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Chapter One Introduction Jude, a tragic character in Thomas Hardys Jude the Obscure, has been widely regarded as a victim of social oppression. In discussing the deep frustration of Judes ambition, many researchers have made a study of the limitation and oppression of the Victorian society and how these difficulties bring Jude to the brink of the society.1 It would be an incomplete analysis of Judes character, however, if the image of Jude is limited only to that of a victim of Victorian social rigidities. There are alternative possibilities in the interpretation of Judes character. Crucially, one such alternative interpretation involves Judes ability to take independent action despite the limits imposed by his society. This ability to take action, on the part of Jude, can be characterized as his fighting spirit, and it is this fighting spirit that makes Jude worthy of ones praise and study. In the last few decades, researchers have focused their attention on representations of social problems of the Victorian Age in Hardys novels. For example, they propose that Judes destiny is determined by external forces, such as social values. They also claim that his family background has great influence on his destiny, so his action could be seen as the product of the social condition. Kathleen R. Hoopes, among these researchers, points out that [h]appiness was unattainable for Jude because he was perpetually confronted with the sordid, earthly world of men (154). Dale Kramer similarly claims that social values destroy people unwilling to foreswear their particular aspirations (165). These works seemingly suggest that people cannot be fully functioning if they choose to operate outside the bounds of the social norms and restrictions of their society. In contrast to these critics, Merryn Williams unfolds Jude as a positive figure who wants to find something greater than himself and yearn[s]
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Many scholars, such as Norman Page, Dale Kramer, William Deresiewicz, H. M. Daleski, and Terry Eagleton, have researched on Jude the Obscure. These works unfold Jude as a tragic figure because of the social rigidities. In this view, Jude is a victim of these rigidities because of the need to marry a pregnant girl-friend, the difficulty of a working-class man getting into Oxbridge and impediments to divorce (Kramer 177). As a result, he is pushed to the brink of society. The more aspirations he has, the more limitations he faces.

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for a life which is intellectually and morally better than the one he is expected to lead (98). He believes that social rigidities do not actually trump Judes spiritual desires. Starting from this point, this thesis aims to unfold Judes ability for independent action, which will be termed his fighting spirit, in an attempt to illustrate the role of free will in freeing the individual from the oppression of rigid social mores and expectations. It will situate Jude in the context of Victorian society and investigate his engagement with this rigid society. In a time when materialistic philosophy, which degraded the life of the Victorians, was prevailing, his dignity in facing difficulties in life will be highlighted. There are three major points of discussion relevant to Judes tragedy: the constraints placed upon his action, ignorance of the reality of his situation, and the significance of social status. In order to explore Judes ability for acting independent of these outside forces, my strategy is to examine these three points with reference to autonomy, responsibility and ethics.2 Methodologically, this examination is threefold. Firstly, as early research has shown, Jude is a tragic figure because of the constraints placed upon him. The Victorian society was like social machinerythose laws and institutions which so often express mans inhumanity to man (King 17). Society codified its morality and formed a rigid mechanism. In this mechanical society, the Victorians were preoccupied with the social code of life, including moral probity, uncomfortable attitudes towards sex, and a rigid class structure. They blindly adopted these dogmatic ideas, values and attitudes. Thus, refusing to adopt these values, Jude is unable to conform to the expectations of the Victorian society. He is forced into a failing marriage with Arabella, is refused admission to college, and is frustrated in the

According to Thomas Nagel, autonomy presents itself initially as the belief that antecedent circumstances, including the condition of the agent, leave some of the things we will do undertermined: they are determined only by our choices, which are motivationally explicable but not themselves causally determined (233). Responsibility suggests that [w]e hold ourselves and others morally responsible for at least some actions when we view them from inside (238). As for ethics, Nagel believes that there is an internal connection between ethics and freedom: subjection to morality expresses the hope of autonomy, even though it is a hope that cannot be realized in its original form (253).

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Platonic love with Sue. Stressing the importance of the domination of society, earlier research on Judes struggles concludes that Judes action is confined by a range of constraints in society. This emphasis on the impacts of social factors is not totally misplaced, but it is incomplete. The concern of such emphasis is about the constraints placed upon human action; however, little notion of human action is involved. Action, which used to be viewed as the product of the constraints imposed by society, works from the premise that human beings are like machines acting without any free will. It cannot be denied that human action is limited by social expectations; nevertheless, it is paradoxical that if people confess that society totally dominates human action, human destiny will be only part of the flux of events in the world. By this account, human beings are helpless victims of a destiny formed entirely by outside factors. According to such a thesis, there seems to be no room for ones autonomous action which can take place outside the scope of these social influences. This view is, therefore, totally contrary to the concept of an autonomously acting individual. As Thomas Nagel aptly puts it, the constraints placed upon human action are like anything that he [a person] could contribute as source, rather than merely as the scene of the outcome (232). In other words, action is not merely related to a physical movement but also involves mental decision making. Although people act in accordance with many factors, such as external forces and biological drives, they also act out of their free will and choices; that is, people have power to produce insight when struggling to create, define, and fulfill (Baumeister 3) in spite of the constraints placed upon them. It is true if people just live up to expectations of others, they can avoid others hostility and gain security in society; however, they can also use their critical judgment to challenge social restraints and expectations. As Erich Fromm says, this critical judgment is the free activity of the self, the quality of creative activity that can operate in ones emotional, intellectual, and sensuous experiences and in ones will as well (The Fear of Freedom 223). It is understandable that Judes tragedy results from the events that he cannot control;

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however, he in the end gets a clearer understanding of his unfortunate situations through tragic vision, which according to Murray Krieger suggests that freedom should not only be defined in terms of achievements in the external world, but should be seen as reflected in a change in attitudes and actions that lead to spiritual and moral advancement (3). Although Jude is limited by his social condition, he still insists on taking action to actualize his desires even if he can never achieve them. His fighting spirit is an embodiment of his autonomous self which strives to overcome the constraints placed upon him. Actually, Judes insight does not help him escape from the limitation and oppression of the social structure. Ramon Saldivar thinks that Judes desire for this ideal vision [that of an attainable ideal world] involves a rejection of reality (609), resulting in his partially understood world (609). However, such emphasis on Judes ignorance of reality can be put in another way. Although Judes action is inevitably limited by the external world, in his inner world he still retains the possibility of autonomous action. As Thomas Nagel puts it, [t]he defense of freedom requires the acknowledgement of a different kind of explanation essentially connected to the agents point of view (234). Thus, Judes desires give him greater facility in imagining, thinking, wondering and being aware when he faces difficulties in society. Accordingly, coming up with a creative solution to his predicament, Jude seems to offer greater control and reveals the ultimate givenness of the self (Nagel 237). It should be noted that, an event suggests a particular point of view that is related to the action of the individual. When acting, individuals are those who make possibilities actual, and their explanation is given by themselves as well as understood through their point of view. This suggests that individuals should be responsible for their own action even though they cannot help being impacted on by social constraints. As many researchers propose, Judes destiny is doomed to failure because of the system of Nature or Necessity,3 expressed both

The system of Nature suggests that human beings are sometimes helpless when they face difficulties in life. Thus, the key to influence on human destiny is mainly not human efforts but uncontrollable forces, or Nature.

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in the environment and as an overwhelming biological force which drives the individual into conflict with society (King 17). In this view, intelligence and reasoning power are useless when unpredictable forces suppress the individual and force him to conform to an uncontrollable fate, for social values will deprive the individual of his capacity to think critically when he conforms to expectations of others. On the other hand, an independent man in diverse circumstances will use his free will to choose and his capacity to imagine, which are coupled with the responsibility for the choice he makes. At the same time, he has to judge the choice, which might be rationalized by social values. As Thomas Nagel aptly points out, in a judgment of responsibility the judgment doesnt just decide that what has been done is a good or a bad thing, but tries to enter into the defendants point of view as an agent [an independent man] (239). Thus, there are two points of responsibility: one is to choose to do what is good; the other is to defend the choice rationalized4 by external intentions. Despite being disappointed at worldly success5, Jude still insists on his moral ideal, which only leads to his distorted relationships with his fellow men and the material world; however, as a sensitive member of society, he is less obedient to economic and social life, which in the Victorian society gives meaning and order to the individual, than those who are well-adjusted to society. Taking the risk of being rejected by other members of his society, he does not yield to the stifling, repressive and rigid social values, but instead takes responsibility to struggle against mechanical rationality of social constraints with his critical mind. This feature of Judes character clearly demonstrates his freedom and autonomy in that they are shown in his attitudes toward education, marriage, and religion. His actions and
External intentions, such as expectations of society and others, are imperative in making people conform. In the process of living up to external intentions, people believe what they do is true without any hesitation because external intentions rationalize the loss of identity and deprive the individual of rebelling. Thus, expectations from others mean consensus in a social group, but it does not mean that they are justice. 5 In the Victorian Age, the term success often refers to external achievements and goals. The Victorians struggled in society in that they expected to command more power and influence (Houghton 191). At first Jude yields to social values, so he is disappointed at his lack of worldly success. His desires make him realize how he is oppressed and how the society is unfair.
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thoughts uncover alternative discourses on morality, education, religion, love and sexuality, which form the basis for his concept of an ideal world. Investigating Judes concept of an ideal life can also contribute to the understanding of issues of class in the novel. As Jeannette King indicates, [c]lass distinctions stand in the way of Judes ambitions....Poverty completes their [Judes and Tesss] destruction (66). Yet, despite the tragic consequences that are brought about by this status, Jude retains his capacity for free-thinking. The narrator in Jude the Obscure also says: events had enlarged his [Judes] own views of life, laws, customs, and dogmas.6 In Victorian society, the material engine of economic development contributed to produce social values, which measured ones worth entirely from predefined categories of social status linked with class. In other words, class divisions made the Victorians identify with specific truth which involved the interests of different classes. People in different social classes ran into conflicts when they competed for their own interests under conditions of limited resources and power. For this reason, the control of social status is actually driven by the characteristics in human nature such as greed, rather than by the material engine of economic development. Besides social status, in Thomas Nagels opinion, ethics should be also taken into account in determining human destiny. For him, ethics is related not only to human actions but also to the motives and character traits and dispositions from which [actions] arise (254) in that the individual who shows strength and courage by his autonomy is supposed to be the kind of person he wishes to be. As an individual, he has the power to decide what he should do, which will relate him to the world around. In this view, Jude is actually an individual who establishes valid ethical relationship out of his own will rather than a passive receiver who just follows others and even denies his own capacity to decide what is good or bad. According to Erich Fromm, human beings are capable of discerning and making

Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure, ed. Norman Page (New York: Norton, 1999) 270. Hereafter all quotations from the novel are cited from this edition. Page numbers will be put in parentheses after them.

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judgments derived from reason (Man for Himself 6). Despite Judes preconditioned social status, he still acts according to his consciousness and his rebellion against external demands shows the dignity and power of an individual. Because human beings may actualize their potentiality, the judgment on goodness and badness does not depend on others but on the individual who is able to transcend authority. As a result, Judes capacity of judging goodness and productiveness enables him to have sensitive awareness by which he realizes his intrinsic needs as well as knows others demands when he is required to adapt himself to society. When it comes to Judes tragedy, it should be noted that his ethics are also important. With his autonomous efforts, Jude actually uses his imaginative faculties to transcend social status and to reconcile the real and the ideal. His ethics are different from those of mainstream culture. Thus, though his family background may be a barrier to advance, it does not mean he must blindly accept the social order. In a high degree, he insists on his expectations and refuses to be merely compelled by social expectations. On the basis of his beliefs, he criticizes the view of progress in Victorian society, even if he has no control over his surroundings. In fact, the idea of progress was initiated by the middle class and combined with its concept of materialistic values. Although middle-class people rode the wave of industrial capitalism, many Victorians, especially poor laborers and workers, were left behind. Thus, in the novel Jude gets frustrated, and his spiritual expectations are devastated; nevertheless, it is this devastation that offers Jude an opportunity to try to realize his dreams and criticize the shortcomings of Victorian materialistic philosophy. Thus, viewing reality from inside, Jude is able to see beyond the one-sided view imposed by the outside. This ability allows him to think differently from the way others do as well as to struggle and resist social values. As a result, disavowing the expectations of others leads him to challenge distorted view of human nature in the industrial capitalistic society. Accordingly, Judes struggles shed light on the Victorians incapability of flexible imagination, despite its economic power.

