|
|
|
Featured Papers from Rad Essays |
|
|
|
|
This is only a preview of the paper
Click here to register and get the full text.
Existing members click here to login
|
|
|
JUDE THE OBSCURE
Part I - At Marygreen
(Read: Part I)
Summary
Everyone in Marygreen is upset because the schoolmaster, Richard Phillotson, is leaving the village for the town of Christminster, about twenty miles away. ... The boy, Jude Fawley, has been living with his aunt Drusilla, a baker, since his father died. Drusilla tells him that he should have asked the schoolteacher to take him to Christminster, because Jude loves books just like his cousin Sue.
Jude tires of hearing himself talked about and goes to the bakehouse to eat his breakfast. ... The farmer fires him and Jude walks home to tell his aunt. ... Jude goes into town and asks a man where Christminster is, and the man points to the northeast.
Jude walks two or three miles toward Christminster and climbs a ladder onto a roof where two men are working. ... Jude is disappointed and waits, hoping he will see it before going home. ... Hearing this, Jude decides that it is a "place of light" where the "tree of knowledge grows," and that it would suit him perfectly. ... Vilbert says that even the washerwomen there speak Latin, and Jude expresses a desire to learn Greek and Latin. Vilbert promises to give Jude his grammar books if Jude advertises his medicines in the town for two weeks. After two weeks, Jude meets Vilbert and asks for the grammar books, but the doctor does not have them. Jude is very disappointed, but when Phillotson sends for the piano, Jude has the idea of writing to the schoolmaster to ask for grammar books. Phillotson sends them, but when the books arrive, Jude is surprised to discover that there is no easy way to learn Latin, that each word has to be learned separately. ...
Jude decides to make himself more useful to his aunt and helps her with the bakery, delivering bread in a horse-drawn cart. ... The next morning he goes back to where they walked together and overhears Arabella telling her friends that she wants to marry Jude. Jude finds his thoughts turning more and more to her. ... Jude begins to say that he is going away, but Arabella retorts that she is pregnant. Jude immediately proposes, and they marry quickly. Jude does not believe Arabella to be the ideal wife, but he knows he must marry her. Once they are living together, Jude asks when the baby will be born, and Arabella tells him it was a mistake, that she is not really pregnant. Jude is shocked. ... The young Jude sees Christminster as an enlightened place of learning, equating it with his dreams of higher education and his vague notions of academic success. Yet while Jude lives quite close to Christminster and knows a man who is going to live there, the city is always only a distant vision in his mind. It is nearly within his reach but at the same time unattainable, and this physical distance serves as an ongoing metaphor for the abstract distance between the impoverished Jude and the privileged Christminster students.
At the start of the novel, Jude is portrayed as an earnest and innocent young man who aspires to things greater than his background allows. ... In this way Jude avoids disappointment, but finds that he cannot live within the confines of an unhappy marriage. ... Jude feels trapped by a youthful mistake and Arabellas manipulation. ...
Part II - At Christminster
(Read: Part II)
Summary
Three years after his marriage, Jude decides to go to Christminster at last. ... His aunt sent the picture of Sue with the stipulation that Jude should not try to find her, and he decides that he must wait until he is settled to find Phillotson. ...
Jude discovers that Sue attends church services at Cardinal College and goes there to find her. ... On another afternoon, Sue goes to the stonemasons yard and asks for Jude Fawley. When she is described to him, Jude recognizes who she was. ... They introduce themselves, and Jude asks if she knows Phillotson, whom he thinks is a parson. She says that there is a village schoolmaster named Phillotson in Lumsdon, and Jude is struck by the realization that Phillotson has failed in his ambitions.
Jude and Sue walk to Phillotsons house, and Jude introduces himself. The schoolmaster does not remember him, and Jude reminds him about the Latin and Greek grammars. ... They do not stay for supper, and on the way back Jude asks Sue why she is leaving Christminster. ... Jude suggests that he ask Phillotson to take her on as a teacher, and she agrees. ... However, one day when he is walking toward the village, Jude sees the two walking together. ... Jude goes back to see his aunt, who is not well. Jude talks with a friend from home, who is surprised that Jude has not entered college yet. Jude decides to pursue admission the university more devotedly and writes to five professors. ...
Jude grows depressed and goes to a tavern to drink. ... Jude does, then grows angry when they congratulate him. ... Jude tells Highridge of his failed ambition to attend the university and become a minister. Highridge says that if he wants, Jude can become a licentiate in the church if he gives up strong drink.
Commentary
Sue serves to attract Jude to Christminster, and he seeks her out with a strange devotion, as though he is following an inevitable path carved out by destiny. ...
Jude is disappointed to find that Phillotson does not remember him and has not fulfilled his ambitions. Phillotson is a foil to Jude, his complacency set against Judes fervor. Phillotson represents a path more accessible to Jude than his aspirations toward an academic career, but Jude is loath to give up his Christminster ambitions. ...
Jude finds that the Christminster colleges are not welcoming toward self-educated men, and he accepts that he may not be able to study at the university after all. ... The realization that his learning will help him only to perform in pubs sits heavily with Jude, and he is comforted only by the possibility of becoming a clergyman through apprenticeship.
Part III - At Melchester
Summary
Jude decides to follow the path recommended by the clergyman and become a low-ranking clergyman. ... Jude arrives and takes Sue to dinner. She mentions that Phillotson might find her a teaching post after she graduates, and Jude expresses his anxiety about the schoolmasters romantic interest in her. ...
Jude finds work at a cathedral and reads theological books in preparation for his career. ... Jude is struck by Sues freethinking mentality and calls her "Voltairean" (thinking like the French philosopher Voltaire). As they are leaving, Sue tells Jude that she knows he is in love with her and he is only permitted to like her, not to love her. ...
Phillotson asks Jude about Sues history, and Jude assures him that nothing untoward has happened between them. Jude tells Sue his own story, including his marriage to Arabella. ... Sue also asks if Jude will give her away at the wedding, and he agrees. ... Jude finds he can no longer stand living in Melchester, and when he receives word that his aunt is dangerously ill, he returns to Marygreen. ...
In the meantime, Jude goes to Christminster for work. ... Jude misses his train to Alfredston and instead goes to Aldbrickham with Arabella. ... Jude leaves her and unexpectedly encounters Sue. The two go to see Judes aunt together, and Sue tells Jude that she made a mistake in marrying Phillotson.
Approximate Word count = 6166
Approximate Pages = 24.7
(250 words per page double spaced)
|
|
|
|
|
|