MB UNIUD

Comprehension

Jude's children have committed suicide, hanging themselves.  The message left by the boy probably reveals a very important piece of information that his mother gave him the previous evening. The piece of information  led  the boy to commit suicide.

Sue is strongly  convinced that her conversation with the boy influenced his decision to commit suicide. Jude tells Sue that it was in the boy's nature to do these kind of things (commit suicide).  Jude  agrees with the doctor, who said that "there are such boy appearing suddenly amongst us...They seem to see all its terror  before they are old enough to  have staying power to resist them."

Interpretation

I think that Sue conveys  to the boy the heavy situation, in which she and Jude both find; as a matter of fact they are an illegal couple and have trouble finding a place where to stay. Under the pressure of poverty  and social disapproval  their relationship will deteriorate until the tragedy: the suicide of their children. The sense of tragedy is best conveyed in these quotation:"A shriek from Sue", "Sue had sunk to the floor", "convulsive agony which knew no abatement", "her slight figure shaken with her gasps", "she implored to be allowed to go back", "Jude came down and told her there was no hope".

Hardy uses an external narrator which reports to the reader every detail. The reader has the feeling that everything there is as if you are looking at a picture.

In my opinion the narrator's comment on the tragic event is most explicit at the end of the passage where it sounds as if  the young boy were guilty of his parents' mistakes, and he has to pay his guilt committing suicide.

The last remark is the following one:  The young boy died "for their (Jude and Sue) ill" .

 can detect a very strict society, in which you cannot divorce, even if Jude and Sue want to follow their love, they are considered an illegal couple, and they barely find a place where to live, because nobody would like to rent a house to an illegal couple. In Jude's attempt to comfort Sue, I can detect a society in which young people are scared to live their lives. They dio not  wish to live, and even if this  is the truth, it does not give consolation to Jude and Sue.

Hardy has a negative vision of life.  In hardy's opinion everything should be in order, and if it is not in this way, consequences are disastrous.

Considering the tragedy has just happened to them, I think they will separate again, and they will try to repair their previous and legal relationship.