Thomas Hardy V

Sue becomes very depressed after the deaths of her children, and begins to get religious scruples. She believes that the children died to punish her for her sins in getting a divorce and living with Jude. She and he separate and to punish herself further, she returns to Philottson and lives with him as his wife though she hates it. Jude returns to Arabella, and she does not care much for him. He goes to get a glimpse of Sue on a cold winter day and becomes ill and dies. Arabella plans to marry a new man. Jude's life has ended in tragedy. The novel is depressing and confusing, with characters changing their minds all the time and moving in and out of marriages. Hardy's vision of life was sad and tragic.... In most of his serious novels, the hero or heroine comes to a sad end...and the more selfish characters do well. Tess of the D'urbervilles has the same kind of chopping and changing of the attitudes of the characters and the heroine Tess ending on the gallows. Jude got a lot of criticism for the anti religous tone and the sexual activities of the characters... and Emma Hardy really hated it. She was afraid that the novel would damage Hardy's reputation and that it might lead to gossip about her marriage to him. By then Hardy was involved with Florence Dugdale who acted as his secretary, and they were having an affair. Emma became more angry and reclusive and her health declined and she died suddenly. Hardy planned to marry Florence, but he was feeling guilty about Emma. He gave up writing novels and concentrated on poetry, and some of his new poems were love poems to Emma, which upset Florence. They were getting married and now her new husband was writing love poems about his dead wife, whom he had neglected and disliked during their marriage.