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Drawing on autonomy, responsibility, and ethics, Rollo May proposes the uniqueness of freedom lies in the possibility of changing (Freedom and Destiny 8). This statement suggests the individual actively participates in the life that he gives meaning and order to. In this way, the personal power in the form of autonomy, responsibility and ethics makes it possible for us to interpret Judes struggles as alternative possibilities in personal freedom and the development of democracy in Victorian society. This thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter one introduces relevant key points in the early research on social rigidities of the Victorian society in Hardys novels. Chapter two, Judes Self, will concentrate on the relationship between freedom and the self. As a self is made up of autonomous action, those who blindly adopt social values and conform to the social norms will be viewed as losing their freedom. Their actions, as limited by social values, are not expressions of their free will. As a result, the close tie between the individual and society will be investigated in an attempt to highlight the importance of Judes autonomous self. In the context of the Victorian age, social values and expectations will be also scrutinized so as to demonstrate Judes difficulties in life. Despite being caught in the conflicts between flesh and mind, Jude still displays fighting spirit. Thus, the transformation of Judes self will be analyzed within the context of peoples mechanical existence in Victorian society. Chapter three, Choices and Self-assertion, will study Judes choices in facing difficulties. There will be four main focuses: education, religion, marriage, and sexuality. Although individuals actions may be affected by unpredictable and uncontrollable forces like Nature or social values, choices are actually made by individuals themselves. Two major aspects will be discussed: one is to survey what measures Jude takes to make his choices, and the other is to review moral norms of Victorian society. It will be pointed out that choices involve a decision regarding whether an individual acts in a mechanic way or in a sensible way. Generally speaking, those who unquestioningly adopt social values and expectations

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lose their self. According to Eric Fromm, the loss of the self has increased the necessity to conform (The Fear of Freedom 219); thus, there is no room for such people to exercise their will to do what is good, even if they have the power to do so. On the contrary, Judes attitudes toward education, religion, marriage, and sexuality reflect the significance of freedom and choices. Chapter four, Judes Dignity, will explore the dignity that Jude shows in confronting feelings of isolation and loneliness as well as devastated human nature, which were common in Victorian society and which resulted in distorted human beings. In fact, material improvements deeply convinced the Victorians of the power of scientific knowledge which stirred their ambition to concentrate on practical applications, thereby disposing of merely intellectual thoughts, such as that of Plato. Furthermore, the economic and social upheavals7 impacted on middle-class social expectations and promoted a more materialistic philosophy of action. As Richard D. Altick points out, the Victorian confidence in progress extended to the less tangible aspects of life, to social relations and even morality (108). As a result, combination of inner void and external alienation drove them to endlessly pursue external goals, such as wealth, reputation, and status, as well as to aggressively compete with others of their social class while exploiting people from lower social classes. Unlike those Victorians, Jude has an inner sparkle produced by strong character and a forthright approach to life (Bender 277). According to his moral progress, I will attempt to subvert the concept of progress embraced by the Victorians and demonstrate Judes dignity in the end. The final chapter will summarize the relationship between the individual and society. Since the advent of the coal-powered steam engine and the network of railroads, the way of life and human relationship had changed. Social reformists asserted that shaping individuals

It should be noted that Darwins idea of natural selection had great influence on the Victorians. They believed in competitive struggle for existence. The notions of survival of the fittest and superiority/inferiority were then used to legitimate the cycle of inevitable and natural inequalities established by British capitalism (Purchase 61).

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to conform to the needs of the new capitalist society would lead to a more stable democracy; yet, in fact, social reforms only at the same time let the minority gain the majority of benefits. Because of this, in a stifling society, good behavior and attitudes are important because they enable individuals to be genuine men. In brief, by studying Jude as a positive figure, this thesis hopes ultimately to suggest a possible way of personal growth under social oppression.

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Chapter Two Judes Self The idea or concept of the pursuit of happiness, which is profoundly influenced by the idea of utilitarianism, becomes part of Victorian life. It teaches the Victorians the importance of competition and the rewards inherent in the pursuit of happiness. Due to the competitiveness in this pursuit, people tend to transform from their concentration on the satisfaction of basic needs to the pursuit of more nonessential goods and aspirations. This pursuit of nonessential attainment is embodied in the idea of progress, which is so much a part of the Victorian Age. Thus, this transformation from the pursuit of necessity to the pursuit of other types of attainments is viewed by the Victorians as proof of the power of progress in which scientific advancement encourages their belief in human power over the power of God. In this way, how the Victorians see themselves is not rooted in religion, in other words, in the idea that God determines what is good or bad. Instead, they begin to redefine the concept of the self and attempt to exercise their power over the material world. In doing so, they reconfirm their belief in human power. On the other hand, as Richard D. Altick shows, [t]he ordinary Victorian had been reared in a culture circumscribed by Christian teaching (203). This teaching requires that Victorians learn to govern their passions. Under the influence of this moral principle, Victorian attitudes toward life are confined by the idea of civil manners, which form methods of categorizing classes. The civilized gentry, that is, the traditional upper classes, which assumed their authority by birth or marriage was increasingly replaced by the rising middle classes due to the development of industrial capitalism. With the industrial revolution, the gentry increasingly lost the superior power, which accompanied their exclusive right to land ownership, when the rising middle classes began to have the right to purchase a landed estate (Cruttenden 36). The shift of power from land to factory enabled the middle classes to

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insinuate themselves into the gentry (Altick 28) because of their sufficient wealth and aggressiveness. Thus, the industrial revolution not only transformed social relations from fixed and inheritable relations into mobile and changeable ones but also provided the Victorians the possibility of self advance through the social structure. However, the mobility of classes did not change the superior value attached to being a member of the gentry; instead, the middle class were proud when they were able to obtain the status of being part of the gentry, which was related to their feelings of self-worth, including the wish to be superior through the elevation of their social position. Walter E. Houghton believes that the middle class passion for wealth was linked to the attempt to gain respectability. They wanted the respect of others: wealth alone was hardly enough to make a Victorian respectable. [They] had not only to be rich but to be [gentlemen] (Houghton 185). This statement suggests that the middle classes, with their economic power, viewed acquisition of the title of gentleman as a symbol of a successful life. In the meantime, it should be noted that the middle class oriented the mainstream values of Victorian society. Their value standards further stabilized discrimination in terms of social status, for wealth was tied to the achievement of status through such goals as establishing a reputation and wielding power. As a result, the huge gap in wealth, material goods, and social status between the rich and the poor became one of the inequalities caused by the social mobility of the middle class. Having the same goals and interests the two groups, the rich and the middle class, combined to produce a uniform force. This exercised a great impact on the concept of the self, which was closely related to the materialistic philosophy of the middle class. That is, the concept of the self is closely tied to the idea of utility: the best for yourself was to do the best for society (Houghton 188). Such a concept results in a clear and strong relationship between the self and economic power. In addition, it is important to note that the overemphasis on economic power limits the interpretation of success because for the Victorians, the so-called success refers to external

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achievements like wealth and rank. In this view, Judes confusion is understandable when he thinks he does the right thing in letting the rooks have a few pecks of corn but is only dismissed and rebuked by his aunt: Judefeeling more than ever his existence to be an undemanded one (16). Judes job is to avoid the rooks eating the owners corn, so his duty is to protect the land. On the other hand, he sincerely wants to feed these rooks with a sufficient supply. The conflict between duty and sympathy makes him reflect on the relation between human beings and nature: Grouping up brought responsibilities, he found. Events did not rhyme quite as he had thought. Natures logic was too horrid for him to care for. That mercy towards one set of creatures was cruelty towards another sickened his sense of harmony. As you got older, and felt yourself to be at the centre of your time, and not at a point in its circumference, as you had felt when you were little, you were seized with a sort of shuddering, he perceived. All around you there seemed to be something glaring, garish, rattling, and the noises and glares hit upon the little cell called your life, and shook it, and warped it. (17) Echoing Judes sentiments, Jeannette King says, tragedy may be created by an opposing environment either of things inherent in the universe, or of human institutions (21). Things inherent in the universe like natural instincts sometimes become destructive because they do not coincide with social conventions. Owing to the spreading power of middle-class values, responsibilities usually mean that everyone had his appointed calling in which he was to labor for God and man (Houghton 189). Thus, work is like a compulsive duty in order to accomplish what should be done; however, Judes sense of harmony underscores the importance of a relationship to nature. For him, harmony means to satisfy respectively basic needs when creatures do not harm others. For most Victorians, large-scale production refers to a symbol of progress in a vast expansion of commerce. It is clear that work proceeds through exploitation and that workers are like slaves. That is, work is not like creation in

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which man becomes one with nature in the act of creation (Fromm, The Fear of Freedom 261); instead, it, from Thomas Carlyles point of view, means no divine Messenger and Guide, but a false earthly Fantasm, made-up of Desire and Fear (86). As a result, social values either suppress or invalidate the spiritual nature of human beings in that they shift the spirit of sacrifice and dedication which religion stresses into social consciousness that attempts to persuade the Victorians to do their best for society rather than for themselves. The idea of duty oriented by the middle class is not, however, without problems. One problem involves the nothingness of the individual. In his Autobiography, John Stuart Mill presents the result of the so-called happy life that is closely tied to the pervasive power of the idea of progress: My concept of my own happiness was entirely identified with this object.through placing my happiness in something durable and distant, in which some progress might be always makingAll my happiness was to have found in the continual pursuit of this end. The end had ceased to charm, and how could there ever again be any interest in the means? I seemed to have nothing left to live for. (288-89) Mill here describes his realization that his utilitarian upbringing leaves him no room to feel, which has not been given the attention it needs by the Victorians. For the Victorians, to climb vigorously on the slippery steps of the social ladder, to raise [themselves] one step or more out of the rank of life in which [they] were born is the top priority of their duty in life (Houghton 187). Thus, the phenomenon of snobbery is persistently spreading, thereby resulting in seeing poverty as a symbol of failure in life. As Walter E. Houghton says, [t]o be left behind in the race of life was not only to be defeated, it was to be exposed to the same kind of scorn and humiliation visited upon poverty (191); therefore, collective responses and attitudes towards the poor cause people to cultivate and flatter ones superiorswithout reference in either case to moral or intellectual merits (Houghton 188).

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Clearly, the middle-class idea of a happy life has a negative effect on the unfolding of an individuals power according to their nature. Limited to this cultural context, Judes idea of harmony is not as acceptable as it used to be; instead, the criterion of the superior or the inferior, from Richard D Alticks point of view, responds to external achievements such as family lineage, education, professional success, and social standing (30). For the Victorians, the individual is governed by the principle of society, so the individual is supposed to be subordinate to the purpose of society. Industrialization and the free-market system of Victorian society demand not only the individuals submission but also justify its superior authority over the individual. Therefore, what is considered good is whatever can apply to social needs rather than what applies to the individuals needs. A more detailed understanding of the concepts of nothingness and wickedness of the individual can be gained from reviewing Darwins theory of natural selection, which caused the decline of religious authority. The early lifestyle under the rule of Christian orthodoxy had its recognized rights and duties; however, this relation was changed with the transformation of the economy. According to Elizabeth Deeds Ermarth, the causes of the degradation of the individual are closely related to the economic organization in which the importance of society as an entity is emphasized: The more Nature after Darwin comes to look like a battleground, the more Society becomes the primary context for human life and even a protection from nature (119). This statement suggests that the Victorians were taught to keep their own advantage in mind for the purpose of success in society because they believed that their acts were beneficial for the progress of society. In this view, the individuals own happiness was insignificant; the individual had only one interest and that was submission to social needs. On the one hand, the progress of society demanded the individuals exploitative efforts to compete with others; on the other hand, it also relied on his unselfish dedication to society. This seems to ignore external disadvantageous conditions, such as work opportunities and an

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advantageous position in society. Struggling with this double standard, Judes self and the development of his potentialities are shown to be positively correlated with one another. Conflicts between social needs and individual needs can be found from the beginning of the novel to the end. Unlike Mr. Phillotsons pragmatic ambition to Christminster for a university degree, Judes ambition to enter a college more or less involves ideal realization for himself: It had been the yearning of his heart to find something to anchor on, to cling tofor some place which he could call admirable (22). Obviously, Jude expects to be respected by others and through this respect hopes to develop his own self esteem in reference to the way he expects to live even if some of his behavior is not acceptable by others. The line between what is acceptable and unacceptable, which is oriented by the middle class, is blurring as Jude attempts to realize his expectations. As Ramon Saldivar notes in his view of the conflict between free will and social order, Jude the Obscure dramatizes the sociological effect of the Victorian failure to reconcile the antithetical realms of culture and nature (608). Instead of allowing the individual to have the fullest possible freedom of speech and action, Victorian culture limited the uniqueness of the individual. That is to say, social values, which almost always referred to materialistic philosophy in the Victorian Age, determined the value of human beings; therefore, humans were not born equal, especially when they occupied a different social status. What was acceptable and unacceptable was determined by social authority, which is also what Jude attempts to rebel from through his free will to choose. As Rollo May puts it, the world determinism forces us into a limited view of freedom, but picking and choosing in life allows the individual to be self-conscious about what is happening to him (Freedom and Destiny 87). In fact, choosing indicates the ability to either adapt to or rebel against society, through which the individual has the chance to withdraw from a preconditioned and limited view. Thus, analysis of the difference between adaptation and rebellion in society is the crucial in studying the evolution of Judes self. For the sake of illuminating the possibility of personal growth, three stages of

