A Study On Richard Carpenter

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Apart from her dreams Eustacia feels that Clym has made a bad bargain in her life. She does not like Clym’s plan of becoming a teacher and later as a furze-cutter due to his physical break down. Richard Carpenter comments "Clym’s blindness is both a logical and natural result of his lack of commonsense and it is symbolic of his deeper spiritual blindness wherein he cannot see the nature of his illness" (95). She feels that she has been made a laughing stock in front of Wildeve. Adding to that her urge for sexuality is not fulfilled and her stay at Egdon Heath makes her mentally ill. She confronts Clym by showering angry words as "0, you are too relentless - there's a limit to the cruelty of savages! I have held out long - but you crush me down. I beg for mercy - I cannot bear this any longer - it is inhuman to go further with this!"(330) It is because of her illusion for the love of glamourous city life that she depends on Clym and accepts the life. She hopes that Clym would be alright and when she confirms that Clym can never be amended she turns her desire to get away from the relationship. Her erotic passions are not satisfied by Clym, to fulfil it she needs a vulpine person wrapped in a golden halo of the same intensity of feelings that she possesses. Rosemarie Morgan comments on the languid love of Eustacia compared with Bathsheba:

Eustacia’s tense and frustrated sexuality is also far removed from Bathsheba’s self-delighting, auto-erotic passion , but it is no less expressive, no less palpable, no less physical….the poetic device points to the interactive, reciprocal potential in the sexual relationship and by, extension, to the equal force of Eustacia’s desire. (60)

Unlike Bathsheba , Eustacia decides to lead a life free from the disappointment of soul and mind for she does not feel that she is travelling towards the troubled world. She could not adjust "the situation seemed such a mockery of her hopes that death appeared the only door of relief if the satire of Heaven should go much further" (259) but is later saved by Charley. Clym and Diggory Venn are realistic people who continue to love and help Eustacia and Thomasin even when they are rejected at extreme conditions. Clym always tries to make her happy but he fails to understand the expectations of Eustacia. He is warned by his mother against marrying Eustacia on knowing her affair with Wildeve. She is quiet jealous of her in taking her priceless son away on account of her charms. Sengupta comments "Mrs. Yeobright is a string portraiture of a possessive mother triumph of psychological portraiture" (46). She knows that his son’s love will not be everlasting if he does not take up his diamond business. She is equally upset when she comes to know that his son’s life is in danger. She goes in for rescue but gets herself killed by a viper. Clym is the representation of the modern world getting into the clutch between the two worlds. At every attempt he feels that she would be alright. His patience ends when he learns the reason for the death of his mother, he accuses Eustacia of her relationship with Wildeve and Eustacia’s guilt overcomes her normal life and she wanders around the Heath thinking that she is the reason for the cause for the death of Mrs. Yeobright. Her hatred for Heath chases her to commit terrible mistakes of acting very slyly towards committing adultery. All the characters of Hardy suffer from the sense of guilt that chases their life to a terrific end. Clym also thinks that he is also responsible for the death of his mother when he hears from Johnny "she said I was to say that I had seed her, and she was a broken hearted woman and cast off by her son"(305).

