Bookmarked Musings: The Charm of Thomas Hardy-Jude the Obscure by Dr. Ramlal Agarwal

In this essay, Dr. Ramlal Agarwal analyses Jude the Obscure, observing how the novel is about naturalism, social realism, idealism, philosophical speculation on fate, and determinism.

Published in 1896, Hardy’s Jude the Obscure was attacked for its sexual frankness, its morbidity, and its immorality. It was rejected by the lending libraries, condemned by the church, and burned by a bishop. It hurt Hardy so much that he bid good-bye to novel writing for good. Ironically, the same novel has been considered “his most. powerful” by eminent critics like Walter Allen and Malcolm Bradbury. The novel is different from Hardy’s earlier novels. It is forward-looking and marks a shift from naturalism to realism, from traditional to modern, from heroic to commonplace, from pastoral to urban, from rooted to unrooted. It is a story of thwarted ambitions and aspirations, disintegration, and ostracization.