Jude the Obscure: Social and Emotional Confinement

Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure was not intended to offend as many people as it did when it was published, but amid the social criticisms, frank descriptions of sexual desire, and a, extremely tragic and disturbing climax, the general public of 20th Century England was completely shocked. For years, critics and the public denounced Jude, while overlooking perhaps the most important conflict within the book. Thomas Hardy, in the introduction to the first non-serial edition of the novel, explains to readers that while the novel did contain many criticisms of socials structures in England, the main purpose of composing the book was “to tell, without a mincing of words, of a deathly war waged between flesh and spirit, and to point the tragedy of unfulfilled aims”. (Hardy, 3). As protagonist Jude Fawley works against some of the most sacred social institutions in England, he is forever battling uphill against society and fate itself. Jude, hoping to transcend his low social stature and break free from the contract of his marriage, is not only left with “unfulfilled aims” but is constantly confined; he cannot break from his marriage or from his embarrassing social stature. This idea of a person being confined or imprisoned by society and life itself contributes to the tragic nature of the novel, as Jude finds himself at the mercy of the world around him.
Another example of confinement in Jude the Obscure is the institution of marriage. In the context of the novel’s setting and the period in which it was published, marriage, like Jude’s values and goals, are rooted in tradition while facing new values and ideas, some of which are hard to swallow for society and the citizens of Wessex. Many individuals were starting to question the contractual nature of marriage; “That marriage had become a problem, that somehow it was in crisis and need of reform was an idea very much in the air.” (Howe, 134). What Hardy believes to be the ideal structure for marriage is almost opposite