Always a fight for survival predominates in the life of Eustacia and Thomasin. One fights for the dreamy world to come true and the other wants to maintain her life from being abducted by another woman. It is Eustacia’s own desire and decision that leads to her fall. She is a woman who does not seem to have supporters in her life other than Wildeve. He is a man of conflicting emotions as Hardy calls him as the "Rousseau of Egdon". His dubious nature and his inability to marry Eustacia is a scar in his life. His life with Thomasin looks like a mechanized machine where he concentrates his interest on Eustacia. Sengupta remarks " Wildeve is a man of romantic traits- traits with potentiality for evil" (49). He also feels guilty of not reciprocating true love to Thomasin but the evil in him curbs his inner conscience and he assures Eustacia and promises her to give the Parisian life that she waits for. The doors are not opened to Mrs.Yeobright only because of the secret meeting of Wildeve and Eustacia at her home. Eustacia and Wildeve decide to elope destroying the life of Thomasin and Clym but they fail to recognize the importance of the nuptial bond. She decides to throw it off when she is not given what she has expected and wanted. Hardy has clearly portrayed the disappearance of integrity in rural England. Fleeing the Heath symbolizes the escape to the modern world and the ache of modernism delves deep into the character of Eustacia. Hardy has done a clear study on the innate evil in man. Fate and circumstances are present in this novel : Clym’s letter to Eustacia arriving late , the arrival of Mrs.Yeobright, Clym’s physical destruction are the primary flaws of nature but the decisions taken by Eustacia at all times affect the people around her. The selfish motive in her shows the discontent due to civilization which is self destructive. Each of the character’s decision leads to self destruction like the drowning of Eustacia and Wildeve or Clym’s ruining his own life in marrying Eustacia and causing dissension towards his mother. Sengupta says that "Eustacia’s tragedy emanates not only from the flaws of her own character, it is bound up with those of Clym and his mother.For there is a vein of self destroying impulse that runs through both Clym and his mother" (40). He totally becomes a transformed person and directs himself towards preaching on the account of the responsibility he takes for Eustacia’s death. Human Psyche demands more than what it gets, when it does not reach the saturated point it does not prolong in normal condition. Eustacia fails to respect the decision that she has taken and she floats in a dubious mind. She looks into an infinite life failing to visualize reality. She could not accept that she is losing her identity in the Heath and she wants to save it. She hopes for retrieving it after her marriage. But it brings before their eyes, their flaws and deficiencies. Eustacia’s irrational sensuality, Clym’s passivity and Wildeve’s sexuality are the tragic flaws that cause their fatal end.When they fail to identify and rectify it, the desirable moral reformation is not consummated at the end. And pride and deceit ends in vain.

Hardy’s The Mayor of Caterbridge- The Life and Death of a Man of Character is an attempt to deal with the improbabilities of character of Michael Henchard in detail. Hardy emphasizes that the flaws of Henchard are derived "directly from his own actions or that these proceed in turn from his whole personality" (Millgate 127). Being a man of extremes, his impulsive nature, his rash decisions, possessiveness towards his own people, and the power as the Mayor of the town emphasizes the power of discourse and determines his rise and fall as a man of character. There are passionate women and impulsive men in Hardy’s novels. But Hardy’s portrayal of Michael Henchard is a remarkable one. Richard Carpenter in his Thomas Hardy calls Michael Henchard "A great Tragic figure : dynamic , forceful and passionate in his loves and hatreds. Essentially he is a man who means well, but is constantly driven by his impulsive nature into deeds that bring disastrous results" (104). Henchard’s past transgressions in life makes him to face a tragic decline in the town where he has once passed through a ridge of success and honour. Embittered and burdened with his responsibilities he sells his wife and daughter to a sailor to achieve success and money. He regrets his acts and takes a vow on abstinence from alcohol for twenty one years. He considers work and success as the main determinants of his life and reframes himself as a self-disciplined person for productive purposes. He becomes a wealthy corn merchant in a span of twenty years and is elected the Mayor of Casterbridge and becomes "a pillar of the town" (37). He is "the powerfullest member of the town-council, and quite a principal man in the country round besides" (37) and his greatness lies "in one talent of energy to create a position of affluence out of absolutely nothing" (220) Rising to a higher status in the society, he is devoid of an equal competitor and hence he is in short of business tactics, rationality and emotional balance where Farfrae fares well. . Henchard is preoccupied with the conflicting thoughts of his scandalous auction which provides profound implication on losing his social status. It is further weakened when he discloses his frivolous past to Farfrae out of an emotional attachment: "Henchard's somewhat lonely life he evidently found the young man as desirable for comradeship as he was useful for consultations" (94). His disclosure of his past to Farfrae is because he has segregated his emotional feelings towards his relations and ultimately he seeks them. He is desperately in need of someone to share his burden, and his insufficiency is exposed when he chooses Farfrae to share his past about Lucetta and his wife Susan in a very short span of time. . He later feels for his mistake and tells Farfrae "Ah - I know why! I've told ye the secret of my life – fool that I was to do't - and you take advantage of me!"(103).The life with Newson has been better for Susan and Elizabeth Jane. He has been a wonderful personality with a good understanding nature. When she comes to Falmouth, it is then disclosed that Susan is still in love with Henchard where she "ridiculed her grave acceptance of her position" (32).

