Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy.

 What sort of critique of Society, religion and education system is presented by Hardy in Jude The Obscure novel?

Introduction:-

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) is a literary gaint in the Victorian age. Virginia Woolf remarked that:

"The death of Thomas Hardy leaves English fiction without a leader"

Among all his Literature works, Jude The Obscure is the most controversial one. It complains the unreasonable education system, the subhuman institution of marriage, the hypocrisy of religion as well as the entire capitalist system in the late Victorian time and naturally got the most attention of the critical world in the nineteenth century of Britain.

Hardy Critique of society, religion and education system:-

Much of the novel serves as a vessel for Hardy’s criticism of English Victorian society. Most of this critique is aimed at the institution of marriage, but Hardy also targets education, class divides, and hypocrisy. The early part of the novel involves Jude’s quest to be accepted into a college at Christminster, a university town based on Oxford. Jude works for years teaching himself classical languages, but he is never accepted simply because of his social class and poverty. In Jude’s unjustified failures Hardy demonstrates the unfairness and classism of the educational system.

Relating to the marriage theme, Hardy also emphasizes the oppressiveness of Victorian society in dealing with any unorthodox domestic situation. Jude and Sue cannot find a room or a steady job as long as their marital status is anything but traditional, and Phillotson loses his teaching jobs because he allowed Sue to leave him. Hardy was far ahead of his time in many of his views – implying that universities should accept members of the working class, couples could live together without being married, and even that the father of a woman’s child should be the woman’s business alone – but Hardy’s society was not ready for such criticism. The backlash against Jude the Obscure was so harsh that Hardy gave up writing altogether.

Conclusion:-

Jude The Obscure is one of Hardy's masterpieces. At the time of the novel's composition, Thomas Hardy was living between the turn of the 20th century and the eve of the 19th century. He expression of religious rebellion and the advanced female image, it can be concluded that Thomas Hardy is not a pessimist and voluntarist at all and the novel conveys readers the kindness tendency, the courage to face the harsh reality and a sense of rationality.