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transformation of Judes self are worth remarking on: first, adoption of social values; second, confusion over illusion; and, third, responsibility for action. Adoption of social values means to play the role which is expected in the way of social expectations. In Rollo Mays point of view, actions limited by social authority deprive the individual of his ability to reflect, to ponder, out of which the freedom to ask questions, whether spoken or not, emerges (Freedom and Destiny 55). In this view, allowing ones self to be defined by others causes the individual to give up the power to define how he expects to live. For example, what may have been acceptable to the lower class, such as entrance into college in the Victorian Age, may not have been acceptable to the middle classes. From the very beginning of the novel, Judes dream of entrance into college and his unwillingness to marry Arabella demonstrate the impact of social expectations on his destiny. That is to say, Jude is partly limited by social values that cause him to lose his free will to choose the life he wants to have and instead force him to yield to a compulsive authority. After deciding to enter a college, he prepares for what a college student is asked to do: learning Latin and Greek. In his opinion, a good college student should be equipped with Latin and Greek: What brains they [college students] must have in Christminster and the great schools, he presently thought, to learn words one by one up to tens of thousands (27). He learns Latin and Greek because he strongly identifies this pursuit with the expectation of the role of a college student. In fact, he visualizes the image of a college student according to social expectations and values, which form one major hindrance to Judes entrance into college. Owing to social values, his dream of entrance into college is unacceptable: Such places be not for such as you only for them with plenty o money (92). Obviously, he is denied entrance due to the concentration on superficial factors like poverty that outweighs other factors, such as the morality, intelligence and uniqueness of the individual. Similarly, Judes marriage with Arabella implies that he identifies with the role of a good husband defined by social expectations. He thinks intimate relationship is closely tied to

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duty: I have next to no wages as yet, you know; or perhaps I should have thought of this before....But, of course, if thats the case [pregnancy], we must marry (48). Clearly, he yields to social conventions regardless of his inner feelings: He knew well, too well, in the secret centre of his brain, that Arabella was not worth a great deal as a specimen of womankind. Yet, such being the custom of the rural districts among honourable young men who had drifted so far into intimacy with a woman as he unfortunately had done, he was ready to abide by what he had said, and take the consequences. (48) In fact, he becomes a slave to social values which force him to give up his ideal dream in order to satisfy the demands of others. However, the truth is that he lives under illusions and persuades himself to believe the consequences of his marriage will be good. According to Erich Fromm, those who live under the illusion of being self-willing individuals [would be] unaware of his insecurity (The Fear of Freedom 218). In other words, once the illusion is unveiled, the individual will feel powerless and extremely insecure in facing the real world which he is actually unrelated to. When Jude finds out that Arabella in fact is not pregnant before marriage, his words give us useful information on anxiety associated with living under the illusion of social expectations: I shouldnt have hurried on our affair, and brought you [Arabella] to a half-furnished hut before I was ready, if it had not been for the news you gave me (51). In other words, Arabellas pregnancy brings him into an unwilling marriage that he thinks is his duty, but their relationship does not satisfy Jude. In fact, he is only part of the illusionary world that his hands buildhe thinks he would be happy in marriage; however, in this process he loses his self upon which all genuine security of a free individual must be built (Fromm, The Fear of Freedom 219). The confusion over the illusion mentioned above is a constant theme in this novel and it profoundly impacts Judes doubt about his own identity. Doubt encourages the individual to develop his own power to see the surrounding world as well as to redefine his preconditioned

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self. After a series of frustrations, Jude comes to see the limited view with which he has been viewing the world: It was a new ideathe ecclesiastical and altruistic life as distinct from the intellectual and emulative life....The old fancy which had led on to the culminating vision of the bishopric had not been an ethical or theological enthusiasm at all, but a mundane ambition masquerading in a surplicewhich was purely an artificial product of civilization. (102-03) Armed with nothing but idealization, Jude has been influenced by social expectations which become part of his self when he makes decisions in life. Instead of being a positive individual who is able to escape from natural instincts, environmental effects, or social oppression, he makes decisions in the way society expects him to. Not until his participation in Christminster does he see the barriers caused by social expectations. That is to say until this time, his choices are mostly so preconditioned that his unconditional self is easily repressed by artificial products of civilization. When he becomes aware of the incongruence between what he expects and what the reality is, this awareness results in a new concept of his self and is used to redefine who he is and how he sees himself. In the process of redefining self, Jude indeed broadens the range of knowledge about his surrounding world and limitations imposed on his potentialities. From Erich Fromms point of view, doubts about ones own identity can avoid conforming with the expectations of others (The Fear of Freedom 219), because conformity only leads to a thwarting of life (The Fear of Freedom 219). As a result, the meaning of his life emerges in the process of his confusion over the illusion when he changes his submissive attitude into an autonomous one. After difficulties increasingly happen to Jude, he begins to learn to be aware of the relation between his destiny and the surrounding world. Clearly, step by step he knows that he himself also has responsibility for his destiny. For instance, his failure in the first marriage elicits information concerning the choices he has made. At first, his choice to love Arabella is

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almost under the control of his natural instinct: Jude had never looked at a woman to consider her [Arabella] as such, but had vaguely regarded the sex as beings outside his life and purposes (35). However, after his first frustrated marriage with Arabella, he learns to master his destiny and make his own decisions by relying on his past experience. Thus, when he meets Sue, he is conscious of the choices that need to be considered instead of just being controlled by natural instinct. He tells himself: it is not altogether an erotolepsy that is the matter with me, as at that first time. I can see that she is exceptionally bright; and it is partly a wish for intellectual sympathy, and a craving for loving-kindness in my solitude (80). This time, before entering into a relationship, he attempts to make some changes in his attitude toward his choices. This change in the way he views his choices is something new for him, which is relevant to the creation of his self. Until the point in the story where Jude burns all his theological works, he has been impacted by religious principles and has never doubted his belief in Christianity. Thus, his faith in Christianity seems to determine several of his choices. For example, he sees his love for Sue as an immoral weakness and prays to God against it. This is because he believes that he was a man who was licensed by the laws of his country to love Arabella and none other unto his lifes end (80). Clearly, he is instilled by Christian principles which stipulate that once a person gets married, marriage should be eternal and he needs to maintain the relationship as long as he can. In Judes life, religion plays an important role in telling him how to be a good husband, so there is little room for him to reflect on the unhappy relationship in a marriage and the possibility of divorce. However, it is clear that he is anxious when his experience in marriage gives him an alternative view to see the world, one which is different from what he has been taught. Thus, he easily identifies with her contradictory feelings when Sue tells him about her unhappy marriage and he tells her: It would be just one of those cases in which my experiences go contrary to my dogmas. Speaking as an order-loving manwhich I hope I am, though I fear I am notI should say,

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yes. Speaking from experience and unbiased nature, I should say, no.Sue, I believe you are not happy (166). On the one hand, Christianity tells him what kind of person he needs to be; on the other, he wants to go along with his understanding of life. Like the burning of his books, confusion over his faith in marriage offers another way for Jude to search for a new value which is based on his real experience in life. If the values he has been taught are invalid to be applied to life, attempting to establish new ones is the way to display the autonomous self. In the novel, Jude demonstrates the individuals capacity to see [himself] as a being in the world [as well as] to know [himself] as the being who can do these things (May, The Discovery of Being 103-04). Judes ideal expectations make him almost separate from society, so social reality seems not so important to affect his decision to return to Christminster: I love the placealthough I know how it hates all men like me the so-called Self-taught,how it scorns our laboured acquisitions, when it should be the first to respect them; how it sneers at our false quantities and mispronunciations, when it should say, I see you want help, my poor friend! (252) As Kathleen R. Hoopes puts it, Judes idealization can be seen as illusion because of his inability to adjust to real society. The distorted relationship between spiritual pursuit and social values leads to his frustration over marriage with Arabella, admission to the college, and the hope of Christminster (Hoopes 154); however, his insistence on return to Christminster again mirrors the unequal discrimination of the rigid social structure, which is almost contradictory to the fantastic world where Jude could freely and unlimitedly communicate with literary ghosts regardless of the limitations and oppression of social values. Thus, destruction of his expectations forces him to see the dark side of social reality, but not to compromise: I dont admit that my failure proved my view to be a wrong one, or that my success would have made it a right one; though thats how we appraise such attempts nowadays (255-56). It is worth noting that Jude begins to experience social expectations

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imposed on his destiny as something that determines what kind of person he should be. Separate from being the good man that society defines, Jude is aware that his failure comes from [his] poverty not [his] will (256). Clearly, he is more conscious of the relation between him and society; whats more, he is also able to see himself in a positive way. The new self that he creates for himself displaces the old self that is defined by social expectations. The process of creation of this new self helps Jude to learn what kind of person he wants to be: I doubt if I have anything more for my present rule of life than following inclinations which do me and nobody else any harm, and actually give pleasure to those I love best (256). Clearly, he now becomes the central judge of the values which are found within him. Judes new understanding of his self does not mean that the individual can be totally separate from society and do whatever he intends to accomplish. Instead, it means that the individual himself knows how he wants to live and what he expects to be. That is to say, the meaning of society for Jude depends in part on how he puts himself into it: he performs the autonomous action needed to make a change from his present situation through his ideal expectations, through which relatively social changes might be possible to lessen the tension between classes. His significance as a worker is to act as an example to help others to contemplate standing outside the limited view of Victorian society. This sense of being an individual relates Judes spiritual viewpoint to actual social conditions where the value of everything lies in external standards such as money. As a result, those who lack the sense of being an individual will allow others to determine their destiny. This may be explained by considering Judes and Sues attitudes towards life after the death of their sons. For Jude, he is clear that his failure results from the oppression of others; however, the frustration Sue feels due to the death of her sons causes her to give up her own power and to conform to God. Sues fear of death makes her believe [w]e must conform!...All the ancient wrath of the Power above us has been vented upon us, His poor creatures, and we must submit. There is

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no choice. We must. It is no use fighting against God (269). Clearly, God becomes the symbol of comforting power that can help her escape from the brutal reality, so she conforms to God in order to avoid the fear of loss again. Owing to this submission to God, Sue is limited by the external forces, such as religious principles. Thus, her capacity is bound to the direction and guidance determined by others because she loses the capacity to judge her own choices. Contradictorily, Sue is afraid of death as much as living: Shes never found peace since she left his [Judes] arms (322). Faith in religion was important for Jude, but he is increasingly departing from it in the process of transformation of his self. For him, death does not mean punishment from God; moreover, he believes that [his adversity] is only against man and senseless circumstance (269). Suspicion of religious principles makes him contemplate the relation between the religion he believes in and his own values in life. The process of transformation of his self gives him the chance to discover the difference between social values and his own values, which enables him to stand outside the limited view of society: Then bitter affliction came to us [Jude and Sue], and her intellect broke, and she veered round to darkness. Strange difference of sex, that time and circumstance, which enlarge the views of most men, narrow the views of women almost invariably.... As for Sue and me when we were at our own best, long agowhen our minds were clear, and our love of truth fearlessthe time was not ripe for us. (315) Clearly, Jude insists on his ideal expectations by deciding the way to relate himself to his world. In fact, he is not omnipotent and he is unable to predict the results of his behavior, so not all decisions he makes will be realized. However, the frustration he encounters to some extent reflects on the social oppression which he does not expect to be able to overcome. From Norman Pages point of view, this social oppression is symbolic of the uniform world which seriously threatens the natural environment by the profound social and economic

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changes (80). In other words, Jude has no place in an exploitative and oppressive society which gives little room for those who like him want to actualize their needs and desires according to their own nature. The contradiction between the brutal reality and the spiritual dream reveals that Judes tragic vision concerning who he is, what he should believe, and how he wants to live helps him reconcile the conflict between a desire for natural freedom and the need for a stabilizing social order (Saldivar 608). As John Stuart Mills On Liberty reflects a highly positive attitude towards individual judgment, it has a significant effect on the idea of society. He claims that [the individual] chooses his plan for himself [and] employs all his faculties. He must use observation to see, reasoning and judgment to foresee, activity to gather materials for decision, discrimination to decide, and when he has decided, firmness and self-control to hold to his deliberate decision (275). Clearly, his sense of the individual is that the individual should have the ability to experience what happens to him. No matter how narrow-minded society is, he must be aware of forces acting upon him. [Alternating] between a philosophy of grim pessimism which sees man as the victim of ruthless forces and a metaphysics which will allow for the possible development of man and society into something better in the future (Spivey 181), Hardy creates the protagonist Jude to criticize not only social values which impose limitations on the development of the individual but also mechanical people who are unable to decide autonomously how to live and what to do. As John Stuart Mill puts it, his society, or the Victorian society, seems to be directed by public opinions so as to confine the development of the individual: The general average of mankind are not only moderate in intellect, but also moderate in inclinations: they have no tastes or wishes strong enough to incline them to do anything unusual, and they consequently do not understand those who have, and class all such with the wild and intemperate whom they are accustomed to look down upon. (283)