He does not share an intense emotional bond with the two women whom he meets in his life. He is a "masterful coercive" individual who is said to possess the "haughty indifference to the society of womankind and his silent avoidance of converse with the sex" (87). His abandoning of females in his life instigates a sudden attachment to Farfrae, later he is happy to be a husband to Susan and a father to Elizabeth Jane. He marries Susan under Farfrae’s guidance and he feels that a great void in his life is replaced by the return of his family. Henchard thinks of the future of his daughter Elizabeth-Jane and hopes to lead a life with her to be his comfort in the rest of his life "In truth, a great change comes over him with regard to Elizabeth-Jane, and he is developing the dream of a future lit by her filial presence, as though that way alone could happiness lie"(285). He tries to make amends for his mistake and likes to redefine himself as a respectable man in the society and marries Susan. His loveless marriage with Susan is to keep up his past secret is to keep up his position a Mayor, for his reputation lies in his lonely widowhood and to avoid being shamed by his past act. But Susan deceives Henchard by telling him that Elizabeth Jane is his daughter and she hides the fact that Elizabeth Jane is Newson’s daughter who bears the same name of Henchard’s daughter who is dead after Henchard’s separation from his family. He could not accept the identity of Elizabeth- Jane as Newson’s daughter and feels humiliated he decides not to tell her the truth because he could not accept the truth. His attachment towards Elizabeth- Jane declines when he learns about her identity from Susan’s letter. His cold treatment towards her makes her move away from Henchard and he is left alone to suffer with his dream getting shattered:

The regard he had lately acquired for Elizabeth, the new-sprung hope of his loneliness that she would be to him a daughter of whom he could feel as proud as of the actual daughter she still believed herself to be, had been stimulated by the unexpected coming of Newson to a greedy exclusiveness in relation to her; so that the sudden prospect of her loss had caused him to speak mad lies like a child, in pure mockery of consequences. (288)

He leaves Lucetta and Farfrae drafts a letter for Henchard in explaining the need for Henchard to marry Susan. His irrational behaviour is brought into flash light when he grows jealous of Farfrae’s popularity in the public. Henchard derives a personality of imposing structure of power over Farfrae and defines himself superior in age, financial and social status. He no longer considers Farfrae his friend when he never succumbs to his wishes. The devastation of Henchard starts when he fires Farfrae and becomes a cause of establishing Farfrae as a successful business man in town. Farfrae becomes a threat to Henchard’s existence when he learns that Henchard is no longer the admired man in the town. Lucetta’s marriage with Farfrae and his success in power and business "suggests a profound loss of power and control" over Henchard and he does not possess "any hope for future regeneration" (Devereux 62).

Henchard’s pride gets accumulated when he is considered as a source of inspiration and a good leader in commerce and trade. Hardy stresses on the fall of Henchard when he fails to have self control over himself on certain important situations. The quality of a multidimensional character is to have "something within they must control. When control, nevertheless, becomes impossible, they commit actions which directly or indirectly injure others while also laying the groundwork for their own destruction" (Frederick 198). He does not try to repair his faults but tries to conceal his past to avoid it to become increasingly irksome.

He considers Farfrae as his rival and he could not exactly tolerate that he is losing everything to him. His intolerance is obvious when he decides not to give up his business to him. His self evasive decision forces him to take heavy investment on his grain business which fetches him heavy loss and it is rumoured soon after, that much of the real property as well as vast stores of produce, which had stood in Henchard’s name in the town and neighbourhood, are now actually the possessions of his bankers. His downfall really overtakes him when he presides as a magistrate over the case of a disorderly woman, and the woman turns out to be the furmity woman who narrates to the court about the sale of Henchard’s wife several years ago. He loses his self esteem in the public and he thinks that he is nothing more to anyone. He admits his mistake but he could not digest that the most respectable person of the town is doomed because of his own weakness and foolish acts. Sengupta sees "that Henchard’s character like Lear’s is of heroic proportions although so moulded that the vast energies are dissipated in foolish acts of pride and vanity, in short in his own destruction" (71).

