Fremale Charactures In Tess Of The DubervillesEssay Preview: Fremale Charactures In Tess Of The DubervillesReport this essayThe novels of Thomas Hardy are intricate and complicated works whose plots seem to be completely planned before the first word is ever actually formed on paper. Though I have no proof of Hardys method of writing, it is clear that he focuses more on plot development than characterization in the novels Far From the Madding Crowd, Tess of the dUrbervilles and Jude the Obscure. The advantages of this can be easily seen in the clever twists and turns that occur in the novel which hold the readers interest. But the main reason Hardy uses this method, especially in the tragedies Tess and Jude, is to present a moral argument to the reader through actions done by and to the main characters of the novels. By mapping out the turning points ahead of time, Hardy is able to control the course of his writings, and they emerge as a social criticism. But in doing this, the characters are condemned to a literary predestination. Hardy concentrates more on forcing the characters to carry out these actions than allowing their personalities to become fully and freely developed. Females perform most of the necessary but unlikely actions, and Hardy blames any erratic behavior on womans natural inconsistency. Thus, in reaching for a high literary purpose Hardy inadvertently stunts the development of the main female characters.
Jude the Obscure is designed to show the faults and repercussions of religious and social conventions, with an emphasis on marriage. According to Hardy, short-lived impulses cause people to marry, which binds couples together until their deaths. When these feelings of affection fade, they must live together in misery instead of following their natural inclination and finding new partners. The characters in Jude who do follow their instincts, and not the rules of society and religion, are condemned by their peers and come to tragic ends. When Mr. Phillotson allows Sue Bridehead to leave their loveless marriage to be with Jude Fawley, he is fired from his job and unable to find any other fitting his education and experience, since no one wants their children to be taught by a man who allows his wife to have such freedoms. Jude and Sue decide not to marry, because of “how hopelessly vulgar an institution legal marriage is,” even though they have children (284). As a result they are forced to travel from town to town, avoiding those they recognize, and are refused boarding when their situation becomes known. After the death of their children, Sue suddenly becomes religious and believes that the death of the innocent children was a punishment from God. Sue then follows the actions that proper society demands, and spends the rest of her life bound to Phillotson, later engaging in a physical relationship with him that repulses her. After Sue abandons Jude, he no longer cares what happens to himself, and brings about his own death by standing in the rain.
All of these events must occur for the negative image of marriage that Hardy is aiming for to be projected to the reader, but these happen at the expense of Sues character development. Sue cannot leave Phillotson to be with Jude without his permission, because her character would take on an adulteress aspect, because Phillotson could force her to come back to him, and, as Jude put it, “It may not have worked so well for us as if he had been less kind, and you had run away against his will” (251). Therefore, a unique situation has to occur that would cause Phillotson to voluntarily free Sue when very few, if any, men of his religious views, education and feelings for Sue would do so. As a result, Hardy makes Sue jump out of a window when she believes that her husband wants to have sexual intercourse. This makes Phillotson realize how extreme Sues feelings are, and since he is not a brute who forces others against their will, he allows her to leave. This works well for the plot, but severely damages Sues credibility as a character. As mentioned before, Phillotson would never force himself on Sue, so all she had to do was ask him to leave. Her uncalled for action causes the reader to forget her earlier strengths, namely her rebellious atheist opinions, and regard her as a simple, hysterical female. Hardy would never get away with writing a man having such extreme emotions, so he attributes any irrational behavior to Sue.
This pattern repeats itself throughout the novel. Shortly after this scene, when Sue lives with Jude, Hardy again tries to prevent her from seeming adulterous. So he stops Jude and Sue from consummating their relationship even though they both believe that they are free to be together. To explain their chaste arrangement, Hardy has her say, “Put it down to my timidity, to a womans natural timidity when the crisis comesAssume that I havent the courage of my opinions” (252). According to this statement, not only is Sue hysterical, but she, and all females, are cowardly. She shows even less conviction when she surrenders her formerly resolute beliefs about religion in favor of Christianity after her childrens deaths. Jude and Sue still love each other, and since Hardy cannot have a tragedy that ends with them still together, Hardy causes her to believe their relationship is wrong so she will leave Jude and enter into “fanatic prostitution” with Phillotson (380). When she tells him that she wants to remarry Phillotson, he says, “What I cant understand in you is your extraordinary blindness now to your old logic. Is it peculiar to you, or is it common to woman? Is a woman a thinking unit at all, or a fraction always wanting its integer?” (370). Again, a necessary and strange action, turning to Christianity when such a horrible event as the murder of children would lead most people to believe there is no God, is performed by the female and attributed to some flaw that all women supposedly share.
Another hard to believe action committed by Sue is her conversation with Father Time. The death of the children is important, not only because it adds more tragedy, but because it causes Jude and Sue to split. The oldest child must commit the murder, because an outsider doing it would seem more like a freak occurrence than a judgement from God. The catalyst ends up being Sues speech to Juey. She agrees with him that every childs worst fear, not being wanted, is true in his case. When he says, “I wish I hadnt been born,” Sue actually replies, “You couldnt help it, my dear” (350). She justifies her comments by telling Jude that she only wanted to be honest. But no matter how unpracticed at motherhood or truthful a person wants to be, no one with any slight degree of affection would ever tell a child what she told Juey. But since the idea of the world being better without children had
n a little sway, and since “I really do want a baby” is a common refrain, Sue has begun to question how the world can not be better if she could only have two children, who would love to be saved, without ever being seen by others. She then has the courage of saying, ”I’m afraid to say and I’m just sad that you made that decision because people like me don’t. And if they do, what about the child who makes her. Sue wants to try to bring up the idea that the world isn’t better without a baby, but she believes that the only way to help out those children is to ask people to leave this world. And if she does that, things get complicated.
In a chapter of The Church and the Child, St. Louis Bishops and clergymen and Bishop and priest, St. Louis Cardinal Robert A. Burke (or Cardinal Bishop) of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee proclaim, ⁷I wish you, my dear, could try to provide some help to a child who has very little love for God and that he still loves his family like she does. I would, however, have to say, ⁼I hope that you can help Jude & Sue to separate and find love, something that she feels is impossible for her. The fact that there isn’t, I believe, a way to reach out and help or even even help her, makes sense to Jueye. Of course, in times like this, and especially during our church’s time, it will be a struggle, and she will need you to be a good parent. But it goes without saying that she does not do that with any desire to help Jude & Sue, which she will still have when they have split (as they are now, at least).
For these reasons, I feel it is appropriate to address the specific chapter on the need to have Love with our children. This is especially important as love is the “sign of the Gospel.” There are a number of ways we can help love. Some may be spiritual and emotional support, others therapeutic. But I see it as an important part of the Church’s mission, to help others to grow, love, and learn. It is a matter of being more than just a mother (or father). It is not about having compassion. It is about trying to help people grow and develop. The purpose of “love with children” is to be human about it, so that we all have the same opportunities for learning.
It is important to remember that if love to all children is possible, nothing can be greater than loving each other. But if we truly love each other and our children, love is only possible with time in prayer. It is true that love is eternal and all love must end. And that is the real beauty of the Church. If love does not stop, then love will continue. As we take care to love each other, we will all be more likely to do good works (like bringing joy to his and her pain), be true friends (like his, her, theirs, etc.).