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This statement suggests that a crisis of the spiritual mind does not lie in the fact that society imposes many external restraints on the individual but that the individual loses the ability to rebel against authority. There are a number of possible explanations for the decline of the individual. Among them, the contemporary writer Thomas Carlyle ascribes the crisis of spiritual mind to the materialistic society: in our age of Down-pulling and Disbelief, the very Devil has been pulled down, you cannot so much as believe in a Devil.it was one huge, dead, immeasurable Steam-engine, rolling on, in its dad indifference (88-89). It is believed that the utilitarian society urges the individual to be narrow-minded, nearsighted, and even indifferent to the surrounding world. It is clear that the economic, political, and cultural conditions are harmful to the development of the individual in Victorian society because economic interests, as status symbols, weaken the development of the individual. No wonder when Jude was a little boy he saw going to Christminster meant he was successful; however, the time he returns Christminster again, he realizes going to Christminster does not really equate with success. Instead, he views his preliminary dream of going to Christminster as more of an indulgence than a sense of accomplishment. In brief, the transformation of Judes self involves the inevitable influences of the environment when he makes use of his ability to change preconditioned relationships in the Victorian society, and it is this transformation of self that gives Jude possibilities to transcend the scope of a destiny determined by social expectations. In short, Judes wrestling with realistic predicaments gives the readers a better understanding of the growth of the individual: from totally adopting social values to reflecting on, even denying, them. In the process of conforming to or rebelling against social values, the individual begins to deny the role which is determined by the external authorities like social expectations. Clearly, Jude is partly free to rebel when he decides to realize his dreams. Simultaneously, he needs to combine a cruel reality and an ideal imagination after being frustrated by repeated failures. In fact, Jude shows a combination of the old culture and

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the new culture. According to Richard D. Altick, the Victorians still honor the classical-Christian and most specifically the Renaissance ideal of human perfection, of the intellect feelings, and imagination developed in harmony (239). Merryn Williams also proposes that Hardy, who was influenced by John Stuart Mill and John Milton, agrees that human happiness was more important than institutions (76). Thus, Jude is indeed an embodiment of an ideal individual who resorts to his capacity to function fully in society. In other words, the individuals happiness is always the top priority to consider; however, this idea is instead too tough for Jude to stick to in Victorian society because the spirit of materialistic philosophy is increasingly blooming. As Richard D. Altick says, [n]o longer was society to be viewed only as a means by which men could coexist for their common security and prosperity; now it came to be charged, in addition, with responsibility for enhancing its members personal lives (239). In this view, the longtime bastion of the old idea of an ideal individual is overwhelmingly challenged by the authority which is power over the individual. That is to say, the individuals happiness is not the aim of human life; instead, the materialistic philosophy has great effect on the mode of life in Victorian society and the degrading of an ideal individual.

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Chapter Three Choices and Self-assertion As the previous chapters have shown, the transformation of the self is not a smooth process because the individual has to reconcile the standards and norms expected by authorities and potentialities hopefully actualized by the individuals own will. According to Ernest S. Wolf, the transformation of the self contributes to the individuals changing relationship with the external world, because the individual needs to find out the way in which his roles serve different functions, and how those roles are imposed by the various expectations of human interaction within his society (377). However, when the individuals actions are determined mainly by social values and consider them the criterion for normal and good behavior, the individual becomes the means for functioning roles approved by society rather than by their own will. Clearly, the influence of the environment on Jude is so far-reaching that he is unable to determine the way to lead his own life. That is to say, Judes mode of life is contrary to the mode of life most Victorians are expected to live. According to Walter E. Houghton, Victorian society established a limited standard of correct behavior,8 Victorian society tended to follow one line of thought, to look at objects from a single point of view, to shut out wide interests (161). It is clear that the character of the Victorian was shaped by this aspect of his society. As a result, it is worthwhile to investigate the relation between the mode of life and the nature of human beings. To begin with, the effect of the industrial revolution in this period seems to be closely connected to the individuals mode of life and social relations. Owing to the industrial revolution, Victorian society witnesses a turbulent change in social relations. In the feudal hierarchy, the difference between individuals depended on social status, which suggests that the identity of the individual depended upon their position in this social hierarchy. The
Walter E. Houghton claims that the limited standard is closely related to the Victorians rigid mind because they [tend] to divide ideas and people and actions into tight categories of true-false, good-bad, right-wrong; and not to recognize the mixed character of human experience (162).
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impossibility of social mobility allowed this unequal relationship between classes to exist, and social order was stable in that the relation between classes relied on customary habits; however, this stable relation was challenged when the utilitarian spirit increasingly permeated the development of society. From Reinhard Bendixs point of view, the rise of equality surreptitiously crept the social order in the form of relationship based on contract (72); in other words, social relations tended to justif[y] the authority of superiors over subordinates (74). The industrial revolution led to mass production; what is more, it also led to the need for a great number of laborers. Traditional and customary habits did not correspond with the needs of efficiency and profit required by industrialization. The result of this shift, was a new form of relationship between masters and workers. This new relationship did not rely on the good faith between classes, such as the loyalty found in earlier times, but on the division of labor which was commonly linked to a hierarchical order of class in industrial and capitalist society. In this view, social relations were structured according to the value of labor and the law of the market; however, this relation also involved an exploitative relationship between masters and workers. Masters continually wanted more profit, so they attempted to eliminate the subordinates strategies of independence for the purpose of the decrease of employees profit and the increase of their own reward (86). Workers, unlike the traditional lower classes conforming to the upper classes, gradually aspired to and demanded social, political, and even legal equality. This result is reflected in a clear and strong relationship between the mode of life and the degrading of the individual. According to Regenia Gagnier, the division of labor resulted in the negative consequences that money became the measure of all things in the economic system which is founded on capitalism and industrialism. The traditional hierarchy was built on family backgrounds while the individuals at the top of the hierarchy maintained their superiority by marriage, so social mobility was almost impossible and power was controlled by the upper classes. In this mode of life, the upper classes were usually occupied with ownership of land

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while the lower classes served their masters in return for security and food. Their connection was based on mutual reliance: the upper classes offered the lower classes security and food while the lower classes gave their labor to serve the upper classes. This mode of life set up a limited framework of social relations in the sense there was almost no room for social mobility. However, with the advent of the industrial revolution, the mode of agriculture was weakened because it could not meet the needs of mass production. There was also revolution in technological innovations which was incorporated into agricultural production. Labor power was emancipated from time-consuming work, and machines began to replace many workers. As a result, the traditional hierarchical social relations began to break down. What replaced this old system was, from Regenia Gagniers point of view, money that had potential to fulfill any purpose and convey any desire (51). In consequence, the individual existed not for himself, but for making money. Social mobility started to make self advancement of the individual within the social structure possible, so the individual got the chance to raise himself above his original rank and to consider this task the top priority in life. Simultaneously higher status, for the Victorians, came to be linked with the accumulation of wealth. As a result, the interweaving connection between wealth and social status promoted the formation of the competitive tendencies of Victorian society. Moreover, this competitive society allowed individuals to amass wealth and to employ it as power while suppressing the value of other qualities of human nature such as sympathy. Thus, the idea of selfishness was legitimated and made the high degree of competition necessary for maintaining the operation of the capitalist and industrial economic system. In consequence, the Benthamite calculation brought negative effects on Victorian society. For example, it rationalize[d] the spirit of competitive capitalism and its influence was also seen in the fact that the Utilitarians instigated many legislative and legal reforms (Altick 139). Its strategy was to calculate the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. Ideally, its end was to form a society where a free labor

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market presupposes an economy and a state capable of providing work, a level of wages which permits a decent standard of living, and public assistance to those without means during periods of economic decline or personal incapacity (Bendix 95). But in fact, as pointed out by Aiden Cruttenden, what people got instead were the terrible overwork, working injuries, and bad living conditions (Cruttenden 20). Thus, individuality got ignored when the division of labor depended on the Benthamite calculation for the purpose of creating the greatest amount of profit. The division of labor established a relationship between masters and workers according to the advantage of some individuals and the disadvantage of others. In the Victorian age, masters usually came from the aristocracy and the middle class who gained more and more money as well as power in the free-market economic system while workers came from the lower classes who instead became poorer and poorer. The huge gap between the rich and the poor could be legitimated because the laissez-faire attitude was accepted in Victorian society. This attitude does justice to the naturalizing of social and economic mechanisms (Ermarth138). Under the influence of this economic system, the idea that society would develop well if people were under less limitations9 was considered legitimate. In this view, the ruling classes function in society was to pursue maximal benefits for themselves and others under the disguise of competition; simultaneously, workers embraced the hope of self-advancement though facing the the unequal distribution of resources. Thus, the ideas of the ruling classes naturally became the mainstream social values, which ignored the importance and identity of the individual. The division of labor determined the price of human labor according to the needs of the market, which in the meantime impacted on social relations. Thus, social relations were under the control of the economic machine rather than the individual, and the market shifted power
For example, the Victorians believe that the individual can be independent of material conditions and social environment, so they allow unlimited competition and free-market system to develop. This is because they think less limitations on the individual can maximize the interests of society.
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to those who could amass wealth and those who possessed a large amount of money. In this way, the market became the key to the formation of human relations. Money became the concrete method of displaying personal success and even an embodiment of a persons sublime reification of desire into object (Gagnier 51). That is to say, the value of the individual ceased to be the criterion of all things in the economic system. The negative consequences of social relationships based on the laws of the market were shown in the emergence of exploitation and a new form of authority. Responding to the Utilitarian spirit, the Victorians identified with the legality of exploitation in that their efforts and services were separate from the intrinsic meaning of work which emphasized productive originality rather than the results of labor such as wages. Alienation from the work process led to the confusion of the individual because the individual was unable to get a sense of values from the work process. Thus, the purpose of work for the Victorians was not found in their own interests but in their employers interests. This brought about a monetary and contractual relationship between the employers and employees that admits the legitimation of an authority which established a hierarchical pattern as well as determined the distribution of rights and obligations. As Erich Fromm says, [o]bedience, in the nineteenth-century middle class, was one of the fundamental virtues and disobedience one of the elementary vices (The Art of Loving 92). The statement suggests the antagonistic and unequal relationship between the working class and the ruling class in the Victorian age. In the meantime, the free market led to the fact that the demand for capital was superior to the value of labor, which resulted in the ruling class, enjoying the privilege of naturalizing its utilitarian values as normal social values. According to Walter E. Houghton, Victorian society tended toward one-sidedness (164) in which the working class became a marginalized voice distinct in a hegemonic culture and the centralized society exercised control over the individual. As a result, in the Victorian age the sufferings of the working class mirrored the middle-class exploitative attitude and their indifference to the repression of the individual

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who struggled to create, define, and fulfill himself. Due to their superiority in terms of economic power, the middle classes built the bourgeois world based on their wealth and status. In the Victorian age, the bourgeois life involves the idea of respectability in addition to the passion for wealth (Houghton 184). According to The Victorian Frame of Mind, a respectable Victorian should be equipped with both wealth and gentlemanliness; that is to say, expensive possessions were a sign of wealth and status through which Victorians of a particular class could express their higher and spiritual aspirations of life. In addition, the Victorians stressed respectability, stern moral standards, devotion to worldly affairs and a strong ethic of work (Altick 169). What is more, the middle classes, who were dominant in the economic system, united together to frame and construct all values according to their own interests. Additionally, due to the increasing emphasis on the importance of wealth, the middle class aspirations resulted in a form of hypocrisy because they only strived for worldly success, such as the obtainment of beautiful decorations and other symbols of material gain, rather than the promotion of spiritual progress. This overemphasis on keeping personal advantage in mind caused the individual to act only according to what was in his best interest. On that account, poverty became a symbol of failure (Houghton 19). Thus, the economic conditions needed to be responsible for the increasing isolation and powerlessness of the individual in the Victorian society, especially the working class. Limited by an oppressive social order and the moral codes oriented by the middle class, Judes isolation from society reveals his lost inheritance of authority and money, especially when he attempts to enact these codes without money and power (Fisher 174). Regenia Gagnier also claims that Jude the Obscure is a working-class autobiography which offers a clear reflection of the stonecutters real life: the harried feeling of needing work and forever being told to move on (108). Through the protagonist Jude, Hardy presents the conflicts in a restricted social structure. On the one hand, Jude is put in a society which is filled with

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possibilities of self-advancement. On the other hand, he is caught in an industrial system. The helplessness of the individual demonstrates such inequalities as the division of labor and the stern moral principles present in the society. In the novel, Hardy shows by presenting Jude as a stonecutter not only the unequal differences between the middle class and the working class but also the unbalanced distribution of social resources in an industrial and capitalist economy. In opposition to the middle class and their social status, wealth, and privilege, Jude is shaped as a powerless victim of society. As discussed above, one of Judes vulnerabilities is his economic predicament: he is a poor laborer living in an increasingly aggressive and competitive capitalist economy. His struggles against the pressures of capitalism represent the fact that the mode of life has profound effects on the individual as well as the world. Social values define the value of the individual through money, which only subordinates the individual into a powerless position without unique merit and capability. Living in an industrial and capitalist world where success or failure is the criterion of all things, the individuals painstaking efforts might still be in vain if he does not perform or produce something useful. This can be traced back to the way the middle-class view the individual with regard to ideas such as duty, work, happiness, and discipline. According to Walter E. Houghton, the Victorians generally accepted that the end of work was to achieve two goals in life: respectability and salvation because of the dominance of the middle-class values (189). It should be noted that these goals dominated the period and forged collective responses and attitudes towards the aims of human life. Richard D. Altick also points out the expectations of the middle class had great influence on the Victorians attitude towards the aim of their life: they insisted that a rich and comfortable society should be built upon the spiritual energy generated by Evangelical commitment, which spilled over into worldly affairs and prevented the age from sinking into the satiated lassitude (168). Thus, worldly affairs became closely related to the religious idea of salvation because they

