Hardys Jude the Obscure :: Religion Religion Jude Hardy Essays

Hardys Jude the ObscureIn Hardys Jude the Obscure, Hardy shows his views on religion andcommitment to the Church which were said to have declined in the latter days ofhis life. (Ingham, xxvii) Throughout the book Hardy displays his feeling thatreligion is something that people use in order to satisfy themselves by givingtheir lives meaning. One instance in which Hardy clearly displays this is whenhe writes, It had been the yearning of his heart to find something to anchor on,to cling to. (Ingham, 94) In order to bring out this point Hardy chooses to farm Jude as an orphan and has him come from obscure origins. By doing this hecreates a character who is looking for something to give him an identity. As aresult of his relationship with Mr. Phillotson (who leaves for Christminster inorder to become ordained), he finds religion and feels that he sack up use it tohelp him gain an identity. Hardy feels that people should shy away from theirold ship canal of thinking and begin to form new opinions of their own. He feels thatpeople should not just blindly follow religion without deciding for themselvesthat this is what they want. People should not be as Jude who becomes obsessedwith religion simply because his mentor Phillotson felt this way. One of themajor reasons that causes Hardy to have these views is that he feels religionleads to hypocrisy. He feels that man has umteen desires that go against the lawsof religion, and these desires lead man to feel very hypocritical. Thesefeelings of hypocrisy then cause man to have many inner conflicts that lead tomany problems. This negativism towards religion is seen both through symbols inthe book and in the plot itself. The symbols that convey this message are thename Jude, which is an allusion to Judas Iscariot who was a traitor to Jesus.The name Jude can also be a reference to the wandering Jew. The second symbol isChristminster. Christminster symbolizes a world in which Jude sees howremarkable the Church is, but it is a roam that exists only in Judesimagination. Another symbol that we encounter is that of Samson who is symbolicof man going after women that are forbidden to him. We also encounter areference to Nebuchadnezzars furnace, which is used to question God by askingwhy the righteous suffer. Finally, the job Jude chooses is also symbolic of theanti-religious attitude that is shown.The negativity towards religion is basic revealed in the name Jude.