“Jude the obscure” Analysis

The extract is taken from the last part of the novel “Jude the obscure”, by Thomas Hardy. As the title suggests it is the story about a man called Jude, a name that reminds the evangelic character who betrayed Christ. Jude is also the prototype of the modern man, because his point of view is always conditioned by scientific concepts of the time. The clearness of scientific point of view clashes with the adjective “obscure”.  

The passage represent the climax of the book’s action, as it tells the most tragic event occurred to the protagonists, the horrifying murder-suicide of Jude’s children.

The older of the children, Jude, murdered his little brothers and then committed suicide probably and left a message where he explained the reason of his terrible act. The boy thought was they (the children) were “too many”, a burden for the family, and that their death could help their parents’ difficult conditions.  

The opening phrase has the function to show the scene to the reader: on the environment there’s “chamber” and the protagonist is waiting for the eggs that are boiling. The narrator, as the camera used in the cinema, makes a panning shot of the scene, paying a minimum attention to the detail. The shot moves then to the door’s chamber, and frames the bed where the children were supposed to be, then goes towards the door again where it discovers the hanged small bodies of the babies. In this first sequence the reader is in front of an horrid scene, where no narrator judgment makes him to help making a specific idea about the facts. The technique of narration used conveys a sense of drama on the reader.

The second sequence describes a more dynamic moment, where the narrator’s voice seems to appear and to show the reader his reaction.

Next section opens with a strong image of the “triplet of little corpses” which gives a ghastly and grotesque effect to the narration, typical of the Victorian art. The sequence has the function to give the reader the first hypothesis or explanation of the tragedy. The protagonists Sue and Jude thought the elder, a prey to despair for what he knew the evening before, murdered his younger brother and killed himself.

Next paragraph is useful for characterizing Sue. The female character reveal her sensibility because she feels guilty for what has happened. The horrid atmosphere portrayed in the scene reflects her state of mind and her mood: the narrator focuses the attention on the room where the children had died. 

In the next section Jude reveals his scientific perspective and his Darwinism in seeing life as a natural selection: in order to justify his point of view he makes him the opinion of the doctor, described as an “advanced man”. In this way doctor’s words represent Jude’s argumentation, but his point of view is in inverted commas in order to leave the reader free to judge.