T. HARDY, JUDE THE OBSCURE

Activities on Chapter 2, Done because we are too menny

Comprehension

1.    In the first sequence of the text an omniscient, non-intrusive narrator presents the children’s suicide through the technique of showing. The children have decided to kill themselves and a concrete, precise use of language (two hooks, suspended, a piece of box-cord, neck) reveals that they hung themselves.

One of the boys left a message for the mother, in which he wrote in dialect (Done because we are too menny) that they committed suicide because they were too many to survive in a poor condition. The content of the message is simple, as well as its handwriting but Sue and also the reader understands the dramatic situation poor children had to stand.

The message can be read as a direct critic to Victorian society but it perfectly embodies the Darwinist law.

2.    The character reacts to the tragedy in two different ways. Since Sue is a mother in Victorian age, she feels responsible for the children’s decision. In particular she believed that her discussion about their poverty and the difficulties they will have had to face due to her pregnancy caused the boys’ suicide. On the other hand, Jude reacts with less sensitivity. He tries to clam Sue, reporting her the doctor’s words on the happening. The doctor did not think it was Sue’s fault but he stated that it was children’s nature.

Interpretation

1. The expression “the events and information of the evening before” could refer to Sue’s discussion with Jude about the difficult situation they had to stand. They were poor, alone in the town and not helped. In addition a new child was coming, so they were too many to survive to life’s problems.

The sense of tragedy is conveyed by the following expressions:

-       a shriek from Sue

-       no children were there

-       at the back of the door were fixed two hooks for hanging

-       two youngest children were suspended

-       the body of little Jude was hanging

-       glazed eyes

-       half-paralyzed by the strange and consummate horror of the scene

1. Hardy use a third-person omniscient, mostly obtrusive narrator, who mainly adopts the showing to present scenes. Situations are described with particular attention to details and the narrator’s realistic attitude creates the effect of the grotesque. The language used is concrete and specific; everyday words and house lexicon are present.
2. Despite the narrator is obtrusive, he sometimes uses a connotative language, which reveal his perspective. The most explicit comment is about the tragedy happened in children’s room: the narrator defines their suicide the strange and consummate horror of the scene. A further intrusion can be read in the final sentences of the extract. The narrator interprets the scene stating that it is the result of a series of causes. He underlines that parents’ rashness, their ill assortment and misfortune are responsible for the tragedy. Such a consideration conveys the narrator’s need for investigation the reasons of bad-being in the Victorian age. The concluding remark is so functional to reveal Hardy’s anti-Victorian ideology.
3. Jude’s attempt to comfort Sue reminds to a Positivistic mentality, typical of late Victorian society. He reports the doctor’s point of view, which is a symbol of scientific authority, recognized by people. The doctor’s status is well understood, since he is presented as an “advanced man”, possessing truth but unable to fell sympathy with suffering people (“but he can give no consolation to”).
4. Hardy’s attitude to life is realistic and he seems mainly concerned in presenting nature’s cruelty and a dis-humanized world, in which even children are aware of their terrible condition.
5. I think Jude and Sue will continue living their poor lives in a depressed and frustrating attitude. In my opinion Sue will be less vital and more protective with her child. In addition she won’t ever groan economic or social difficulties, she will just state problems in life.