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 the love triangle keep the story moving. Common elements of triangles in today's soaps consist of lust, greed, jealousy, any of which are interchangeable with the conflicts resulting from situations involving lovers coming back from the dead or paternity uncertainties. Yet love triangles, whether in the soap opera or in the novel, are not all uniformly constructed. James Joyce's The Dead and Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure, both modernist novels, each contain love triangles as an integral element of the story.
             The key triangles I will focus on are comprised of Michael, Greta and Gabriel, and, Philotson, Sue, and Jude. Although not abs...