Hardy mentions in the personal critique of his work that Jude the Obscure was intended to be full of contrasts. He says, "Sue and her heathen gods set against Jude's reading Greek testement; Christminster academical, Christminster in the slums; Jude the saint, Jude the sinner...etc." The presentation of contrasting symbolic natures within Hardy's characters and various settings in antithesis results in an irony of counterpoint.
Review the definition for irony and post on the following questions:
In what way are these contrasts ironic?
Also, other than the three above, are there any more contrasts you can find in the text?
"Sue and her heathen gods set against Jude's reading Greek testament*; Christminster academical, Christminster in the slums; Jude the saint, Jude the sinner...etc." The Ironic point of Nature versus other more metaphoric religions. Is kinda hard to see. Let's put it this way when I think of nature, I think of no rules. Eating of the young and innocent, fighting for a terrible shelter, killing or being killed. The gap in between....
ReplyDelete... the two that sticks out to me is, there the same. As in all of Christminster is really not that great. Jude kinda over exaggerates the school. Even in his thoughts, when he is learning Latin he is stunned by how intelligent he thinks all the scholars are. That he will never be at that level. When he is just as smart. Jude is the gray area we call Irony because he isn't a saint but he isn't a sinner. Nevertheless in Jude the irony between towns is kinda funny. Jude believes Chistminster is the end all to be all. Until he slims his way back home. The book Jude and Tess both have stereotypical girls names yet his last book he wrote is a boy. There are a lot of unseen irony that I don't see because my little background on Greek and Roman philosophy. The Odyssey and Iliad are just the tips of the ice burg. I just was happy I didn't sink with Captain Hardy and his ship the S.S. Depression.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Delete