Jude Caught In Contradictions

While Thomas Hardy was writing Jude the Obscure, capitalism has developed into a new phase. The railway plays a significant role in the life of British people and the whole society is in a restless state. People feel caught between past and future. Jude, the hero of Jude the Obscure, is also caught between contradictions. With Jude's family background, special life experience and the contemporary society characteristics, the restless state finds full expression in him. During his life time, not being able to be intent on one specific thing, Jude is caught between Christianity and Atheism, between conventionality and unconventionality, between flesh and spirit, and between social alienation and the infinity of nature. These four contradictions are implored in the thesis.Chapter one "Caught between Christianity and Atheism" discusses Jude's religious disillusion. Jude had a faith in Christianity, resulting from his fascination with religious books. His relationships with two women, Arabella and Sue, make him apart from his original belief. Marriage with Arabella is a trap for him which obstructs from his career goal--Chrisminister dream, while his extramarital relationship with Sue gradually brings him toward Atheism. To conclude, Jude's dilemma between Christianity and Atheism is caused by his restless state with which the contemporary endows. The contemporary introduction and impact of Darwinism and Hardy's attitude toward Darwinism are also analyzed.Chapter two "Caught between Conventionality and Unconventionality" observes Jude's restless state between being conventional and unconventional. This chapter first points out that Jude lives in late Victorian Era, so he bears some specific features of the Victorian society, especially the Victorian definition of manhood is introduced, then analyzes Jude's unconventional aspects by examining his relationship with women. Jude's violation of the Victorian conventionality shows his unconventional aspects. Restless Jude is not a consistent person: a Victorian man doing the anti-Victorian things, swinging between being conventional and unconventional, which forecasts his misery end.Chapter three "Caught between Flesh and Spirit" discusses Jude's struggle in different desires through two relationships with woman: Arabella representing his sexual desire while Sue representing his spiritual pursuit. The multi-roles of these two women in Jude's lifetime are respectively analyzed. This chapter draws the conclusion that Jude's deplorable end results from the whole restless era. Because being a restless Victorian, he can not settle on one specific relationship, including the one with Sue, during which he even decided to go to Arabella for sexual comfort.Chapter four "Caught between Social Alienation and the Infinity of Nature" analyzes Jude's alienation from nature in the city civilization and his death as a return to nature and as a pursuit for eternal freedom. In this chapter existentialism is introduced and Thomas Hardy is described as a forerunner in this field. Jude's death wish throughout the whole story is specially observed as his pursuit of eternal freedom and as his return to nature. In the later half of the chapter, Jude's son Little Father Time is analyzed as a symbol of the tragedy of existential contingency.In Conclusion, the late Victorian Era is a restless one and its restlessness has imprinted on the people its own characteristics. The carrier of the restless life is symbolized by the never stopping railway, on which the people feels caught in contradictions. Jude is a typical victim of the restless time. Due to these conflicts, Jude with thousands of late Victorians is in a state of unrest which indicated their doomed end.