4.1 Hardy’s Infatuation and Lament towards Rural Civilization ……...8

4.1.1 Hardy’s Infatuation towards Rural Civilization 8

4.1. 2 Hardy’s Lament towards Rural Civilization 8

4.2 Hardy’s Attachment and Resistance to Religion ……...9

4.2.1 Hardy’s Attachment to Religion 9

4.2.2 Hardy’s Resistance to Religion 9

4.3 Hardy’s Pessimism and Optimism to the Society …….10

5. Conclusion 11

Bibliography 12

1. Introduction

Jude the Obscure is Hardy’s most controversial works. The novel is against Victorian morality with a frank description of sex and unbridled accusation of the existing social institutions of marriage, education, religion and class. As a result, a lot of reproaches and assaults flood fiercely towards Hardy. The British archbishop Wilfred claims to burn the book in public by his authority. Worse still, an Australian reader even sends the paper ash to Hardy. (丁世忠,2008:78) Usually, a pioneer is always misunderstood by people at his own era, so is Hardy. He bears so much criticism and attacks at that time that he even stops writing novels. But time proves everything. As time goes by, Jude the Obscure is accepted by more and more people. Some regard it as Hardy’s most excellent works and even “the genius works” that no other works could compare with. 

 The novel tells the story of Jude Fawley, an orphan who lives in a village in southern England and desires to be a scholar at "Christminster". He works hard by teaching himself classic Greek and Latin in his spare time, hoping one day he will be able to enter the university. Then Jude is allured by Arabella Donn, a rather coarse and superficial local girl. But the marriage turns out a failure at last. After Arabella leaves him, Jude moves to Christminster to continue his dream. Later, he finds that the gate of university is closed to the poor. When he supports himself as a mason there, he meets and falls in love with his cousin, Sue Bridehead, a lovely but rather self-contradictory girl. Sue then deserts her loveless marriage with Mr. Phillotson and lives with Jude without marriage. But the family they have composed breaks up finally due to the pressure of social morality, the poverty of life and the death of children. At last, Sue comes back to her religious marriage and Jude dies in depression. The story undoubtedly makes readers feel sad. A man with noble ideal should not die in this pitiful way and the true love also should not end up in tragedy.

Anyway, about this works, different critics have different opinions. M. Zabel said in his paper Hardy defending its art: inharmonious aesthetics that, “The works of Hardy is filled with the elements of both conservation and radicalization. This feature of paradox is shown in almost every paper in his novels.” (Kumar, 1969:56) Li Yingfeng pointed out in his paper Jude the Obscure: a splitting text that, “Though the novel has abundant information of the cultural background and customs, it is still a splitting text as fully filled with inharmonious elements. But the power is shown from splitting.”(李迎丰，2000:12-15) In fact, the splitting means the antagonistic contradiction in the west that appears between the era of traditional society and modern society.  

 This essay will mainly discuss the unique art of paradox in the novel, which is also a reflection of the contradictorily psychological status of Hardy himself. Thus it is a great way to understand Hardy and his works from the perspective of paradox.