Female Characters of Jude The Obscure
Thomas Hardy constructs a twisted web involving four characters in six marriages in his last novel Jude the Obscure. The controversial actions and philosophies of his female characters in this novel created such an outcry among readers that Hardy gave up novel writing forever. Both Arabella Donn and Sue Bridehead shun traditional views of marriage as a lifelong commitment, but Arabella follows her physical desires and lust for excitement, while Sue is led by her conscience and social pressures.
Arabella is Hardy’s stereotypical sexual adventurer, but she crudely masquerades as a woman attempting to appease society’s accepted view of women. She is driven by her sexual impulses, frequently aligns herself with men for her own enjoyment and fulfilment. Hardy inundates the meetings between Jude and Arabella with images of physical lust and desire in order to show the reader that their relationship is purely sexual. This highly sexualized encounter likewise slaps the reader in the face with the woman’s true intentions with Jude. Arabella repeatedly creates dimples in her cheeks and eagerly flirts with Jude as a means of enticing him. Because Jude has been ignorant of women and the world of love, he “is an easy victim” for Arabella’s temptations . He blindly falls into her sexual trap believing that she is pure and honourable, but really she is simply out to catch a husband to satisfy her physical lusts.
Once the courting begins, Arabella follows the advice of her friends, a clear sign of social pressures, and ensnares Jude in a sexual trap. She then claims that she is pregnant to compel him to marry her. Although Arabella claims she truly thought she was expecting a child, Because she knows Jude is “Honorable and serious-minded,” she feels confident he will adhere to social expectations and marry her. He does follow through with his responsibility and soon realizes that Arabella is shallow and purely sexual, but he attempts to focus on the hope of their union.
Hardy is also quick to demonstrate the lack of emotional intimacy between Jude and Arabella in their marriage, showing that sexual attraction is the primary motive. Jude is shocked when Arabella detaches a hairpiece and then explains that she bought it during her barmaid days in Aldbrickham, another unknown to the new husband.The couple’s opposing personalities again become evident in the pig-killing scene when Jude chooses to kill the pig quickly and mercifully, but Arabella is concerned only with profit and making her black-pot from the pig’s slow-draining blood. When Jude exclaims, “It is a hateful business!” at the bleeding of the pig, Arabella simply states, “Pigs must be killed.” Jude focuses on the animal’s pain, while Arabella sees only profit. Arabella have different views on the value and purpose of life, and their marriage suffers the consequences.
Arabella also shows a lack of sensitivity in her treatment of her son. She reveals Jude’s paternity via letter and announces that he must take their son because her parents no longer want him; leaving Jude little choice in the matter, the boy arrives the very next day. Her selfish motives are clear in her letter.When Arabella and Jude remarry, the same purpose and emotionless interactions exist. Arabella is lonely after the death of her second husband and is still physically attracted to Jude. She begins to play with Jude’s emotions in relation to Sue’s recent departure and remarriage.
The second female character in Jude the Obscure, Sue Bridehead, likewise goes against the morality of the time regarding marriage, but unlike Arabella, Sue struggles with her role as a woman. She first attempts to conform to the accepted role of housewife in her marriage to Richard Phillotson but realizes her charlatan ways and decides to live with her heart’s love, Jude. When the pressure from society becomes too much and her children are dead, Sue succumbs to her feelings of guilt and returns to her original marital arrangement. Hardy’s strongest comment on the impracticability of marriage lies within this one character. Sue shows her lack of desire to fulfil the angelic stereotype from the very beginning. Jude first sees her as fairly independent, working at a small shop engraving signs. Unlike Arabella, Sue does not possess a strong sense of passion. She is extremely sensitive to others’ emotions but lacks a strong romantic longing for men. Intellectually, Sue is the stereotypical dreamer. She treasures learning and purchases two naked statues of Greek gods that she then must hide to avoid embarrassment and chastisement, and she questions the traditional doctrines of the church and calls her statues her “patron-saints”. She is certainly unconventional in terms of the Victorian woman, but the ambiguity and innocence within her character draws readers closer to her than to Arabella.
Sue’s marriage to Phillotson also reveals much about her character and her struggle against following her heart and conforming to tradition. Sue decides to marry Phillotson shortly after Jude confesses his previous marriage to Arabella, leading the reader to believe she chooses Phillotson as a second choice or simply out of jealously for Jude’s secret past. Unlike Jude’s marriage to Arabella, this marriage is not based on physical attraction or lust but instead on personal gain and convenience. Neither she nor Phillotson ever mention love or physical attraction in their motives for marrying, perhaps displaying the Greek word phileo meaning brotherly love, as evident in Phillotson’s name. She sees only the mutual companionship and social advancement the relationship offers and disregards the physical consummation of the marriage. Clearly, the pair has no emotional ties to one another but simply enters into the marriage for comfort and social advancement.
Sue begins to demonstrate her repugnance so blatantly that Phillotson can be oblivious no longer. At one point, Sue sleeps in the small closet under the staircase in order to avoid sleeping in the same bed with him. When considering his wife’s circumstances, Phillotson seems hurt, yet amazingly compassionate. He seeks counsel from his friend Gillingham and decides to release Sue from the bond of marriage. When Sue returns to Phillotson after years of living with Jude, the second marriage carries on the same characteristics as the first. Sue is still repulsed by her husband, but she now feels she must force herself to adapt.
The bond between Jude and Sue rests primarily on their remarkable similarities. They are also both sensitive to the suffering of animals as they both awaken one night to the sound of a rabbit’s cry and both desire to put the animal out of its pain. Sue again echoes Jude’s sympathy for the birds in the farmer’s field when she frees her pet doves from the butcher’s cage. Phillotson also realizes the similarities between the two. Their compatibility lends itself to deep passion, and the scenes of greatest 54 emotion in the novel always involve this couple and contrast with the crude sensuality of Arabella and the forced compassion between Sue and Phillotson. Hardy’s disapproval of Sue’s return is evident in her inability to adapt to traditional marriage, and her attempt to become a more acceptable woman in the eyes of society could be why Jude earns the sympathy in the closing chapters instead of the leading woman.
Love and marriage are naturally assumed to coincide in Victorian England, but Hardy teaches his readers that this is not always the case. A couple such as Jude and Sue may genuinely love each other but not marry, while some couples fall into the marriage contract on different terms, as the other combinations demonstrate. While the legal marriages of Jude to Arabella and Phillotson to Sue are legitimate in the eyes of the law and society, they are shallow and even torturous. On the other hand, Jude’s “natural” marriage to Sue is based on mutual attraction and intimacy yet shunned by the world around them. Although clearly speaking out against the traditional sanctions of marriage, Hardy also demonstrates the ludicrous nature of defining women by their appearances and the faults of society in shunning or accepting women on the basis of their matrimonial status. Whereas Arabella often appears as a conventional woman by attempting to marry well and remain honourable, she is actually heartless and crude, driven only by sexual instincts. Sue, on the other hand, remains honest to herself and her emotions until the pressures of society weigh too heavily on her. Because Hardy portrays Sue as both the independent woman struggling to fit into society’s mold and the victim of society’s harsh requirements of women, Jude the Obscure is Hardy’s strongest statement against the stereotyping of women and the illogical and impractical expectations placed upon them.
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