His hatred towards Farfrae reaches the peak when he sings Psalm 109 and drinks at the Three Mariners getting into the clutches of evil once again. This scene reminds one about the sale of his wife and the renewing of the past evil act is again a self destruction, determining his downfall. "The flush upon his face proclaimed at once that the vow of twenty-one years had lapsed, and the era of recklessness begun anew"(229).

Henchard could not digest Elizabeth Jane’s and Lucetta’s attraction for Farfrae. Henchard tries to repair his status by marrying Lucetta, a woman of affluence which would help him to reconstruct himself as a honourable person in the town. He tries to establish a relationship with Lucetta through matrimony and pleases her. But she refrains from seeing him and marries Farfrae and makes Henchard feel he is devoid of power wherever he moves. He blames Farfrae for his failure and goes to an extent of murdering Farfrae by pushing him off from a hay loft. He then stops Farfrae from moving out of town and he works under him as a common man. He threatens Lucetta of revealing the past to the public that "unless you give me your promise this very night to be my wife, before a witness, I‘ll reveal our intimacy – in common fairness to other men!" (194). Henchard later feels for his antagonism towards Lucetta and returns the letters drawn by Lucetta for Henchard and he tells himself "Such a woman was very small deer to hunt‘; he no longer envied Farfrae his bargain"(248) and no longer considered Farfrae his enemy. The past of Lucetta and Henchard is revealed to the people of town and the signal of the skimmington causes social downfall of Lucetta and she suffers opprobrium. The shame and guilt leads her to miscarriage and she dies.

The "tragic career of passionate sin, bitter penitence, and rude reparation" ( Hutton 138) claims him to be a "fallen hero"( Mitchell 92). Henchard’s main flaw is that he tries to escape from facing realities of life and his will against the society is his tragic flaw "Henchard’s sufferings stem mainly from a useless and eventually harmful effort to silence or conceal unalterable realities. But nature will not have it that way, nor will Hardy" (Kiely 199).

When Newson finds he is deceived and reveals himself to be Elizabeth Jane’s father Henchard moves secretly out of the Casterbridge and once again turns out to be a hay trusser. "I-Cain- go alone as I deserve - an outcast and a vagabond. But my punishment is not greater than I can bear! He sternly subdued his anguish, shouldered his basket, and went on" (307).His state of hopelessness has weakened him and he considers his suffering to be his punishment. He hates himself as Troy in Far from the Madding Crowd. Where Henchard falters Farfrae prospers. Farfrae emerges as an assertive and self confident man but not aggressive as Henchard. He does not dominate and impose his power on others on any situations. His adapts himself into grave situations and has his own "emotional limitations" (Kramer 85). Henchard’s existential failing can never estimate Henchard inferior to Farfrae. Henchard tries to be a super imposed man as he lacks moderation. Farfrae succeeds as he is flexible and adapts to well defined situations. Henchard fails of his rigidity and stubborn nature in imposing his ideas and will at all times. His inadaptability and headstrong nature cripples his life and is unable to formulate his own way of survival. Hence he moves away from the manmade structures of society and decides his death be unknown to the people of his town. This last will enumerate his feeling towards his humiliation in life. As the last line of the novel concludes "happiness [is] but the occasional episode in a general drama of pain" (327) ensures that Henchard’s tragic end is his character flaw. The suffering is because of their failure to look what they truly are.

Tess of the D'urbervilles highly reflects what Hardy has visualized in England during his childhood days. He was upset over the degradation of culture that was extremely essential to keep up women’s chastity and purity. It is a bold attempt by Hardy to show what the people of those days thought and felt. Hardy mostly deals with the people of the rural middle class and has greatly differentiated the upper class and their treacherous behaviour that they undertake to keep up their social status in the society. Tess is from a family of faded past glory where John Durbeyfield’s noble lineage bestows on him an illusion and he acquires false pride and takes to drinking. His idleness and leisure loving nature make him lead an imaginative aristocratic life. The effect of drinking is also well portrayed by giving a picture of Tess’ irresponsible parents forcing her to undertake the responsibility of her parents.