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were usually regarded as the means fulfilling ones earthly destiny and, in the case of the Evangelicals, qualifying oneself for heavenly reward as well (Altick 169). Embracing such a view, most Victorians believed [h]appiness could be earned only through sustained labor and the sacrifice of immediate pleasure (Altick 169). Besides, the value of things, including the individual, closely followed a mathematical calculation and utility; that is to say, things and even experiences were transformed into commodities to be calculated in a market economy. In fact, this separation of the utilitarian measure of value from the emotional life of the individual has much to do with the sense of isolation and loneliness that prevailed at the time. According to Houghton, the sense of isolation and loneliness can mainly be ascribed to the severe upheaval of social order, including dividing barriers; lonely for a lost companionship, human and divine; nostalgic for an earlier world of country peace and unifying belief (77). As Mathew Arnold puts it, the Victorian culture seems to extremely lean on the world of practice where the truth was declared to be objective according to scientific knowledge which was detached from subjective factors such as feelings and emotions (427). However, John Stuart Mill stresses the worth of the individual which, he thinks, is the basis of society: It is not by wearing down into uniformity all that is individual in themselves,

but by cultivating it and calling it forth, within the limits imposed by the rights and interests of others, that human beings become a noble and beautiful object of contemplation; and as the works partake the character of those who do them, by the same process human life also becomes rich, diversified, and animating, furnishing more abundant aliment to high thoughts and elevating feelings, and strengthening the tie which binds every individual to the race, by making the race infinitely better worth belonging to. (278) Such characteristics of the individual are of great importance in the way the individual sees himself and the world around him because the development of the Victorian society seemed

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to make the Victorians lose something importanthuman capacity for contemplation. Thus, in Jude the Obscure the center and purpose of Judes life is the unfolding of his unique individual self, and he tries to construct the meaning of his own life as well as reconstruct the preconditioned values in a rigid and restricted society; however, due to his refusal to subordinate himself to social expectations, his assertion of his individuality is seriously negated. According to Dale Kramers findings, the preconditioned values of Victorian society, including social and religious conventions, sexual chastity and the rules of class, led to the restriction on the happiness and freedom of the individual (175-76). In considering this restriction on happiness and freedom of the individual, the first question to be raised should concern Judes actions and the outcome that results from his choices. Judes choices, such as marriage, his decision to go to college and his ambivalent faith in religion significantly demonstrate that his intentions and attitudes differ greatly from the mainstream culture. For him, marriage or going to college means fulfilling his expectations; however, for others, who are under the control of middle-class interests, the poor like Jude are social outsiders because their moral principles teach them to scorn poverty and idleness. The discrepancy between Jude and the typical Victorian implies two different forces: one is the endeavor to realize ones self while the other is the authority that represses differences. Such a repressive force influences greatly the Victorians attitude towards significant aspects of life such as education, religion, marriage and sex. Along the way, what Jude attempts to challenge is what the average Victorian considers good and normal principles. In this way, investigating Judes intentions and attitudes when he makes choices will enable us to see clearly the deficiencies in the development of the Victorian society. In the Victorian age under the far-reaching control of the middle-class values, social relations are nothing more than masked hierarchical ideologies. For individuals, this means less and less freedom as well as higher and higher degrees of acceptance of social

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expectations, which suggests an increasingly controlling social system in which discrimination against the working class and the poor like Jude is naturalized for the purpose of the collective interest, which is in fact middle-class interest. Following this line, many scholars see Judes dream of Christminster as his unclear view of reality. Philip M. Weinstein, for example, claims that Judes Christminster is a place less visualized than conceptualized, a mirage of words (126). Indeed, Jude is preoccupied with trying to get into a university at Christminster because of his wishing to follow Phillotson. He even considers Phillotsons leaving as advancement: he [Phillotson] was too clever to bide here any longera small sleepy place like this (11). However, at the same time he is convinced that acceptance at such a superior school is his chance to show to others that he is not just a dependant who needs his aunts supply. Contrary to the common criticism on Judes ideal motive for entrance into a college, Ward Hellstrom believes that Judes impulse is toward the cultivation of his own best self (202), that is, his spiritual self. Starting from this point, Hellstrom considers that Hardy seems to portray Jude as a social, creative, decision-making individual who acts with a purpose and cannot be totally understood outside the specific social and cultural contexts that bear much meaning in his life. Rebelling against social limitations, Jude is a man who does not have an advantageous position but merely optimistic attitude as well as the persistent faith in creating his own life. Thus, Hellstrom assumes that [s]ociety is defeated by Judes choice of freedom, by his choice of the genuine self (209). It is understandable that change in the economic system will reshape the social structure which results in the systemic and constructed nature of all values (Ermarth 168). Thus, social relations exist actually in the form of a hierarchy, which allows discrimination of class, sexuality and race to naturally and legally exist. This way of categorization, in one sense, leads to the arbitrary power which affects the Victorians attitudes toward education, religion, marriage and sexuality. In fact, Judes conflict between body and soul is more and less relevant to his acceptance of the middle-class values. As Elizabeth Langland indicates,

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Judes dream of entrance into college is a response to his desire for social improvement, and his marriage with Arabella similarly implies that he should marry his pregnant girlfriend because of his cultural and masculine duties (35). Yet although Jude surely is influenced by his social environment and much of his behavior is a product of learning and conditioning, his increased awareness of these forces in the end enables him to transcend them. According to Paul Tillichs definition, man as a whole means that [h]e affirms himself as receiving and transforming reality creatively (46). Tillichs definition suggests that being a creative individual is not just conforming to normal standards; on the contrary, he needs to think about and judge these standards. On the basis of this view, the transformation of Judes self corresponds to the value of man as a whole. Although he is limited to the social structure within which he lives, he endeavors to rebel against the authority, which is built upon the middle-class ideology. This kind of individual will that enables Jude to face emotional and behavioral difficulties does not guarantee that he can be anything that he wants. Instead, Hardy uses a series of frustrations to make Jude recognize that social, cultural and biological realities may put his freedom of choice to rout. From Elizabeth Deeds Ermarths point of view, the arbitrary authority is an erasure of the actual variability of the world in favor of a priori value judgments (174). To transcend authority the individual should reorganize the reality he is in and tries to find meaning in it. Thus, when Jude learns that such an arbitrary power exists, he unfolds his personal passage from the external world to an internal one, a passage that incorporates social values into his new identity. In this process, Judes thoughts, feelings, beliefs, attitudes, and actions become actually expressions of his uniqueness (Fromm, Escape from Freedom 233). He tries all he can to cope with the external and internal forces that limit his decisions and behavior. Judes effort is shown in his attempt to go to college. In the process of his realizing his dream, Christminster, symbolic of Oxford, implies the tension between Judes utilitarian need to achieve self-advancement in social hierarchy and his idealistic pursuit of intellectual truth.

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From the beginning of the novel, Jude considers Christminster a city of light because he believes that [i]t is what you may call a castle, manned by scholarship and religion (23). It is his dream to find something to anchor on, to cling tofor some place he could call admirable (22); however, in seeking an ideal world, Jude unconsciously embraces the utilitarian bias of self-fulfillment which regarded education as a means to a single end, the material improvement of society and of the individual (Altick 257). Entrance into college for the sake of social improvement is not wrong, but that he overlooks the fact that the poor are brutally denied admissions in the oppressive and unequal social conditions. When Jude first goes to Christminster, he associates many scientists and philologists, such as Mathew Arnold, Sir Robert Peel, Gibbon, Robert Browning, and John Henry Newman, with Christminster. In his opinion, the phantasmal, or high thinkings (68), represents the idealistic vision of intellectual truth, but ironically it cannot satisfy his actual needs or help him avoid indifference from others. As the narrator says, [i]t was not till now, when he found himself actually on the spot of his enthusiasm, that Jude perceived how far away from the object of that enthusiasm he really was. Only a wall divided him from those happy young contemporaries of his with whom he shared a common mental life; men who had nothing to do from morning till night but to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest. Only a wallbut what a wall! (70) In fact, the wall distinguishes the middle and upper class from the lower class. Furthermore, higher education turns into a means to justify class difference rather than its eradication. Thus, being an outsider in a middle-class culture, Jude is sure to fail in his worldly expectation of entrance into college. However, his frustration gives him the chance to embrace the utilitarian way of achieving self-advancement in a hierarchic society. According to Aidan Cruttenden, working men like Jude had little chance to enter college because most university places, especially at Oxford and Cambridge, were still filled

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by products of the public school system (50) which was almost exclusive to the upper class. A man even laughs at Judes dream of entering Christminster and says [s]uch places be not for such as youonly for them with plenty o money (92). In this view, struggling between the middle-class belief in self-advancement and the idealistic vision of finding an admirable place, Jude suffers from the pain of discrimination caused by the utilitarian bias of education. He has no choice but to admit the Masters opinionyou [Jude] will have a much better chance of success in life by remaining in your own sphere and sticking to your trade than by adopting any other course (95). The conflict between Judes pragmatic wish for self-advancement and his idealistic vision of intellectual truth makes him cannot but ask: whether to follow uncritically the track he find himself in, without considering his aptness for it, or to consider what his aptness or bent may be, and re-shape his course accordingly (255). His preoccupation with entrance into college is now fading. As the narrator describes, [Jude] began to see that the town life was a book of humanity infinitely more palpitating, varied, and compendious than the gown life. These struggling men and women before him were the reality of Christminster, though they knew little of Christ or Minster. That was one of the humours of things. The floating population of students and teachers, who did know both in a way, were not Christminster in a local sense at all. (96) Judes realization gives him a divining power that can help him go further into reality. He learns from his personal experiences and reflects on the previous decisions he made, such as his choice to marry Arabella, through which he discovers the difference between his ideal expectations and reality. Such realization of the difference changes his conception of things and brings transformation in him. He comes to know that his failure results from such external factors as the unbalanced distribution of social resources and the financial inequality between the middle class and the working class. Excluded from the middle-class mastery of

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material life because of his lack of proper education, Jude gets aware that the cause of his predicament is the common overemphasis on material success. He satirizes the successful men the Victorians generally respect as those who [are] as cold-blooded as a fish and as selfish as a pig to have a really good chance of being one of his countrys worthies (256). This understanding permits him to redefine his identity and to observe the world outside a neat stock of fixed opinions (256). In this way, Judes struggle not only enables us to see framework of the oppressive middle-class culture, which imposes restrictions on the poor who have a desire for higher education, but also offers a new understanding of what the individual may finally become from within. Similarly, to a great extent the ideological construction of Christian dogma in the Victorian age became restrictions, and when associated with morality, imposed contradictions on the individuals identity and behavior. In Judes definition of religious faith, Christianity is as sacred and inviolable as Christminster in his early perception of the world. Until he meets Sue, he has sought help through his Christian belief without having any doubts. Christianity, symbolic of the authority which presumes the will of God as the absolute law, is supposed to be the ground that the Victorians need. Thus, when Jude internalizes this external authority, he is unconsciously convinced that belief in God means to abide by ethical and moral principles in the Bible. This Christian dogma is significantly associated with the middle-class passion for Evangelicalism. The moral codes of Evangelicalism illustrate what kind of people the middle class wished to be. According to Richard D. Altick, Evangelicalism added the weight of a combined religion and moral ideology (168), which also put[s] high value upon such qualities as frugality, self-denial, dedication to ones appointed occupation (169). In fact, this moral code had a negative influence on the development of human nature due to its limited judgment of human character. From Walter E. Houghtons point of view, the substantial impact included allow[ing] little or no consideration for intellectual and aesthetic virtues

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and, moreover, the moral side itself was judged without regard to the mixed nature of human beings, or the relative gravity of moral failings (171). As a result, limited by this theological principle, the Victorians were taught that human beings were essentially evil and powerless in front of omniscient and omnipotent God and that the individuals own happiness was not considered the aim of life. In this regard, what pleases God is good and to displease God is what one should feel guilty about. Such theological discourse, which turns into a form of doctrine and worship, is in the eyes of the middle class, closely related to the way the Victorians believed they should live. In this perspective, the Christian dogma makes Jude, who to some extent embraces the Evangelical moral standards, only feel a sense of sacrilege (121) and he even considers Sue a skeptical pagan when he discovers that she reads the Bible in unorthodox way. Because of Judes preconditioned identification with the sacred image of God, it is inevitable that he has a sense of guilt and immorality when he feels his desire for Sue. One of the reasons he feels uneasy is that he was married (73). From the perspective of theology, a marriage ceremony is holy because it is equal to a religious thing (166). He thinks of himself as a man who was licensed by the laws of his country to love Arabella and none other unto his lifes end (80). It is his duty to pray against his weakness (80). It can be seen here that Gods power is so overstated that he believes that prayer is the best way to deal with his weakness. In other words, Judes own value judgment is actually determined by external moral codes, and the idea of the wickedness of the individual in front of God makes him believe that there is nothing he should respect about himself. Still, faith in Christian dogma cannot bring substantial help to Jude in difficulties. He keeps on struggling between the two forces with regard to the meaning of religion: one is theoretical principles and the other is practical experience. One reason for this can be that Jude sees his aspiration of apostleship, as well as academic proficiency, not as a function of inability or misguidedness but as oppression of the artificial system of things (171). This

