This paper re-evaluates the `liberal` class and gender ideologies that a number of Thomas Hardy`s critics have attributed to Jude the Obscure, by examining the text in the context of the class situation and the gender relationship in the British society of the late nineteenth century. As many scholars pointed out, Jude the Obscure above all, calls the readers` attention to the social and educational oppression that Jude, the titular hero, and Philotson had to suffer in their society. The life stories of these two male characters in this sense exemplify those of the working-class people of the author`s time who harbored intellectual and social aspirations but were eventually frustrated by the closed educational and caste system of their society. In this light, Jude the Obscure constitutes an acrid criticism against the conservative class system of the Victorian society, and this aspect of the novel seems to support the critics` view of the text as a liberal text. Read on the surface level, Jude the Obscure, due to its open criticism of the marriage laws and other male-privileging social institution, is also regarded as championing another group of social underdogs, women. Even some feminist critics pay a tribute to this novel for its supposed contribution to the feminist cause. This paler does not deny the presence of a pro-feminist aspect in Jude the Obscure. However, what this paper calls attentions to is what lies in the text behind its facade of a explicit pro-feminist criticism, namely, the underlying gender assumption of the text. This paper locates a bi-polar gender ideology within the characterization of Sue and Arabella. While Sue, the text-chosen champion of women`s rights, is constructed as a nun-like `asexual` being,` Arabella in the text is constructed as a siren-like sensual being. starting from this discovery, this paper argues that the cause for the text`s differential attitude towards female characters is the Victorian patriarchy`s fear of female sexuality. The conclusion of this paler is that Jude the Obscure was not free from the Victorian male anxiety of female sexuality, and this explains the text`s subscription to the gender ideology of its days and its bi-polar view of women as either a virgin or whore, despite its up-front attack upon the patriarchal system.
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