Hardy mentions in the personal critique of his work that
Jude the Obscure was intended to be full of contrasts. He says, "Sue and her heathen gods set against Jude's reading Greek testement; Christminster academical, Christminster in the slums; Jude the saint, Jude the sinner...etc." The presentation of contrasting symbolic natures within Hardy's characters and various settings in antithesis results in an irony of counterpoint.
Review the definition for
irony and post on the following questions:
In what way are these contrasts ironic?
Also, other than the three above, are there any more contrasts you can find in the text?
Agreeing with Hardy, 'Jude the Obscure' was full of many different contrasts. As said in the post 'Contrasting Ironies', "Sue and her heathen gods set against Jude's reading Greek testements..", Jude's goal in life is to gain new knowledge in the town of Christminister in one way by reading the Greek testement, as by Sue, it is viewed as wrong by her religious standards. As mentioned above as well, "Christminister academical, Christminister in the slums...", Jude's once view of the town of Christminister was a perfect vision. Watching it from the distance one evening, he was told of how wonderful it was. Everyone there was so knowledgable, even the common workers there know latin. It seemed to be an academic heaven. But, once Jude was finally there, he experienced one hardship after another. We wasn't accepted into a university for studies, he was denyed work and was stuck in one difficulty after another. He was truly stuck in the 'Christminster slums'. Also, "Jude the saint, Jude the sinner..." was another contrast in the book. Jude had feelings for a girl named Arabela Donn when he first arrived at Christminster, and later on she told him that she was pregnant. Jude then decided to marry her, but then discovered that she 'made a mistake' and was not pregnant. Jude was stuck in a marriage he did not want to be in by doing the right thing. However, Jude discovers his cousin Sue, and has to keep telling himself that he is a married man because he has feelings for her. But, it is not acceptable for Jude to show such deep feelings for a family member, and he know this but cannot change the way he feels.
ReplyDelete'Jude the Obscure' was indeed full of contrasts and small ironic twists. Irony, being a technique of indicating, as through character or plot development, an intention or attitude opposite to that which is actually or ostensibly stated (dictionary.com), is the basis of these contradicting themes that Hardy presents in his novel. Jude being a sinner and being a saint is ironic because in order to be a saint, you musn't sin, there is no possible way to stretch the rules and be both. There are many small ironic symbols, phrases, and settings in his controversial work, 'Jude the Obscure'. One other ironic factor in the novel is one that I mentioned in a recent post, the irony that Jude is a character of pessimism and of optimism. Is that possible? He is pessimistic in the way that he views factors and occurances in his life, yet he has an optimistic view on starting fresh, on what the world has left to offer him, and what he will gain from a new location. Yet one more contrasting factor in Jude that can be cast as ironic.
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ReplyDeleteIn a more general sense, Jude intends on doing the 'saint' deed, but in turn commits the 'sinner' deed. For example, as Jorie mentioned, when he married Arabela due to her pregnancy, his intentions were indeed good. When she leaves, he finds himself in love with another woman, in fact, his own cousin. That is a double sin! But all in all, many of his actions are for good intentions, but end with the tempting nature of sin. This sounds quite familiar. In Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Tess' intentions in every hard situation are nothing but good. After she decides to take this route, she finds other routes more tempting, meaning Alec D'Urberville in more cases than one, also a said "family member". Hardy shows an ironic parallelism between the two novels.
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