Tess’ dreams get shattered on the death of the horse Prince and feeling responsible, she takes up a job at the D’Urberville household. Alec D’Urberville tries to attract her at every moment and plunges her into despair by allowing her to carry the stigma of loss of self respect throughout her life. The confusion and ambivalence in her mind thrust her to trust him even though she hates him. Hardy proclaims that Alec’s glamour attracts the innocent Tess where she fails to feel the danger skulking in men. Hardy’s men are portrayed as evil and they wreck the lives of female protagonists

Tess innocently does not hold divergent opinions on Alec and she abandons the plan of going home and she underestimates the awaiting danger that her dreamy mind fails to take notice of. He throws lot of appreciation on Tess and it is obvious when he pushes strawberry forcefully into her mouth. He flatters her in every way and he closely resembles Troy , when he associates his interest with sensuality and not love. Though she is unyielding to his wish the Chase Scene clearly tells us how Hardy has portrayed Tess as a victim of her own impulses. Tess’ pride makes her go away from the ecstasy group when she propounds great laughter and the jealousy in the team makes her indignant and ashamed. She no longer minds the loneliness of the way and the lateness of the hour; her one object is to get away from the whole crew as soon as possible. She accepts Alec’s invitation with "fear and indignation" and considering a "triumph over them… she abandoned herself to her impulse …The pair were speeding away into the distant gray by the time that the contentious revellers became aware of what had happened" (79).

The event has been such, like the other important matters like execution of Tess and the birth of Sorrow. The transformation of Tess into "a maiden no more" is not an end but just a beginning. Tess being uneducated and an epitome of innocence, feels guilty of her weakness, failing to avert an ambivalent situation with a man who is both attractive and repellent to her . Tess is an intelligent girl to understand the situation of the problem that she is facing now. She realizes that the ‘physical’ self has played an important role rather than that of the mind or soul in ‘The Chase Scene’ and hence she does not like to stay at Trantridge poultry farm or to marry Alec. She is angry that her innocence has been used as a weapon to destroy her virginity. She questions her mother

Why didn’t you tell me there was danger in men-folk? Why didn’t you warn me? Ladies know what to fend hands against, because they read novels that tell them of these tricks; but I never had the chance o’ leaning in that way, and you did not help me! .(98)

She hates herself for not knowing the dangers in the world . Her innocence becomes her weakness. When she is assaulted on her weakness her Pride overshadows in accepting the essence in reality of life. She knows well that she would get a stable sophisticated life but she firmly takes the decision to face the consequences and she rejects the proposal of marriage. She tells Alec, "If I had gone for love o’ you, if I had ever sincerely loved you, if I loved you still, I should not so loathe and hate myself for my weakness as I do now! My eyes were dazed by you for a little and that was all" (91). Tess wants to be independent and does not wish to serve a person who made her a victim of what she was lagging in. It is her decision to come back home and face a weird situation that the society does not approve of. The whispers she hears around her disables her to go to church. She looks into herself as a "figure of guilt intruding into the haunts of Innocence" (101). The guilt overcomes her confidence and she makes herself unhappy and miserable (108). She boldly decides to face the convention bound Victorian society when she bears a child without getting married. Tess could have thought about the offence against the society on bearing a fatherless child. But she stays calm unmindful of the profound views of the society and it is clearly obvious in baptising her own child when the child is rejected . A sense of regeneration happens and she tries to get over her memories of the past and she has :

changed from simple girl to complex woman. Symbols of reflectiveness passed into her face, and a note of tragedy at times into her voice her soul [was] that of a woman whom the turbulent experiences of the last year or two had quite failed to demoralize. ... To escape the past and all that appertained thereto was to annihilate it. (116)

Hardy has confirmed Tess to be the woman of that modern age who does not sit and cry for the past but like a Phoenix ,she rejuvenates her energy and goes to another stage . Hardy has rightly points out that " Once victim always victim"(381) . She meets Angel Angel whom she sees as an angel who is inversely proportional to that of Alec an embodiment of evil to her.

