The Unknown Jude

Author: (English) Hardy
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-07-20
Features: At the beginning of the story, the male protagonist is only 11 years old, orphaned, poor, and sensitive. Yet, his young heart is deeply rooted with a grand ambition to seek knowledge and rise. Initially, he works as a small servant in a rural bakery, later becoming an apprentice stonecutter. Amidst hard labor, he struggles to learn through self-study, overcoming numerous obstacles, and eventually reaches Christ Church (a metaphor for Oxford), which he considers a sacred place of knowledge. However, he can only linger outside the grand gates of the prestigious institution as a mere stonecutter, dying at the age of 30 before his ambitions are fulfilled., as an icon painter inheriting her father’s profession and a young woman with teacher training, holds a social status similar to Jude’s. However, as a woman, her thoughts and actions more reflect the burgeoning women’s rights movement in Britain at the time. In temperament, she is more receptive to new ideas and progressive than Jude but less courageous and persistent in resisting evil forces. Karl Weber once noted: “Hardy hoped that by depicting the shattered ideals of his two main characters, he could influence the world’s thinking and behavior.” In response to the vicious attacks from critics, Hardy defended his work and beliefs: “My concern for my creation and reputation is insignificant, so I don’t care at all about the way the events surrounding me reveal my work. I’m not particularly interested. These readers, like you, cannot fail to see that Jude the Obscure (though a book with a clear ‘purpose’) is more beneficial to morality than any other book I have written.” At least all sensitive readers can see that the novel’s intention is sincere and benevolent.”
As a knowledgeable, experienced, and skilled novelist nearing his seventies, Hardy primarily brought unprecedented depth and cultural richness to the work by portraying young characters like Jude and, who possessed greater cultural literacy and more progressive ideas than most of his protagonists. Through straightforward narration, detailed descriptions, and authorial commentary at critical moments, he infused the novel with profound cultural significance. For this reason, it addresses not only general issues of education, class, marriage, and religion but also many new topics related to the 20th century, such as sexual lifestyles, women’s rights, broken families, and precocious children. No wonder critics have pointed out that this masterpiece, born in the last five years of the 19th century, not only permeates its ideological content with a “modern” consciousness but also, in terms of art, tentatively extends a touch toward modernism.