Jude The Obscure is often considered to be the greatest of Hardy’s novels as its plot is intricately structured to tell the
tragic story of one man’s dream to study at Christminster (a thinly veiled pseudonym for Oxford) during the nineteenth century. However, despite his conscientious self-education, Jude Fawley is a poor man and is barred from being a scholar by the cruel
social obstacles of his day. The novel not only addresses this theme of social exclusion but also deals with the hypocrisy and destruction of religious mores, the way in which one mistake in life can haunt you forever and change the whole path of your life, and the desperation of poverty and illness. Jude is tricked into marrying Arabella when he is very young who soon leaves him and Jude then falls in love with his married cousin, Sue Lawley, who is also desperate to live a freer life away from the trappings of religion and
society’s strict expectations. She is also, if not more, educated than Jude but is doubly barred due to her social status and her gender. The theme of women’s rights is another strong one in the novel and serves to highlight the preoccupations of the time and its injustices. As in many of Hardy’s novels, tragedy is written into the novel’s characters from the opening chapter and Jude The Obscure is no exception. Readers who are familiar with Tess of the D’Urbervilles might think that Tess’s fate was the height of Hardy’s tragedy until they read the shocking events that occur in Jude The Obscure. The reader cannot help but identify with Jude and his thwarted ambitions. The novel still speaks to people today who feel trapped by society and offers a particularly dim view of religion which was considered blasphemous and an outrage at the time but would probably be greeted with knowing nods by many readers today