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can be seen in Judes passion for Sue. As a propounder of accredited dogma, Jude endorses the religious principle that sexual love was regarded as at its best a frailty, and at its worst damnation (171); however, the truth is that he had made himself quite an imposter as a law-abiding religious teacher (172). As now he discovers the strongly antagonistic relationship between his faith in Christian dogma and his real feelings and behaviors, he gets the possibility of change in his own choice. As the narrator puts it, the sense of being no longer a hypocrite to himself afforded his mind a relief which gave him claim. He might go on believing as before, but he professed nothing, and no longer owned and exhibited engines of faith which, as their proprietor, he might naturally be supposed to exercise on himself first of all. (172) Thanks to his experience of interacting with Arabella and Sue as well as his reflection on it, Jude resolves to burn the theological and ethical works, which also suggests that he must take a lot of risk in being punished and denied by the authorities or others. Despite the risk, he still has the courage and confidence to show a respect for himself as well as a new understanding of the link between the individual and society. On that account, Jude no longer blindly follows unconsidered dogmas and indeed has an increased ability to take responsibility for what he does and what he chooses. The effect of such an internalized external authority as Christian dogma is also significantly reflected in the Victorians attitude toward gender difference. In the industrial and capitalist society, human relations actually turned into a trade in the market according to hierarchical value, which made the individual become a commodity without being different in thought, feeling or action (Fromm, The Art of Loving 86). Similarly, John Stuart Mills The Subjection of Women makes a powerful attack on the gender stereotypes of Victorian society. He claims [t]hat the principle which regulates the existing social relations between the two

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sexesthe legal subordination of one sex to the otheris wrong in itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement; and that it ought to be replaced by a principle of perfect equality, admitting no power or privilege on the one side, nor disability on the other. (1156) In Victorian society, however, the meaning of equality that Mill emphasizes just means the unified sameness of those who do the same jobs, have the same amusement, and have the same ideas (Fromm, The Art of Loving 15). In this view, individual uniqueness is erased when all the people are asked to be equal, and oppressive social beliefs between the sexes are instead built in negative ways. In the meantime, sexual inequalities widen the gap of political rights and economic opportunities between sexes and deepen the male-oriented assumptions of instilling the ideal image of women that men want to impose on women. In fact, Victorian society imposed a series of legal restrictions on not only on mens lives but also on womens lives. These restrictions included the separation of women from the money-making world and creating the expectation that women should be devoted and submissive wives as well as mothers, and like priestesses dedicate themselves to preserving the home as a refuge from the abrasive outside world (Altick 51-3). Yet, all these principles did not bring the substantial happiness to the state of matrimony that the Victorians imagined; instead, as the narrator quotes from John Miltons words, the Victorians were only like a Pharisee who prefers either Matrimony or other Ordinance before the God of Man and the plain Exigence of Charity (157). As a result, the rigid gender-role expectations placed on men and women incorporated gender bias into Victorian lives and caused negative consequences for matrimonial happiness. To understand the effects of sexual inequalities, there is no better example than the Victorians idea of domestic life. According to Richard D. Altick, the growing complexity of the mercantile economy kept upper- and middle-class women from the worlds of commerce and, generally, of intellect (50). That is to say, both men and women internalized the sex stereotypes as the external authority, or patriarchy, within the hierarchical order. Penny

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Boumelha ascribes the impact of patriarchy on gender difference to Darwinism which persuaded the Victorians that [t]he choice of a sexual partner, when biological inheritance is all and environment nothing, becomes a matter, not of personal emotion, but of public concern, for upon it depends the continuation and evolutionary progress of the race (19). This statement suggests that Darwinism legitimized the competitive and antagonistic part of human nature, so marriage became a form of contract for the purpose of the providing maximal benefits. This operation of the patriarchal and hierarchical system governed the social system that belies in practice the silly panegyrics about womans moral superiority (Ermarth 208). At first, Jude is infected by the construction of gender bias, which results in Arabellas opportunity to trap him into marriage because he regards marriage with a pregnant girlfriend as a matter necessary to save [her] (51). In fact, the idea of salvation is rooted in the chivalric code of helpless women and protective and honorable men (Langland 36). Such combination of religious and moral codes made the Victorians believe that an intact family, even if only a pretense, was better than divorce; however, this code could not bring substantial help for Judes unsatisfactory marriage, which instead demonstrates that a social ritual (52) only makes the degrading relationship between a husband and a wife mutual torture. Limited by the conception of masculine codes, Jude is unable to get rid of the sex stereotype. However, Sue seems to open a dialogic space with the preconditioned gender difference and so causes Judes conflicting feelings: you [Sue] dont talk quite like a girlwell, a girl who has had no advantages (117). To understand the unhappiness of Sues first marriage, it is important to discuss the relation between Jude and Sue because their relationship is not merely based on economic support which is an integral part of matrimony in Victorian society. As a man who constructs his actions according to the chivalric code, Jude endeavors to be a good boyfriend or husband which is expected by the society he lives

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in. This social expectation imposes a strong impact on Judes image of a woman as a pure lover and forces the requirement that Sue marry him. Thus, when Arabella asks Jude for help at night, he thinks he should care for Arabella because shes a woman, and [he] once cared for her (208). Judes duty to be responsible for Arabella only reinforces the negative impact of gender bias on human relationship. As Sue puts it, [l]ove has its own dark morality when rivalry enters in (210). In this way, Jude is still caught between his realistic frustration with the lower-class peasant Arabella and his middle-class moral codes, which exercise great impact on his choices. Not until Sue leaves Jude and returns to Philloston owing to the death of her sons, is Jude aware of the negative effects of a social ritual, which restricts marriage to the form of a contract. He confesses to his wrong idea of marriage in front of Sue: [h]ow you argued that marriage was only a clumsy contractwhich it ishow you showed all the objections to itall the absurdities (276). These words imply that transcending the marriage contract will bring love. According to Erich Fromm, erotic love means [t]hat I love from the essence of my beingand experience the other person in the essence of his or her being (The Art of Loving 55). Thus, Phillotsons description of the platonic love between Jude and Sue shows their relation is not familiar with the general Victorian idea of love: I found from their manner that an extraordinary affinity, or sympathy, entered into their attachment, which somehow took away all flavour of grossness. Their supreme desire is to be togetherto share each others emotions, and fancies, and dreams (183). However, in the general Victorians opinion, Phillotson idea is wrong because if people did as you [Phillotson] want to do, thered be a general domestic disintegration. The family would no longer be the social unit (184). Clearly, in Victorian society, love was not seen as a spontaneous personal experience which might lead to marriage; instead, the Victorians believed love would develop once the marriage was consummated (Fromm, The Art of Loving 2). In this view, the individuals ability to make a decision and a judgment, as an important factor in love, is eliminated.

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Although Jude does not totally escape from these patriarchal codes, his view of love involves not only a strong feeling but also a resolute choice. In sum, it has been found in this chapter that the choices and the moral dilemmas Jude faces in the aspects of his life, such as education, religion, marriage and sex, highlight Hardys intention to interrogate the cultural constructions and the social conditions under which Jude is living. Such a view is implied by the fact that there is, as shown in this chapter, an increased authority exercising influence on the decisions of individuals and forming a new hierarchical pattern in Victorian society. The stronger the forces of society become, the more difficult cultural codes are to break. However, when the individual realizes the restrictions of society, he may get able to choose to use his power to make possible changes in himself as well as society. Through the process of choosing to change, the individual becomes no longer a submissive and dependent slave to these cultural codes and expectations, even if his choices mean he has to face many obstacles and punishments.

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Chapter Four Judes Dignity In most of Hardys novels, his major protagonists are limited by the environment which deprives them of the capacity to control and even change their conditions. Thus, most critics consider Hardy a pessimist because his characters are unable to freely make their own decisions to choose the way of life they want. Yet, in fact, Hardys protagonists, to a certain extent, have the faculty of free will and responsibility for their actions. It seems that Hardy does not really agree with the idea that human destiny is totally determined by external forces; instead, he intends to portray his characters as models. In the early years of their lives his characters display an underdeveloped sense of judgment, in which they have neither the capacity to judge nor the power to change the environment which determines their destiny. As Philip M. Weinstein puts it, Jude remains childlike in his approach to these barriers (126), including the refusal of entrance into college and the obstacle of class difference. Yet, these features of Hardys characters do not imply the idea that humans are doomed to be just negative beings without any power to change their environment, but rather that they have the potential to change the conditions in which they live when they are given some incentive. Thus, Philip M. Weinstein is right when he claims that [Jude] seeks, outside himself, a perfect receptacle for his immaculate spirit [, but] [h]e finds, outside himself, no such receptacle but instead a bewildering array of strictly human approximations (127). This is because Judes initial aspirations, like entrance into college, partly involve such external conditions as his social status and family background which are uncontrollable. Due to his insistence on his external goals, Jude is likely to experience a sense of helplessness and loneliness; however, the external conditions are also related to his internal transformation which, from Erich Fromms point of view, is based on the moral qualities of a person (Man for Himself 231), that is, an ideal expectation to make an individual and the world better. In this view, the individual indeed has the freedom to act even if he is simultaneously limited by

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the environment. In addition, human will plays an important role in transcending a limited environment, at least in terms of spiritual growth of an individual. As we know, Darwinism, which was based on scientific thought, had great influence on the Victorians concept of God because Natural Selection replaced the belief in an omniscient and omnipotent God in which God played a role in offering grace to human beings in suffering. That is, Natural Selection, when applied to social order to justify the hierarchical order of society as religious law did before, emphasized the idea of the survival of the fittest. Thus, both scientific thought and religious ideas supported the hierarchical structure of society. Although the advancement of science caused a crisis in religious faith, the effects of religion, at least its effects on moral principles, still pervaded the Victorians mode of life. It is clear that the powerful moral principles imposed on Victorians behaviors and attitudes attested to the lasting influence of religion on the actions of Victorians. In their opinion, human beings should submit to God and have faith in Gods mercy so that they can repent and overcome their guilt. However, this view in fact was interwoven with the progressive and liberal thought of the nineteenth century in which scientific advancement impressed the Victorians with the belief in the human capacity to explore the universe. On the other hand, it was hard for the Victorians to live alone away from society because their mode of life was closely related to the social structure that provided them with the basic needs for survival in its economic system. That is, society made the Victorians feel powerless because the laws of the market became the criteria of human life. As a result, the contradiction between human nature and the laws of the markets increases mans powerlessness because human beings have fewer and fewer chances to do what they want to do in a society where benefits are the top priority to pursue. Thus, the paradox of human nature as defined by religious beliefs and scientific discourse encourages Hardys religious doubt and distrust of contemporary social development. Clearly, Hardy wonders whether Gods grace descends to humans. His poetry Natures Questioning is rich in such detail:

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Or come we of an Automaton Unconscious of our pains?... Or are we live remains Of Godhead dying downwards, brain and eye now gone? (Gibson 66) Hardy here questions if Natures power is seemingly unrelated to human sufferings and feelings. In other words, Hardy does not think that human beings are innately sinful so that they have to accept their sufferings. According to Hardys diary on 31 December 1901: After reading various philosophic systems, and being struck with their contradictions and futilities, I have come to this: let every man make a philosophy for himself out of his own experience. He will not be able to escape using terms and phraseology from earlier philosophers, but let him avoid adopting their theories if he values his own mental life. Let him remember the fate of Coleridge, and save years of labour by working out his own views as given him by his surroundings. (310) In his exploration of the value of human nature, Hardys skepticism contributes to his understanding of the individuals ability to reason. That is to say, those who are driven by authority rather than their own interest, in Hardys mind, are unable to make their own decisions and take their own actions because they are only following the interests of others. Thus, Hardy attempts to handle the dilemma over the individuals obeying the values imposed on him and his making his own philosophy according to his experiences. It seems that for Hardy, the crucial point that determines an individuals destiny lies in whether the individual has the capacity to reason and develop his own philosophy. In Hardys novels, the connection between ones will and social power is almost mutually exclusive, and human destiny is often subordinate to social power. In Hardys opinion, society is made up of groups and different groups own different kinds of power and resources. The influential groups use their power and resources to exploit the powerless ones.

