assimilates the ideas of Sue and for him that's fatal.
This is a truly naturalistic story: the hopeless life of Jude, especially embittered by his ambition to climb on the social ladder. Other themes: the attraction of the soul versus the flesh; the debate on love and convention, on open relationship and the bond of marriage; the city as a symbol of hypocrisy and rigidity, materialised in the stones and buildings; the fatal crossing of class limits and the consuming pressure of social conventions. But remarkably there's no determinism in the events Hardy describes. A nice background element is the explicit elaboration on train travel.
This is a truly naturalistic story: the hopeless life of Jude, especially embittered by his ambition to climb on the social ladder. Other themes: the attraction of the soul versus the flesh; the debate on love and convention, on open relationship and the bond of marriage; the city as a symbol of hypocrisy and rigidity, materialised in the stones and buildings; the fatal crossing of class limits and the consuming pressure of social conventions. But remarkably there's no determinism in the events Hardy describes. A nice background element is the explicit elaboration on train travel.