Part of Jude's tragedy arises from his incurable idealism. As a child he is fascinated with Christminster. It is the focus of all his dreams, a shining ideal of intellectual life. He studies But even though he realizes his ambitions may be futile, the university remains an obsession with him. Society is shown here to be an unfair task master, dictating who is deserving of the rewards of education based not on ability but on birthright. The class distinctions and discriminations are not his only stumbling block towards his goal of education, he similarly idealizes Sue as the perfect intellectual woman, but here too he is disillusioned and frustrated.

The first time he sees her at work in the ecclesiastical shop, she is designing on zinc the word "Alleluia." Jude is impre

Both Christminster, the intellectual ideal, and Sue, the ideal of womanhood, promise fulfillment, and both frustrate him. All his hard work and earnest effort at mastering Greek and Latin come to nothing, and despite his great patience with Sue and devotion to her, he loses his job, his children and finally even his title as husband. His utter loneliness and desolation create a strong emotional impact on the reader. It is here that Jude, despite his humble working-class origins, rises to heroic stature. Very often in the book he is compared to heroic figures such as Job; he has, like Job, the ability to bear great suffering. He reconciles himself to the endless tragedies and disappointments of life. At the end of the novel, he matures as a man. With all the setbacks life deals him, he never loses his dignity. At two places in the novel, he is compared to Samson (Part I, Chapter 7 and Part VI, Chapter 7), defeated by his own innocence and a woman's cunning. Sue herself compares him to Joseph, to a "tragic Don Quixote" (Part IV, Chapter 1) and to St. Stephen "who while they were stoning him could see Heaven opened."

ssed with her beauty and the work she is. He has begun to idealize her. Hardy demonstrates Jude's inaccurate perception of Sue's character. He is seeing her for what he wants to her to be, and not for what she really is. When she passes him on the street, he is again enchanted by her grace and delicate charm. She is a st

Some topics in this essay:
Fawley Hardy’s, Alleluia Jude, Jude Jude, Remembrance Day, Greek Testament, Greek Latin, Jesus Christ, Job Job, VI Chapter, Heaven Jude's, loneliness desolation, jude dies, marxist literary, remembrance day, chapter 7, marxist literary hero, character flaw, literary hero, social advancement,