A Structuralist Analysis Of Jude's Tragedy

Thomas Hardy,one of the most distinguished writer of the Victoria period in English literature,was well-known for his novel Jude the Obscure published in 1895.The study of his novels has been in full swing in past decades.Set in “Wessex”,an imaginary countryside,focusing on male-female relationships,the spiritual struggle and prevailing ethic and morality,Jude the Obscure discloses the ironic tragedy of characters struggling against the passions of human nature and forces of a hostile world,which fully unveils Hardy's unique perceptions and deep insight into life as well as his incomparable artistic achievements.Critics home and abroad have generally centered on “tragedy”,“Wessex”,and “character and environment”,feminism,construction of identity and so on.Different from those studies,this thesis takes structuralism as the theoretical framework,and analyzes both the content and the form of the works,so as to reveal the inevitability of Jude's tragic fate.This thesis consists of five parts.Part one is an introduction of Hardy,the brief summary of Jude the Obscure,and relevant studies at home and abroad as well as the Structuralism theory.Chapter One focuses on Jude's failure to construct his identity and meaningful life by seeking for masculinity,love and truth through the inappropriate illusions.Chapter Two aims to find the deep narrative grammar“seek-find-lose-seek” Jude has been following by applying Tordorov's Syntactic narratology.Chapter Three,on the basis of Todorov's syntactics,employs Frye's theory of mythoi for a more in-depth analysis of the unique narrative mode in Jude the Obscure and concludes that Jude's tragedy is doomed because the genre of romance is overcome by the genre of irony.Chapter Four briefly summarizes the thesis.