The Victorian Society in Jude The Obscure

The Victorian Society in Jude The Obscure

Thomas Hardy is generally regarded as a realistic writer in the
Victorian Age In Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy presents the characters
Jude Fawley and Sue Bridehead, who violate the conventions of the
repressive Victorian society while attempting to follow their natural
instincts. By studying the novel, one sees that Hardy's intentions in
doing this are to arouse the reader's sympathy for the characters, and
to join in their ridicule of the codes of conduct they are breaking.

The trial of Jude and Sue evoke a sympathetic response from the
reader because the couple reflects the values which are prevalent in
modern society. They suffer persecution for yielding to emotions which
are no longer considered unacceptable or forbidden, as they were then.
This portrays Victorian society as being cruel and unnatural, thus
creating affection for the characters. Hardy understood the tendency for
society to swing like a pendulum from one extreme to the other. He knew
that the Victorian era would not last indefinately, and that future
generations would become more liberated. This is beautifully illustrated
in this reflection of Sue's: 'When people of a later age look back upon
the barbarous customs and superstitions of the times that we have the
unhappiness to live in, what will they think?’ (p.276) According to
modern values, it is wrong to condemn people for following their pure
and natural instincts, though they ‘have wronged no man, condemned no
man, defrauded no man.’ (p.378) Therefore, by predicting these shifts,
and exposing the injustice of Victorian society, Hardy evokes sympathy
in the reader for Sue and Jude.

Hardy also uses the two
characters to reveal that he finds the society in which they live
ridiculous. He joins Sue and Jude as they laugh at ‘the artificial
system of things, under which the normal sex-impulses are turned into
devilish domestic gins and springes to noose and hold back those who
want to progress. (p.279) In rare times of ‘Greek joyousness’ (p.366)
Jude and Sue live by ‘Nature’s law’ and are able to enjoy, unabated, the
‘instincts which civilisation has taken upon itself to thwart.’ (p.413)
It is during these times that the two are truly able to laugh at the
conventions they have violated, as they are content and unaffected by
the repercussions. Hardy takes these opportunities to laugh with them,
as through their words and actions he reveals his contempt for the
Victorian system.

Thomas Hardy’s novel Jude the Obscure,
illustrates the attempts made by Jude Fawley and Sue Bridehead to defy
the rules and customs of Victorian society. This evokes a sympathetic
reaction from the reader and allows the author to prudently scorn the
system along with the characters. This method of indirectly criticizing
Victorian society is apporpriate for a time when freedom of expression
was a punishable crime

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