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Fatalism in Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure
GUO Yu-hua
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DOI:10.17265/1539-8080/2016.09.006
Binzhou University, Binzhou, China
The theme of love and marriage dominates the last and also the most controversial novel by the renowned British writer Thomas Hardy. In the book, Hardy mainly portrays three relationships: the marriage between Jude and Arabella, Sue’s marriage to Phillotson, and the union of Jude and Sue. The thesis explores the relationship between Jude and Sue. Though Jude and Sue love each other truly, they do not want to be bound by marriage. So they decide to live together without the legal bond. As a consequence of their decision, society punishes them. They are deprived of their work, lodgings, children, and general acceptance. Finally, Sue goes back to Phillotson while Jude dies of sadness in solitude. They rebel against the moral convention and pursue instinctive human love, but they are finally snuffed by the powerful hands of social ethic. Through the portrayal, Hardy conveys his deeply pessimistic and fatalistic view of marriage as an institution.
Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure, marriage system, pessimism, fatalism
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