Questions tagged [jude-the-obscure]
For questions about the novel Jude The Obscure (1895) by Thomas Hardy. Use together with the [thomas-hardy] tag.
15
questions
6
votes
1
answer
887
views
What is the significance of the name Jude, in Jude the Obscure?
The meaning of "obscure" in the title of Thomas Hardy's Jude the Oscure has been discussed previously on this site, but what about the name Jude? Earlier versions of the manuscript had the ...
- 74.1k
4
votes
0
answers
74
views
Is burning a theme in Jude the Obscure?
While researching to answer another Jude the Obscure question, I found a list of homework assignments related to this novel, in which the following one caught my eye:
Three times objects are burned --...
- 74.1k
1
vote
0
answers
46
views
Why did Sue want to go back to Phillotson?
In the novel Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy, Sue was broken after the death of her children. She went to their graves and wept even on the insistence of Jude to go back to the lodge. Jude was broken ...
- 1,621
3
votes
1
answer
442
views
How was Jude obscure in Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure?
I have recently completed the novel Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy and as always the title left me baffled. In the whole novel it was Sue who seems (if one just uses one's own viewpoint and judges ...
- 1,621
1
vote
1
answer
88
views
Who was Sue’s mother?
Jude was in his Aunt’s room, he was a little heavy with his head due to Arabella’s leaving, and on a table he found a photo of a beautiful little girl. Upon inquiring with his Aunt, he came to know ...
- 1,621
9
votes
1
answer
589
views
"Remembrance Day" in "Jude the Obscure"
In Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure (1894-95) some of the characters meet in Christminster (Oxford) on "Remembrance Day". For example:
"The place seems gay," said Sue. "Why—it is Remembrance Day!—...
- 262
9
votes
1
answer
560
views
What does this passage about the atmosphere blowing from Cyprus and the Galilee mean in "Jude the Obscure"?
When Jude is in the church, when he was following Sue, we see this line:
...was like the dew of the Hermon, and he remained throughout the service in a sustaining atmosphere of ecstasy.
Though he was ...
- 26.1k
3
votes
0
answers
83
views
How does Jude's work with masonry relate to his ambition of becoming a scholar?
In Jude the Obscure, work that Jude does is masonry - stones and menial labor. His ambition is to become a scholar - books and mental labor.
I'm struggling to see how these relate to each other - how ...
- 26.1k
5
votes
1
answer
581
views
What does "I'll be D.D. before I have done!" mean?
I was reading Jude the Obscure, and I came across this line in Part First, VI:
"...I must save money, and I will; and one of those colleges shall open its doors to me—shall welcome whom now ...
- 26.1k
9
votes
3
answers
876
views
Was Thomas Hardy expressing his own religious intolerance or commenting on the general anti-Semitic sentiment of the time?
While reading Jude the Obscure, I came across this bit in Part First, chapter 3:
People said that, if you prayed, things sometimes came to you, even though they sometimes did not. He had read in a ...
- 26.1k
4
votes
2
answers
289
views
What does 'you med ask' mean, from "Jude the Obscure"?
In part first, II, I see this line:
"And who's he?" asked one, comparatively a stranger, when the boy entered.
"Well, ye med ask it, Mrs. Williams. He's my great-nephew—come since you was ...
- 26.1k
2
votes
2
answers
227
views
Why does my copy of "Jude the Obscure" use 'part first' instead of 'first part' or something like that?
I recently procured a copy of Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. Upon opening it, something struck me as odd: It says 'part first' instead of 'first part' or 'part one'. I've never seen this before, ...
- 26.1k
5
votes
1
answer
564
views
What does the fate of the old church tell us in "Jude the Obscure"?
In the first chapter of Jude the Obscure, we see this line about the old church being taken down and replaced, and the old church being broken up and used for different things:
Above all, the ...
- 26.1k
7
votes
2
answers
280
views
Who's this 'certain obliterator of historic records' in "Jude the Obscure"?
In the first chapter of Jude the Obscure, we see this line:
Above all, the original church, hump-backed, wood-turreted, and quaintly hipped, had been taken down, and either cracked up into heaps of ...
- 26.1k
4
votes
1
answer
816
views
What view of marriage is presented in Jude the Obscure?
Thomas Hardy's gut-wrenching tragedy Jude the Obscure includes a lot of discussion of the concept of marriage, from various different characters, some of whose views even change over the course of the ...
- 74.1k