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The result is the degrading of the individual. Hardy, however, does not directly reveal his own idea of human nature. It seems he just shows the paradox between the will of humans and social repressions. He dwells on complicated problems in morality, faith, and institutions, but does not explicitly provide his answers. Still, through Judes fighting process of rebuilding his self-identity, Hardy offers an alternative vision of life which focuses on the growth of the individual. Different from the contemporary mainstream values such as Utilitarianism, the development of the individual demonstrates the essence of human nature. That is to say, the hierarchy of human relations oriented by the middle class does not support such stress on the development of the individual, but Hardy portrays Judes independent spirit and his actualization of the individual within the rigid society to display human dignity which is increasingly degraded in his age. Victorian mainstream theories, such as Darwinism, Utilitarianism and Evangelicalism, emphasized the greatest happiness of the greatest numbers. That is to say, social authority offered the right guidelines for human behavior and individual development, which, as a result, became the exclusive criterion for the aim of life for the Victorians and deprived them of their independent spirit. In Victorian society, almost all social and political activities were aimed at mass production which was symbolic of progress; however, in fact, this tendency was harmful to the development of the individual according to his own nature because the ruling social authority decided what the individual was supposed to need. In this view, the aim of political force was to repress the bad sides of human nature; however, for the purpose of ensuring the greatest happiness of the whole society, the individuals uniqueness and differences needed to be repressed, so the society allowed the majority to use power to exploit the minority. In consequence, the individual got neglected as democracy became a tool to force the individual to follow its strictures. In Jude the Obscure, Hardy attempts to describe the negative effects of the mainstream

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values on the Victorians lives and their human relations. This attempt is shown representatively in Arabella who regards achieving goals and physical pleasure as the main aims of her life. The lower-class woman Arabella, who depends on slaughter to earn a slight living, sees marriage as a good way to protect her life. As Elizabeth Deeds Ermarth puts it, [W]omens lack of public occupation arises from their sheer lack of opportunity (214) and this difficulty in womens life forces them to economically depend on men. Thus, in Arabellas opinion, a sexual relationship is the most useful method to trap a man into contractual matrimony as she undoubtedly believes that a mans duty is to offer a woman security and to marry their pregnant girlfriends. Such a belief is reinforced by patriarchal conception of masculinity, so Jude who is affected by the chivalric code of helpless women (Langland 36) naturally thinks that marriage with Arabella is a reasonable result. Clearly, Arabellas decision to marry is pragmatic so, to her, the relationship between a wife and a husband is a form of exchange: a husband with a lot of earning power in him for buying her frocks and hats (49). She thinks that human relations are based on satisfying needs no matter what means she uses to achieve the end; therefore, her energy is spent in getting what she wants and she never questions the premise of her action and behavior. On that account, her concept of human relationship is actually a form of trade in which people are like commodities used for exchange. Moral choice means the individuals attitude based on his character and experience in terms of his thought, reason and judgment. Judged by this view, Arabella is not very moral in the sense that she never understands the sufferings and feelings of others through her thought, reason and judgment. Her faith in the power of the individual is to achieve the goals that she wants, so what can not satisfy her demands is a useless waste in her mind. For her, the value of others exists in how much she can take through exchange with them. Thus, the individual, living in a market economy, needs to prove his own value by the external goals such as wealth, social status and reputation. In this process, the individual becomes a commodity

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whose value may be different from his own nature. In fact, Arabella pays no attention to herself or others but only to material success. In Erich Fromms view, those like Arabella are isolated from their own self and forget [their] self as a separate entity (The Fear of Freedom 221); in consequence, their relationship to the world is distant and distrustful and [their] self is weak and constantly threatened (The Fear of Freedom 224-25). As Arabella depends on men, her mode of living is simultaneously limited by others. She easily becomes so weak and sterile that she has to ask for the help of others and even to use trickery to achieve her goals. For example, Arabella takes advantage of Judes tender temperament to trap him into marriage. She deeply believes that [l]ife with a man is more business-like after it [marriage], and money matters work better and tells Sue you can get the law to protect you (212). In the eyes of Arabella, marriage enables her to acquire security in life and a husband is nothing more than a tool to protect her from oppressive life. However, in the meantime relying on the help of others contributes to her sense of powerlessness, due to which she is always driven to crave for power and willing to submit to others. Thus, when Jude is badly sick, she tries to flirt with the doctor. She thinks [w]eak women must provide for a rainy day And I cant pick and choose now as I could when I was younger. And one must take the old if one cant get the young (316). Her Utilitarian way in treating human relations leads her to ignore Judes suffering and think selfishly only about her own future. It is clear that Arabella needs such external satisfaction as material goods because she is bound up with economic and social conditions, which force her to work hard by any means to survive. In this sense, the degrading of the individual is, to a great extent, related to society, which by creating norms and values for its members makes individuals weak and dependent. As long as the individual believes in his inability to change restricting economic and social conditions, he will attribute his unfortunate fate to external situations. Similarly, Arabella who can not exercise her own power enough to change her living conditions believes that relying on men is the best way to protect her life.

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Utilitarianism indeed helps make great progress in material improvement and uplift the living standard; yet, it also initiates many controversial problems, such as the degrading of the individual and the disregard of ideal imagination. According to John Kucich, Victorian culture was based on mathematical calculation. In Victorian society, ideal imagination was seen as an emotion which was useless for developing the individuals intellectual reason; however, the fact is that [r]eason, by becoming a guard set to watch its prisoner, nature, has become a prisoner itself (Fromm, The Fear of Freedom 222). Disregarding ideal imagination, Arabella lives up to social expectation and is indifferent to people and the surrounding world. No wonder when killing a pig, unlike Jude, she does not have a pity on the creature; instead, she says scornfully: Poor folks must live (54). In the novel, Arabella does not act as an independent individual in her grasp of the world because she lives merely for physical pleasure and material achievements. Unlike her, Sue and Jude experience the world with their own power even if they still fail in attaining the aims they seek. Though Victorian society was much concerned about peoples obedience, self-sacrifice, duty and their adjustment to society, Hardy in this novel strongly conveys the impression that human nature is not fixed and unchangeable, especially when it comes to the protagonists Sue and Jude. Different from the typical Victorians like Arabella who live a life according to the principle of utility, Sue and Jude show great will and intelligence, although they cannot function well in society. This manifests Hardys major ethical concern: whether human consciousness is determined by the individual himself or by the roles society expects him to take. Indeed, the environment has great influence on the individual; yet, Hardy demonstrates that the individual can also make the environment move or even change. That is to say, such characters as Sue and Jude, who are constantly reflecting on their living conditions rather than just following the ways society imposes on them, spiritually subvert the social values that the typical Victorians like Arabella always conform to. Judes faith in his own power is closely related to his own personal experience in his

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own critical thinking and appraisal of the expectations imposed on him. His critical choices, which involve his commitment to real life, suggest that the meaning of life is not to reconcile differences in the external world but to create a world of ones own. It is not easy to live a life like this because the individual has to challenge powerful authorities. For example, after the death of Sue and Judes children, they mentally have different attitudes toward life: events which had enlarged his [Judes] own views of life, laws, customs, and dogmas, had not operated in the same manner on Sues (270). Sue ascribes the misfortune to such external force as Gods punishment, saying Our life has been a vain attempt at self-delight. But self-abnegations is the higher road (270). Here, Sues self-abnegation signifies the loss of her own power to make critical choices in her own thinking and judgment. Vincent Newey reminds us that [Sues] submission to Phillotson is comprehensible at bottom as wish-fulfilment; it expresses the desire for pain and humiliation, and also postpones their completion, death, by willing their enactment in repeatable form (216). Sues masochism comes from the belief that the nothingness of the individual results in increasing the necessity of conform (Fromm, The Fear of Freedom 219), which impacts on the formation of the individuals identity. In contrast with Sue, Jude attempts to see life as the reality that consists of personal experiences. He resigns his belief in the old and fixed world and masters his own reality, for he says to Sue, experience have proved how we misjudged ourselves, and overrated our infirmities (172). Learning from experience, Jude, as an observer instead of a conformist, plays a positive role in reflecting on his difficulties and reconstructing his world, at least his spiritual world. In fact, at the beginning of the novel, Jude is weak and his reason is still undeveloped and insufficient to resist temptations; however, later, as discussed in the earlier parts of this thesis, Judes character is transformed through a series of frustrations. His journey through life unfolds with his return to Christminster, starting with his view of the world from a premise of conventional custom to the point at which he redesigns his view of

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life. The transformation highlights his creative power to change himself from within in facing a fixed external world. This point directs the focus of the narrative toward the inner life of man and the sense that the glory in life is shown on the active individual who has the productive power to think, to judge, and to change. Obviously, what Jude relies on is his own power rather than that of an external authority such as Christianity or society. In this way, Hardy seems to pay much attention to the individuals potentialities to love, to be happy, and to use his reason which might otherwise be repressed by the external world. As a result, Sues fatalism lies in the belief in the nothingness of the individual while Judes alternative thinking implies that outcomes are, to a great extent, decided by an individuals own action. In brief, it seems that Hardy aims to demonstrate the birth of humanization and an independent individual through Sues and Judes struggles. In addition to the oppression by society, Hardy shows that Jude loses his place in the industrial and economic world, that Jude has little chance to choose what job to do or what to study, and that he is alienated from other people and society. All these demonstrate that the human predicament may lead to the loss of the sense of self. In other words, civilization becomes an endangering power to deteriorate the individuals intelligence and reason. Richard D. Altick ascribes the cause of this to overemphasis on material pursuit and claims that the pressing social concern in the Victorian Age is the narrow, pragmatic, and materialistic Utilitarianism. Under the influence of Utilitarianism, Victorian society was structured toward a middle-class orientation. In this view, the interests of the middle class became equal to the aim of all human beings, and social norms were bound up with the privileged class, which used such forces as social and political principles to exploit the weak. The widespread Utilitarianism led the Victorians to be more concerned about the result than the process; they paid more attention to the value of the finished product than to creative activity. That is to say, there was little room for the individual to develop his own potential.

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No wonder Thomas Carlyle claims that democracy does not bring liberty to the individual and that the so-called liberty should be helpful in development of the individual according to his own nature: The true liberty of a man, you would say, consisted in his finding out, being forced to find out, the right path, and to walk thereon. To learn, or to be taught, what work he actually was able for; and then by permission, persuasion, and even compulsion, to set about doing of the same! That is his true blessedness, honour, liberty and maximum of wellbeing. (155) No matter how materialistic the world becomes, the world is meaningful only when the individual can live in it according to his own nature. That is, the individuals creativity and liberty lie in his making the world meaningful to himself. The essence of liberty, however, exists in its enabling the individual to do this one as a self-willed duty, / Not as paid to, / Or at all made to, / But because the doing is dear (Gibson 452). Yet, the Victorian society seemed to force its members to repress their own self-interest for the benefits of the masses. In consequence, they lost their true liberty. Merryn Williams claims that John Stuart Mills On Liberty has great effect on Jude the Obscure. He believes that in the novel Hardy responds to Mills argument that all human beings ought to have freedom of speech and action, as long as this did not harm to anyone else (76). This statement is partly right when it is applied to the issue of social rigidity; however, Hardy seemingly attempts to deal with the deeper problem of human nature within rigid society, instead of just the problem of social rigidity. Indeed, Mills argument proves that by eliminating social restraints the freedom of speech and action for humanity can be gained. This idea is also used by Hardy when he describes Phillotsons decision to let Sue go with Jude because Phillotson knows he took advantage of her inexperience, and toled her out for walks, and got her to agree to a long engagement before she well knew her own mind (181-82). In fact, Phillotson makes this decision based on his sympathy for Sue and says it is

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wrong to so torture a fellow-creature any longer; and I wont be the inhuman wretch to do it, cost what it may (182). Indeed, he understands that human beings need to have freedom of action, as long as this did not harm to anyone else; therefore, he agrees to her leaving. However, the public impose powerful pressure on Phillotson, which put him in a conflict between his own decision and social expectations. His words show his contradiction: I know I may be wrongI know I cant logically, or religiously, defend my concession to such a wish of hers; or harmonize it with the doctrines I was brought up in.I, like other men, profess to hold that if a husband gets such a so-called preposterous request from his wife, the only course that can possibly be regarded as right and proper and honourable in him is to refuse it, and put her virtuously under lock and key, and murder her lover perhaps. But is that essentially right, and proper, and honourable, or is it contemptibly mean and selfish? (182) His conflicting feeling signifies that he tries to escape from preconditioned social expectations, and his rebellion against social expectations results in his losing his job and getting isolated from others. Thus, the vacillating conflict between his will and social expectations proves that human beings freedom of speech and action is actually limited by the social environment. That is, the Victorian society does not provide the individual with the proper conditions to exercise free will. Nevertheless, this critique is likely to confine the discussion to the issue of social rigidities. It seems that Hardy attempts to discuss further the dilemmas in human beings freedom of speech and action when he creates two major characters, Sue and Jude. Like most Victorians, Sue is burdened with harsh moral principles and conventions, but she still has courage to challenge these principles and conventions. At first, she enjoys great freedom in living a life that she wants. She buys the statues she wants even if they are seen as pagan things, and she insists on the way she likes to get along with men even if they feel

