Abstract
The cause of Hardy’s disturbance in this novel, as in Tess, is not ‘the scorn of Nature for man’s finer emotions, and her lack of interest in his happiness’,1 but the cold cruelty of society towards an individual member of it. Social wrongs, Hardy always believed, are not irremediable. Hence, they call for revolt, not indifference, as an affirmative response.
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Notes
Hardy, Thomas, Jude the Obscure, Macmillan, London, 1957, p. 185.
Brooks, Jean, Thomas Hardy: Poetic Structure, Elek, London, 1971, p. 258.
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© 1985 Jagdish Chandra Vallabhram Dave
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Dave, J.C. (1985). Social Optimism and Affirmative Revolt in Jude the Obscure . In: The Human Predicament in Hardy’s Novels. Macmillan Hardy Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-07646-8_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-07646-8_18
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