The Act: Jude

 Another Way “The letter killeth”: Classical Study in Jude the Obscure.

The epigraph to Jude the Obscure enables a more thorough understanding of the novel's criticism of the university. Read literally, the statement “the letter killeth” amplifies Hardy's rebuke of the class prejudice that kills Jude's dream of university study by calling attention to the letter in which it is most nakedly expressed. Read allusively, the epigraph condemns the university's examination system and program of classical study, which discourage invention, creativity, and originality in favor of rote learning. Critics within and outside the university (including Ruskin) urged reform of this system. In The Stones of Venice, Ruskin examines the ideology that robs industrial workers and university students of the capacity for creative invention by demanding strict adherence to approved methods, and he employs the phrase “the letter killeth” to condemn it. Hardy knew The Stones of Venice well, and it is plausible that Ruskin informs his depiction of classical study. Metaphorically describing the university as an intellectual factory where students labor with machine-like precision, Hardy demonstrates that Jude fails to gain admittance largely because he does not adhere to the “patent process.” Hardy also values how Jude's self-directed study of classical texts enables him to exercise his own interpretive agency.

✳️Is it possible to connect the meaning of the epigraph of 'Esdras' at the beginning of the first chapter of the novel and the myth of Bhasmasur?

Philosophy & Religion

Scriptures

Second Book of Esdras

apocryphal work

Also known as: Ezra Apocalypse, Fourth Book of Esdras, Fourth Book of Ezra, II Esdras

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Article History

Second Book of Esdras, apocryphal work printed in the Vulgate and many later Roman Catholic bibles as an appendix to the New Testament. The central portion of the work (chapters 3–14), consisting of seven visions revealed to the seer Salathiel-Ezra, was written in Aramaic by an unknown Jew around ad 100. In the mid-2nd century ad, a Christian author added an introductory portion (chapters 1–2) to the Greek edition of the book, and a century later another Christian writer appended chapters 15–16 to the same edition. It is possible that the whole Greek edition (from which all subsequent translations were derived, the Aramaic version having been lost) was edited by a Christian author, because there are passages in the central Jewish section that reflect Christian doctrines on original sin and Christology.

II Esdras is concerned primarily with the future age that will succeed the present world order. The occasion for its composition was the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans in ad 70, which had a drastic effect on the nationalistic aspirations of the Jews and on their view of Judaism.

The central theme of the work is the justification of the ways of God to man. The author, deeply concerned over the future of Jews deprived of the Temple of Jerusalem, challenges God to explain why the righteous suffer at the hands of sinners. The answers are similar to those in the Book of Job: the actions of God are inscrutable, human understanding is finite and limited, and God will always love his chosen people in spite of appearances to the contrary.

There is a marked dualistic motif in this work contrasting the present, evil-ridden world to a future, heavenly age when the righteous few who survive the final judgment will live in an immortal state.

✳️ Structure of the novel 'jude of the obscure '

The novel is divided into six parts; each is centered on a particular town or village. At the beginning of each of the six parts is an epigraph or quotation, which is meant to throw light on the events that follow. They also have an interpretative function.

Part I is set in Marygreen where Jude is seen as a young boy with a passion for a university education. But as he grows up his studies are interrupted by a hasty and disastrous marriage to Arabella. The marriage breaks up and Arabella leaves for Australia.

Part II is set in Christminster. Recovering from his first setback and a failed marriage, Jude makes his way to Christminster, where he works as a stone-mason while pursuing his studies. He meets his cousin Sue and is attracted to her, but he knows he is still legally bound to Arabella. He finds that entry into the university is impossible for one of his status.

Part III is centered in Melchester. Jude gives up his ideas of attending the university and now aims to study for the church, hoping to enter a theological college. Sue goes to a teacher-training college, and Jude follows her there. Jude is deeply in love with Sue, but Sue gets engaged to Phillotson and marries him. Jude is dejected at Sue's marriage. Arabella returns from Australia

Part IV is set in Shaston. Sue's and Phillotson's marriage is in trouble. She asks Phillotson for her freedom and goes back to Jude.

Part V is staged in Aldbrickham. Sue finally agrees to live with Jude on intimate terms. They are both divorced now and are free to marry, but they do not. Little Father Time makes his appearance, and Sue looks after him. They are forced to leave, moving from one town to another, because of gossip and social disapproval.

Part VI is the return to Christminster. Little Father Time hangs himself and the two children in despair. Sue, overcome by grief and guilt, returns to Phillotson and remarries him. In utter despair Jude is trapped into remarrying Arabella. However, ill and desolate, he meets an early death.

It will be noticed that in the first two parts of the book the focus is on Jude, with his brave and persistent efforts to educate himself. Arabella is an obstacle at first, but she is taken care of. But with Part III, when Jude abandons his dream of entering Christminster, the focus now shifts to Sue. The plot revolves around her, and the Themes of love, marriage, sexual relationships and freedom replace the earlier theme of education.

With his training as an architect, Hardy was very conscious of structure. The plot is based on a symmetrical pattern of marriage, desertion, divorce and final remarriage. Jude marries Arabella, Sue marries Phillotson, and both leave their mates and live with each other. They both obtain divorces and are free to marry each other but neglect to do so. Ultimately, they each remarry their former partners, but this step only brings greater misery and suffering.

The structure can also be interpreted as a reversal in beliefs for both Jude and Sue. Sue, at the beginning of the novel, is rational in temper and rather irreverent about traditional religion, but by the end of the book, she is plagued by guilt and remorse. She has reverted to conventional religion. Jude, who at the beginning was the traditionalist, holding conventional Christian views, has become skeptical and embittered by the end of the novel.

bildungsroman.

💡Did you know?

Bildungsroman is the combination of two German nouns: Bildung, meaning "education," and Roman, meaning "novel." (Nouns in German are always capitalized.) Fittingly, a bildungsroman is a novel that deals with the formative years of the main character, and in particular, with the character's psychological development and moral education. The bildungsroman usually ends on a positive note, with the protagonist's foolish mistakes and painful disappointments over, and a life of usefulness ahead. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's late 18th-century work Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship is often cited as the classic example of a bildungsroman. Though the term is primarily applied to novels, in recent years some English speakers have begun to apply it to films that deal with a youthful character's coming-of-age.

Yet as with most good coming-of-age stories, the hero in Erdogan’s bildungsroman has another character trait: vulnerability.