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uncomfortable. This is why Jude says [o]nly you [Sue] dont talk quite like a girlwell, a girl who has had no advantages (117). Judes words demonstrate that Sue is totally different from the typical women who are idealized by men in a patriarchal construction. Another important example is her intimate boy friend. Their relationship is like two men almost (118) until the boy tries to change the situation. All her doings show that she attempts to make her own choices which are seen as unconventional, yet which suggests that her freedom of speech and action is performed within a rigid society where, in the end, she cannot have true liberty. In fact, the reason for the boys broken heart is that he could never have believed it of woman (118). The point is not that Sues freedom of speech and action is wrong and causes him harm; instead, it is the boys unwillingness to accept Sues words He [the boy] wanted me to be his mistress, in fact, but I wasnt in love with himand on saying I should go away if he didnt agree to my plan, he did so (118). Yet, Sues suffering and shift after the death of her children further illustrate Mills argument that concentrates on the issue of social rigidities. Sue is truly beaten. She views the death of her children as her failure, which makes her convert to God: All the ancient wrath of the Power above us had been vented upon us, His poor creatures, and we must submit. There is no choice. We must. It is no use fighting against God (269). In this way, she makes God have the power to determine her destiny and denies that she has the power to make her own choices. By contrast, Jude is clearly aware of the truth: It is only against man and senseless circumstance (269). This realization enables Jude not to make his choices according to others expectations, so he says to Sue, It is your weaknessa sick fancy, without reason or meaning (270). Here, Hardy seems to explore the basic problem of the human predicament in which human will plays an important role. His poem A Plaint to Man offers clear evidence that Hardy is unwilling to submit to a compulsive conforming: The fact of life with dependence placed

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On the human hearts resource alone, In brotherhood bonded close and graced With loving-kindness fully blown, And visioned help unsought, unknown. (Gibson 325) In Judes mind, Sues weakness lies in practicing rules imposed on herself from the outside because of her lack of dependence on the human hearts resource. That is to say, the individual can take an active part in forming his own fate and strive for the good according to his hearts resource. Thus, reflecting on the human predicament, Hardy proposes that the aim of life is the unfolding and growth of the individual and that the individual is the only purpose and end, and not a means for anybody or anything except himself (Fromm, Man for Himself 229). In other words, the aim of life is to achieve the development of the individual according to his own nature. The story of Jude the Obscure might be incomplete if Jude were treated just as a victim of society on the basis of Judes frustrations at events such as Sues leaving, Arabellas ruthless treatment, and even his unhealthy body in the end of the novel. It goes without saying that Jude is affected by the social conditions like his family background and social status, but it does not mean that his freedom is totally bound up with authority like social expectations. In other words, external forces like the environment, heredity, and accidental events are influential in human destiny, but the key point of human dignity also involves an individuals attitude toward adversities in life. Indeed, Jude encounters adversities in such brutal realities as failing to enter into college, terrible working condition, and unsuccessful matrimony; however, these events do not mean that there is no chance for him to make his own choices. At the end of the novel, he says to Arabella: Listen to me, Arabella. You think you are the stronger; and so you are, in a physical sense, now. But I am not so weak in another way as you think (308). Although Jude is physically destroyed, his spiritual mind is not caught up in Arabellas heartless treatment. It even brings him a new vision of life.

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Thinking alternative thoughts judged on a spiritual level, Jude is able to make his own choices when facing adversity even if he is in an extremely disadvantageous condition. When his protagonists are carefully analyzed, one sees that Hardys idea of human nature is very diverse. Such protagonists as Jude and Sue are not only rational but also irrational. The characteristics of human nature Hardy describes include self-protection, intelligence, growth, and even self-negation; however, Hardys description of Jude involves the potentiality of his inner power to meet the world straight on without hiding it from himself, which suggests that the individual indeed has the power to act and to rebel against the limits imposed by society, at least in his spiritual world. In one of Hardys letters in 1904, he expresses his view on the revival of idealism in the modern world: I do not think that there will be any permanent revival of the old transcendental ideals, but that there may gradually be developed an Idealism Fancy; that is, an idealism in which Fancy is no longer tricked out and made to masquerade as Belief, but is frankly and honestly accepted as an imaginative solace in the lack of any substantial solace to be found in life. (Millgate 210) Hardy suggests that the Victorians live under the illusion that they seem to know what they want, but in fact they just want what they are supposed to want. Such an illusion contributes to helplessness and the nothingness of the individual because he has to accept ready-made goals. In contrast to these Victorians, Jude tries to experience his own life and improve his spiritual life even though he is threatened by being exiled from the society. In this process, he rebels the irrational social values and reinforces the dignity and power of the individual. The main reason that Hardy gives up being a novelist is that the plots of novels are extremely limited by the authority of the publisher. As Norman Page puts it, [t]he pattern of Hardys career as a novelist is that of a writer anxious to explore serious issues with honesty and directness, and finding the suppressions and repressions caused by editorial interference increasingly irksome (166-67). In a way, what Hardy attempts to rebel against is the

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demands of the market. The following is one of the critiques Hardy received: you [Hardy] take a man with good aspirationsa weak man he must be, of courseand put down to his credit all his aspirations and the feeble attempts he makes to realize them, while all the mistakes he makes, which render his life a failure, you put down to the savage deity who lies in wait to trap him up. (Clarke 241) Yet, in fact, the complicated characters Hardy attempts to portray demonstrate his concept of human nature is very different from Benthamism, which values the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain, as well as Darwinism, which stresses the need to adapt to the environment. In Jude the Obscure, Hardy expresses the fact that in spite of all kinds of restraints imposed on the individual, he is, at least to some extent, free to insist on his own attitude toward given conditions. In this view, the issue involves not only the external restraints of the environment but also the demonstration of human will. In short, Hardy uses the protagonist Jude to express that life is an ongoing process to be experienced, not a problem to be solved. In Victorian society, the individual was always confronted with many social rigidities for which there were always external guidelines to teach him what he should do; however, Hardy offers an alternative way to view the aim of life and the struggle with these external guidelines in his poem For Life I Had Never Cared Greatly: And so, the rough highway forgetting, I pace hill and dale Regarding the sky, Regarding the vision on high, And thus re-illumed have no humour for letting My pilgrimage fail. (Gibson 537) As Jude decides to make his own choices valuable to him, Hardy similarly creates standards

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by the stands he takes. Thus, human dignity is greatly shown when the individual understands the unchangeable motive of his fundamental attitudesthe development of his potentialities as well as the respect for life.

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Chapter Five Conclusion This thesis has explored the relation between the individual and Victorian society and how Jude reshapes his self-identity through his will when getting caught in an oppressive society. Hardys Jude the Obscure is a story about human sufferings and feelings in a hard time. The novel is set out against the Victorian society, a fierce transitional period involving industrialization, economic shifts, and the reconstruction of social relations. These changes, as famous writers such as Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, and Matthew Arnold criticize, degrade the power of the individual. On the other hand, the Victorians feel powerless in facing economic changes while their powerlessness leads to compulsive conformity in order to ensure their own security and comfort. In contrast to these people who conform to the expectations of others, Jude shows strong emotions about his world and gets even quite hostile to society. His struggles come not merely from rebellion against social oppression but from his attempt to solve the questions that impact on his daily life. These involve what he does and why he is doing it. About this, Vincent Newey has a similar viewpoint in claiming that Hardy brings up many open issues without answers for readers and gives them sympathetic feelings to reflect on their own living style. Jude the Obscure was unexpectedly and venomously criticized after its first publication due to Hardys criticism on Victorian marriage law. In his postscript to the novel, Hardy wrote the sad feature of the attackthat which presented the shattered ideals of the two chief characterswas practically ignored (6). His statement signifies Hardys belief that those who attacked the novel did so from a moral standpoint, which was a combination of utilitarian and religious principles. Hardy limited by the form of periodical publication and restricted by the moral principles of Victorian society, however, had no choice but to abridge and modify the primary ideas of his text. In other words, the moral climate of Victorian society made Hardys abridgement and modification unavoidable; yet, ironically it is the

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strict moral codes of the same Victorian society that Hardy depicts as destroying the ideals of the protagonists in the novel. Hardy portrays the major protagonist Jude as an aspiring and stubborn youth who is pressed to yield to social expectations. Through Judes tragedy, Hardy hopes that certain cathartic, Aristotelian qualities might be found therein (7). In this view, readers are expected to be moved by the action and terror of the characters, as they read about the tragedy. Furthermore, readers are expected to sympathize with the tragic figures and experience their feelings. Through this experience of empathy a simultaneous purgation of emotions will be produced. This feature of the novel shows Hardys attempt to present the indifference to the tragic conditions of others found in society at that time. Similarly, in this novel, most of the other characters, characteristic of self-interest in industrialized and capitalized society, are almost indifferent to Judes sufferings. Thus, Jude is unable to do what he desires within the rigid society because of social limitations and inequalities, such as income and class distinction. It is obvious that he is not popular among the people he is surrounded by when he tries to challenge the limitations and inequalities. In the eyes of most Victorians who are like obedient slaves in society, he is seen as a social outsider who disobeys orthodoxy and social norms. It is observable that Jude is clearly not satisfied with his mechanical and oppressive life and society. Thus, by showing that Jude attempts to escape from the Victorian world depicted in the text, which keeps people rigidly in restraint and makes them obedient to its strictures, chapter two of this thesis focuses on the growth of his self. The image of the individual is, as we know, shaped by social values which are mainly oriented by the middle class. Because of the unequal distribution of resources caused by the Victorian economic system, the gap between the rich and the poor is quickly widened. This way of life leads to a competitive and ruthless living style. Anything that does not produce wealth is considered a barrier to the improvement of society. On that account, the energy of people is spent on getting what they want, and most people never question the premise of this

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activity. In such a society, ones activity is often determined and controlled by the interests of others. That is the difference between Jude and the typical Victorians I have tried to investigate in my chapter three. Faced with the drastic transformation of Victorian society, Hardy seems to create his protagonists as free to have high expectations but unable to find fulfillment due to the rigid society. In his postscript of Jude the Obscure, Hardy says that Artistic effort always pays heavily for finding its tragedies in the forced adaptation of human instincts to rusty and irksome moulds that do not fit them (7). The statement reminds us that the rigid mind, which departs from human instincts, is a major cause of tragedy in human life. David Christie Murray, a famous and influential writer in the Victorian age, yet now almost forgotten, views Jude the Obscure as a work of morbidity and pessimism. He criticizes the character Sue as too emotional and irrational. For him, it is harmful to Providence which led to a popular demand that art should be uplifting, and illustrate the principles of poetic justice (Williams 54). Like a typical Victorian who believes in Providence which made everything in the world towards good (Williams 72), Murray embraces a tight classification of what is right and what is wrong. By such a standard, Hardys novel seems to show a huge controversy over his suspicion of conventional ideas about politics and religion. Yet, according to Merryn Williams, however, Hardy is a meliorist and believes the endeavors of people can make society better. In On Liberty, John Stuart Mill, who may have a deep influence on Hardy, writes that human beings should be free to form opinions, and to express their opinions without reserve (272). Thus, Williams claims that Mill, inheriting the spirit of the Enlightenment which affirms human beings capacity for reason, maintains that all human beings ought to have the fullest possible freedom of speech and action, so long as this did not harm to anyone else (76). However, there is an apparent contradiction between material improvement and spiritual growth in the Victorian Age because the Victorians in fact do not have the fullest possible freedom of speech and action. In this view, the individuals

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capacity for reason is another important issue discussed in this thesis. After comparing Jude with the typical Victorians, I move on to point out that the mainstream culture of Victorian society focuses mainly on economic value rather than on human value. That is to say, social advancement requires the passion for wealth to reveal material progress and success, and poverty is seen as a symbol of failure and humiliation. In this regard, society welcomes competition and selfishness as long as people can reach the top of the social structure. Thus, the failure of other people is attributed to their weakness in character. In other words, social order is based on the concept of utility: [a]nything that does not produce wealthdoes not belong to the society entity except parasitically (Ermarth 139). This form of wealth discrimination regards human beings as commodities which are produced uniformly and quantitatively. Commodities are called goods because they are good for human beings who use them. From Erich Fromms point of view, people in this age tend toward sameness which refers to the men who work in the same jobs, who have the same amusements, who read the same newspapers, who have the same feelings and the same ideas (Art of Loving 15). Thus, norms and value judgments depend on the interests of the authority rather than on individual differences; however, the very differences between individuals must be respected (Fromm, Art of Loving 14) because individuals have an inherent tendency to actualize their specific potentialities (Fromm, Art of Loving 20) as long as they are able to unfold their powers according to their own individuality. On the whole, economic value reshapes the Victorian society owing to its influential effect on social values, which turn almost all things into commodities and use them to discriminate against individuals, the poor in particular. Under the great impact of industrialization and utilitarianism, the gap between the rich and the poor has been increasingly widening, which brings deteriorating effects on social relations. As Elizabeth Deeds Ermarth puts it, social relations seem to be like an Invisible Hand [which] provides itself to be nothing other than the hand of the poorest class supporting those balances that are

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taken to be natural by richer groups (141). In the Victorian age, it gets harder and harder to meet a genuine hero who is concerned about common peoples life and the development of the community, yet not affected by either utilitarianism or dogmatism. In other words, there are fewer and fewer concerns about the value of the individual in the Victorian age because Utilitarianism dominates social values and causes the Victorians to favor the importance of materialistic benefits rather than the value of the individual. In this view, the individual with an idealistic mind becomes so unable to adapt to social needs that he loses his social position. Seen from this viewpoint, Jude the Obscure impresses its readers that Judes tragedy almost results from external restraints; however, these restraints do not totally dominate his will and he tries all he can to fight. As a result, his will and fighting spirit help him not only move forward with his awareness of limited conditions but also find his own voice and power within.

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