Sunday, April 04, 2004
I’m having as hard a time thinking of something to write a blog about for the ending of Jude the Obscure as I did when it came time to do this for Waterland. On reflection, it was difficult with OMF, too. It seems that the endings of these novels leave me mainly with questions, rather than with neat little mini-theses that might later develop into viable paper topics. So, my questions for the end of Jude the Obscure are as follows, in no particular order:
What does Jude mean when he says “Sue, Sue, you are not worth a man’s love!” (389)? Is he talking about her apparent lack of sexual desire? Is he talking about her inability to make firm decisions? Is he frustrated because she would never concretely say whether or not she loves him? Is it because she doesn’t ever seem to quite practice what she preaches? I found that exclamation of his to be very powerful, and it seems to be full of meaning, but at the same time, it doesn’t really seem like the insult he’s reaching for, somehow.
Why is it Arabella and Mrs. Edlin that we see at the end? The two of them seem to be an odd choice, and an odd combination, to say the final words in the novel, and to pass the final judgments on Jude’s life. Arabella being at the very end does have a sort of symmetry, since she can be considered to be the reason for Jude’s first failures and disillusionment. Ultimately, he dies a rather failed and disillusioned man, so I can see some logic in Arabella being present to speak over his body. I’m having a lot more trouble with Mrs. Edlin, and it seems to me that the novel is too well-planned on the whole for her presence to be without meaning. Is it just to give Arabella a conversational foil about Sue?
And what does it mean that though the novel ends with Jude’s death, the last person mentioned is actually Sue? Is this another way of showing their “two-in-oneness”? Is it because otherwise, the reader can’t understand why Sue herself would not be there? Maybe it was Sue who was the tragic hero all along.
What does Jude mean when he says “Sue, Sue, you are not worth a man’s love!” (389)? Is he talking about her apparent lack of sexual desire? Is he talking about her inability to make firm decisions? Is he frustrated because she would never concretely say whether or not she loves him? Is it because she doesn’t ever seem to quite practice what she preaches? I found that exclamation of his to be very powerful, and it seems to be full of meaning, but at the same time, it doesn’t really seem like the insult he’s reaching for, somehow.
Why is it Arabella and Mrs. Edlin that we see at the end? The two of them seem to be an odd choice, and an odd combination, to say the final words in the novel, and to pass the final judgments on Jude’s life. Arabella being at the very end does have a sort of symmetry, since she can be considered to be the reason for Jude’s first failures and disillusionment. Ultimately, he dies a rather failed and disillusioned man, so I can see some logic in Arabella being present to speak over his body. I’m having a lot more trouble with Mrs. Edlin, and it seems to me that the novel is too well-planned on the whole for her presence to be without meaning. Is it just to give Arabella a conversational foil about Sue?
And what does it mean that though the novel ends with Jude’s death, the last person mentioned is actually Sue? Is this another way of showing their “two-in-oneness”? Is it because otherwise, the reader can’t understand why Sue herself would not be there? Maybe it was Sue who was the tragic hero all along.
