An Analysis Of Jude Fawley In Sigmund Freud's Personality Theory View

Thomas Hardy was one of the greatest masters in the transitional period of England from the Victorian to the Modern age. Being the representative of English Realist, Hardy's"character and environment novels"made the readers appreciated the lost scenic beauty of Wessex and felt the social upheavals in the late Victorian period at the same time. Hardy's prosperous time had already passed away, however, different ideological trends emerged in the literary circle recent years. Hardy's works sat off a new fever in the literary circle again.Freud's theory of personality structure had not taken on the shape when Hardy created Jude the Obscure. Although Hardy did not explicitly propose or manifest any idea of personality, the large quantity of psychological monologues characterized the preliminary characters of modern psycho novels. Jude Fawley, the chief actor of Jude the Obscure, lived in the transitional period of the Victorian. His tragic life reflected the social problems of the transitional period and the human psychological changes one by one, and at the same time it revealed the criticism of Hardy on the Victorian traditions and the expectation to the next new age.This thesis tries to use Freud's theory of personality to analyze the personal character of Jude Fawley. The whole short life of Jude can be considered as a disaster caused by the continuous conflict and repression of his id, ego and super-ego. None of the systems had got satisfied till the end of his life. This is not only a person's tragedy, but also a tragedy of the whole society. The tragic personality of Jude was not only the result of his unfortunate family, but also the result of the social repression and a reflection of Hardy's own personality which was the prototype of Jude. In the name of Jude the Obscure, Hardy represented the bottom ones to express the advance of society and gave off the voice of human freedom.