Marriage in Jude the Obscure

Assignment 

Name : Latta J. Baraiya 

Roll no : 12

Paper : Literature of Victorians 

Semester : M.A sem 1

Topic : Marriage in Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure 

Submitted to : Smt. S.B. Gardi Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

Introduction

"Marriage", as an important social institution, has always been considered one of the major themes around which a good number of Victorian novels such as Jude the Obscure revolve. It is believed by many critics that the presentation of "marriage" in this novel has been performed through various literary tones including irony, diatribe, sarcasm, satire or direct criticism. Indeed, the bulk of articles and books about Thomas Hardy and his treatment of "marriage" in Jude the Obscure indicates the critical reception that this novel has enjoyed in this regard. Thus, it can be reasonably surmised that Jude the Obscure not only "resists the dominant code" (the Victorian concept of marriage) but  also "mirrors" and "moulds" and consolidates it. In order to clarify what 

we mean by "consolidation of the dominant code," we can investigate a number of relevant questions about this novel and its writer. 

◆Jude The Obscure◆

In the view of Hardy, he also criticizes marriage, describing it as a binding contract that most young lovers are incapable of understanding. He doesn’t believe that the institution is inherently evil, but that it isn’t right for every situation and personality “sensitive” souls like Jude and Sue should be able to live as husband and wife without a binding legal contract. Though he argues for this flexibility and seems to propose the couple’s unmarried relationship as an ideal solution, Hardy then punishes his protagonists in his plot, ultimately driving Sue back to Phillotson and Jude back to Arabella.

The novel is not a simple diatribe against marriage, but instead illustrates a complex, contradictory situation. Sue and Jude want their love to be true and spontaneous, but also totally monogamous and everlasting. The epigraph to the novel is “the letter killeth,” which comes from a quote from Jesus in the Bible: 

“The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth light.” 

Hardy intended this quote to refer to marriage, where the contract of the institution kills joy and true love, but Hardy purposefully leaves off the optimism of “the spirit” Jude and Sue’s joy is fleeting even when they are only following “Nature’s law,” and in the end they find no good answer for how to properly love and live together. By the novel’s tragic end Hardy still leaves the question of marriage unanswered, emphasizing only his dissatisfaction with the institution as it stands. 

◆Marriage system◆

The first question is about Hardy himself: Does Hardy take sides with his own fictional characters (Jude and Sue) or does he support the conventional side? 

It is already known that Sue and Jude's ideas do not conform to the dominant definition of marriage in the Victorian era. However, at the end of the novel, we have Sue define herself as "a poor wicked woman who is trying to mend" and we observe Jude musing, "What does it matter what my opinions are, a wretched like me!" 

Thus, it can be argued that even though Jude the Obscure has  always been discussed as a text against the authority of the Victorian marriage, it can also be viewed by the dominant discourse to confirm its own righteousness. In other words, even if Hardy aims to criticize the conventional institution of marriage, the outcome of his novel is not necessarily limited to this single interpretation. As Binion says, 

"Even a work of creative genius may convey a message other than its author intended. To tease arguments out of fiction can be tricky".

That is, although Hardy, as it is generally believed, has meant to criticize the status quo of his time, his text may not merely convey criticism. 

Most of the women characters Thomas Hardy tried to present in his novels were willing to struggle for their human rights and emancipation especially in terms of marriage laws and sexual liberty. Theywere new women to the Victorian society in different aspects though they were paradoxical sometimesand torn between being themselves and being what the society imposed. On the one hand, they wereattractive, lively, intelligent, and intellectually emancipated but, on the other, they were vulnerable andeventually crushed by a society that looked at them as inferior to men. In other words, they wereagainst the institutionalised marriage and against treating woman as a property in general and againstsexual depression which women had to suffer at that time in particular. These traits were not expectedfrom a Victorian woman who was believed to be educated and brought up to be a mother and a wife nomore no less. In today's time we find example of Jude and Sue who are doing something against the rule of society, and they had been punished by religion and god. If we see after this all accidents she become religious and Jude become more ungodly. 

◆Belief of Marriage◆

The Victorian woman, whether married or single, was expected to be weak and helpless, a delicate ‘doll’ who was not allowed to make decisions. The wife’s duties were mainly the houseworkand making sure that her many children were taught moral values and that the home was a comfortable shelterfor her husband and family from the stresses of Victorian time. Hardy’s portrayals of women characters were different from the conventional image. Through such new different portrayals, Hardy tried to restore to woman ‘not only a flesh and blood reality, but also a human nature lovable in its all imperfections’. At the time, Victorian society had a very narrow view of the potential and individuality of women. A good example of Hardy’s emancipated women is Sue Bridehead in Jude the Obscure.

In Hardy and the Erotic, T. R. Wright assures that ‘Sue Bridehead is in many ways at the centre of Jude the Obscure because she is stronger, more complex, and more significant’. As a main feminine character in Jude the Obscure, Sue Bridehead represents in some aspects the New Woman of the Victorian period. Sue’s rebellious and enthusiastic spirit and intellect urge her to confront and, most of the time, attack the conventions of her time and try to gain her voice in a world that mainly gives ears and attention to the man’s voice. Though in the end she submits and restores to the church and the conventions whichshe has been against, Sue shows how harsh the journey of the New Woman can be. This essay will study Sue’s character and to what extent she represents the New Woman in the Victorian era shading alight on her attitude against the Victorian institutionalised marriage mainly. 

