| Fyodor Dostoevsky and Thomas Hardy both explored the intricacies of the burgeoning spiritual crisis of the late 19th and early 20 th centuries in their works. The two most prominent of these works, Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov and Hardy's Jude the Obscure, show the stories of two characters, Ivan and Jude respectively, that choose to reject God. This thesis explores the connection between these two characters, specifically as they represent the two authors' outsider characters. It looks at the reasons behind their rejection, the ways that their rejection plays out in their lives, and the novels' alternatives, namely Christianity and selfless love, to their rejection. |
