Multiplicity of Ideas Concerning the Concept of Marriage in Thomas Hardy‘s Jude the Obscure

Abstract

Although the rural working class of the Victorian period had firm beliefs on the importance of secure and stable families as a necessary part of their community (Schoenfeld ―Dysfunctional Families in the Wessex Novels of Thomas Hardy‖ 25), some of Hardy‘s characters had very different beliefs about the concept of marriage. On the one hand, there were those who believed that getting married was the moral thing to do irrespective of whether there was love or not and there was the other school of thought that believed in the idea that morality could only exist if there were love and equal treatment of all people. And for some, marriage was a sacred institution which no one was supposed to break out of, once a couple got married while for others, the factor of separation was a viable option if the marriage did not work (Schoenfeld ―Dysfunctional Families in the Wessex Novels of Thomas Hardy‖). Hardy revealed the diversity that formed the basis behind decisions to marry. Whereas marriage was an important part of the society, the reader came to see the multiplicity of motives that individuals in these unions possessed. One might question whether society merely wanted obedience or improvement