◆Women in Victorian era◆

The Victorian social life was marked by the ideology of separate spheres of activities for thesexes. The status that woman held in the Victorian era did not give her the same rights as man. In her British Women in the Nineteenth Century, Dorothy Thompson defines these two spheres. She points to the public world for men as the ‘world of politics, the market and the workplace was the location of the rough, competitive male activities’, whereas the private world for women as ‘the world of home andfamily encapsulated the Christian virtues and the morality of personal relationships’. In fact, this israther a more general image than other images of how women were treated in the Victorian age interms of educations, politics and marital issues.

In such social conditions, Sue Bridehead was introduced to the Victorian readers by Hardy whowas promoting the necessity of demolishing the doll-woman image in the fiction and replacing it withthe prospective of the New Woman. Sue at the beginning of the novel is a liberated young woman withemancipated intellect, active and lively. The reason why her revolt voice against conventions andcollapse was considered a characteristic dealing with the New Woman. Sue was different from the old-fashioned Victorian girls whose freedom was illusory as it is described by Jenni Calder:In fact, the freedom was largely illusory, for most young women exchanged the control of afather for the control of a husband. Restriction was an ill education for liberty, and most of them passed straight from childhood to the responsibilities of matronhood without the chance oftesting their strength as young women, except in the marriage market.  They aren't free to do anything they have to do only house works. They are only made for this...

◆Sue as New Women◆

Sue’s characterization is designed to present the New Woman and that she exists but she doesnot necessarily prevails or overcomes the harshness and obstacles she confronts in herenvironment. Sue, the intellectual open-minded woman, is trapped by the old ideologies ofrestraint, of religious guilt at the time of ideological transition. In spite of her attempt to moveon to a world of relatively independent and freer conduct where she can realize herself andenjoy her liberated intellect, Sue is eventually crushed by the conflict of both worlds and realms of ideologies. She is the victim of both her theoretical emancipation and conventionality. Wattsargues that Sue can be considered a tragic victim and ‘a person of great potential whose vitality and independence are eventually destroyed by the partly internalized and partly external forceof religion, a force aided and abetted by a society which is largely hostile to her kind of emancipation’. Sue’s romantic ambitions and ‘Shelleyan’ dream which are nourished by her emancipated intellect and vitality collapse utterly by the reality of natural and social lawsespecially those of sex and marriage. 

If in today's time any married girl wants to live with other man despite being husband society punish them both. Girls are not free to do anything that they want, as hardy portray Sue and Arabella. This is also satire on the system of marriage. 

◆Expectations of Society◆

As a part of soceiry, society have some expectations toward us and we have to complete that expectations. If we are trying to fail in this society can't live us with peace. If we talk about marriage it is one of the most important pillar of society. We know some people around us who's aims only to be married, nothing else ! But nowadays womens are toot all responsibility, some of them are are also adopted a child and grew up them.

The other expectation is if man and women wants to live together they must be married. Without marriage they can't live with each other. Hardy break this rule, that's why he has to face many critical comments also. So many copy of his work are burned, because he hurts the sentiments of society and it's rule. If a couple want a home on rent the owner asked them they are married or not ! If no then they can't give room them on rent. If we see the example of movie LUKA CHUPPI, we can find that Guddu and Rashmi wants to live together without marriage. They creat fake proof of marriage and then they get room on rent.

The highest form of marriage is definitely not just the sex-based but is a complex matter containing a number of factors which not only arise from the couple but also from the society. However, for a happy marriage, an indispensable factor is the true love from both the man and woman who are always in the pursuit of mutual and deeper understanding of each other. From this sense, for Jude and Arabella, whose marriage is based on the flesh, it is impossible to for them to construct a solid marriage and a happy family through their efforts. The combination of Jude and Arabella, at the same time, decides the failure of their marriage and the pain of their lives. 

◆Marriage System Today◆

In recent years scholars have carried out valuable research into relationships between the sexes in Victorian times. They have focused especially on the late nineteenth century a period often referred to as the 'fin de siecle'. It was an exciting phase of transition, once described as being 'electric with new ideas'. Inevitably, there was conflict between those people who strove to maintain traditional standards and those who were receptive to change, and in the maelstrom of ideas it is not surprising that the institution of marriage was a subject of discussion and re-evaluation.

The Marriage Act of 1753 had defined marriage as a contract. Under common law a married woman's condition came to be referred to as 'coverture' a term which meant that 'the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband under whose wing, protection and cover, she performs everything.' A wife's property and earnings automatically became her husband's and any legitimate children also belonged to the father. There were few prospects for unmarried women spinsters were often too poor to manage without employment, yet were limited in their career options. As women did not have access to as wide a range of jobs as men, marriage was the only viable career for most of them.

Educational provision for women began to improve from the mid-nineteenth century onwards but it was still the case that girls tended to be viewed as potential wives, so for many of them education meant primarily a grounding in womanly behaviour. The function of a wife was to devote herself to the needs of her husband and children, and the home was regarded as a sacred institution indeed the stability of the nation itself was thought to hinge upon family values. During the course of the nineteenth century, however, reformers called for considerable changes in the marriage laws and in such areas as property rights, custody regulations and divorce law. 

Conclusion

Consequently, Jude the Obscure does not solely contain the critical discourse of the conventional marriage, as modern criticism has always claimed. It, rather, presents the possibility of a consolidating 

narrative in which the institution of conventional marriage is reinforced. In other words, Hardy, though unconsciously, has created a novel in which the nonconformists are marginalized as "the others" and are finally suppressed by the dominant social discourse that has influenced the mentality of a Victorian writer. 

Therefore, it is believed that Thomas Hardy, as a member of the Victorian society presents the subject of marriage in Jude the Obscure in a two dimensional discourse. The first level, which is explicit, seems to be a critical approach to the Victorian marriage; the second one, however, the one that is more implicitly provided, is a consolidatory discourse that supports the traditional marriage.