As I doubt any of my readers are going to go out and read Jude the Obscure I have very few qualms about the following spoiler:
NO freaking WAY. It was said this novel was even more depressing than The Nether World, in which there is ACID thrown in faces (come to think of it in Mary Barton there was also acid to the face...seriously people, that is NOT cool) and no one ends up happy or with the people they love...but I didn't want to believe it.
Consider me a believer.
When your second husband's child from his first marriage that he didn't know about comes to live with you...but you love him and try to care for him HANGS your two children and himself because of a comment you made about children better off being dead than having to live in this world...and then you give birth to a dead baby because you are so upset...and then you leave the only man you ever loved (who you never actually married) to get re-married to your first husband whom you never loved...and you let him have sex with you as some type of sick, masochistic penance...and your lover dies with no one to get him water...and you don't even know because the last time you saw him you pushed him away...
Yeah. THAT takes the cake.
I realize the story is about Jude. But I think Sue is much more interesting. In the end she doesn't even get to die. And yes, I'm saying death would have been preferable to her life at the end of the novel. THAT is how depressing it is.
SNAP.
"Do not do an immoral thing for moral reasons."
Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure
Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure
HA! See?!
ReplyDeleteSo depressing. But overall, the book and his writing are so incredible.
I. Love. Him.
A good friend of mine and I wonder: What HAPPENED to Hardy to make him write such things....?
Jabba - Apparently Hardy actually wanted to be a poet. So he had a love/hate relationship with his novel readers. Esp after the success of his "Wessex" novels he tried some "experimental" ones and his readers were all HELLS no, to which he responded FINE and came out with more (such as Jude). If you look closely you can discern many passages which seem to be there simply to make those readers angry : )
ReplyDeleteYay! That Hardy - a tried and true shit disturber.
ReplyDeleteIf you read The Woodlanders (which I recommend you do one day) there is a chapter there...it's like he's saying "Oh yeah? You think I won't? Well, WATCH ME...."
ReplyDeleteLast night a friend (who loves Hardy as much as I do) and I were just talking about your experience with Jude. All he said was "Yeah....welcome to Hardy."
:)
Invisible G and Jabba - exactly. I kind of admire it in him.
ReplyDelete