jude the obscure
Guilt, Duty, and Unrequited Love: Deconstructing the Love Triangles in James Joyce's The Dead and Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure "It's no problem of mine but it's a problem I fight, living a life that I can't leave behind. But there's no sense in telling me, the wisdom of the cruel words that you speak. But that's the way that it goes and nobody knows, while everyday my confusion grows." --New Order, Bizarre Love Triangle, from Substance, 1987 Most people who have watched a soap opera can recognize that the love triangle is a crucial element to the plot. In fact, the original radio broadcasted soap operas seemed to consist almost entirely of love triangles. The love triangle, for plot purposes, seems to be a popular technique employed to change the dynamic, add dimension, and generally 'spice up' an otherwise stagnant monogamous relationship. It would make for a pretty dull and quite unpopular show if such popular daytime soap characters as Luke and Laura or Bo and Hope had enjoyed a smooth courtship, uncomplicated marriage and then grew old and gray together without a single conflict. The viewers watched them go through many conflicts, some of which involved the classic love triangle. Such conflicts as
To Gabriel, this turn of events casts a different light on his entire marriage to Greta as he "thought of how she who lay beside him had locked in her heart for so many years that image of her lover's eyes when he told her that he did not wish to live"(Joyce 2035). This is the critical moment where Michael, or rather his memory, enters and completes the triangle, although he may have been there all along without Gabriel's knowledge. She takes deeply to heart such instances as when she and Jude were not seen fit to complete their job of painting of the Ten Commandments. As for Gabriel and Greta's relationship, if Greta had not told of Michael, Gabriel's evening may have ended much differently. Michael may now always be a haunting presence in their marriage, and the reader is not told if Greta will favor her sense of duty to her marriage or to his memory. Actually, the role of the villain seems to co-star Sue's sense of guilt and the judgmental society that causes her to perform such maddening acts of senseless duty that construct the love triangle between them. Although not absolutely identical, deconstruction reveals guilt, duty, and unrequited love as essential components to the construction of both. They may have actually gotten married and been very happy. But this is one act of duty that she can never bring herself to perform which makes it much simpler for her, after the death of her children, to return to Philotson whom she dutifully, though illogically, regards as her true husband. He is just as much a victim as Sue and Jude. Philotson wonders wry, "What must a woman's aversion be when it is stronger than her fear of spiders!"(Hardy 232). Yet, unlike The Dead, this event has no great impact on the love triangle between Jude, Sue and Philotson. Gabriel wonders if she is being completely truthful. Philotson finds that she would rather sleep in the closet than with him.
Common topics in this essay:
Greta Michael,
Jude Actually,
Lass Aughrim,
Father Time's,
Philotson Hardy,
Despite Greta's,
Bo Hope,
Triangle Substance,
Sue Jude,
Poor Philotson,
love triangle,
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unrequited love,
death children,
guilt duty unrequited,
sue jude,
jude's death,
sense duty,
jude obscure,
soap opera,
guilt duty,
bizarre love triangle,
duty unrequited love,
joyce's dead thomas,
thomas hardy's jude,
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Acceptance Essays