Her relationship with Angel at the Talbothays seems to be a turnover in her life after the narrowing experiences in her past. The decency of Angel in respecting the moral values in life encourages her to have more interest in him. Hardy has brought out the sequence of love between Angel and Tess in a very delicate manner that no expectation lies between them. All what they want is true love. Sexuality once again plays its part when Angel views Tess as a "dazzlingly fair dairymaid" (154) in the Talbothays. To Richard Carpenter " Tess is more vitally alive ; specifically she is more female , more sexual , more passionate. In combination with her innocence her gentleness and her worshipful loyalty , this sexuality makes her indeed a memorable character" (129). Angel Clare is moved by the beauty of Tess and he says "What a fresh and a virginal daughter of nature that milkmaid is! He said to himself " (142). Angel’s persistence overcomes her sorrow and it shakes her firm decision of not getting married to anyone. Though she loves him she rejects his proposal but Angel is positive because of the assurance that he read in her eyes. Tess not only considers Angel as an intelligent but as a man of virtues. She wins interest in Angel’s eyes and she feels. "There was hardly a touch of earth in her love for Angel ... he was all that goodness could be ... she saw something immortal before her" (221).

She likes to be a dazzling figure for Angel but she curbs herself due to her incidents of the past. She tries to tell her past to Angel but she fails. She does not realize the complicating nature of Angel. R.G.Cox quotes the idea of Pall Mall Gazette and William Watson about Angel’s typical and extra ordinary nature as complex and perplexing character. Also Ellen Lew Sprechman comments that Angel " is a young man of uncertain philosophies" (93). Right from the beginning and till her wedding night she remains in a world of confusion whether to confess her past or not. Her innocence prompts her to tell what has happened to her in the past. It is her freedom to tell for she likes to live a life free from the tortures of mind and soul because for Tess, it is just a story that is no longer present. It is a mere narration of events belonging permanently to the past. To Angel, the story is not present in its substance, but its effect, would destroy the Tess he loved.

During initial meetings with Tess, Angel’s attraction is more spiritual than brutal. He does not think her in terms of flesh and his love for her is more "etheral". Later he is obsessed with her and is "burdened inwardly by a waxing fervour of passion" (172) . His infatuation makes him more irresistible and cannot wait for "his heart had outrun his judgement" (176). His craving for her flesh over powers him and his impulses are out of his control. Without considering her status and driven by a heavy haul of impulse he finds logical reasons to possess her. He is a disciplined man of the society but he becomes an assertive person in carrying out his idea and forces Tess to plunge to his desire not giving a chance to explain her status. Angel confesses the impact that she has created on him, "I can‘t read, or play, I want to know ... that you will some day be mine" (203 ). He thinks her to be an unpossessed woman an epitome of purity and an untainted woman. That Tess’ fatal confession shows up Angel’s inability to accept the "hymen absent" girl is a hard truth. Hardy once again points out the war between the flesh and spirit that torments Angel Clare and Summner makes it more clear that "he needs her to be the embodiment of the purity which he feels he has lost" (137) .He loves the innocent flawless nature in her but he could not accept the fact that she has been a tainted one. Angel avoids Tess on the fear that threatens his masculinity of having sexual comparison with his rival Alec. He formulates himself to be a cruel and stubborn man and is no longer bound with the passion of love. It is a matter of "getting known" that Angel is worried of. His genuine love remains the same but he could not give away his cultural self. Besieged by guilt of unworthiness on her wedding day her confrontation has paved way for her own tragedy. It cannot be erased nor can be repaired. She is doomed once again of her weakness. Tess at the altar of marriage wants to be punished. The choice of marriage has a profound implication for the self. He fails to see the spiritual form of Tess. He considers that purity of spirit emerges from the physical nature .The marriage vows are broken and Tess readily accepts and submits to Angel’s decision for she considers him to be her judge who punishes her for her unworthiness in body and soul. She accepts that her impurity in her physical body does not allow her to be his dear wife

She decides to stay at Flintcomb –Ash. She is basically a girl of illusion and dream putting happiness and sorrow to an extreme. Here at Flint comb –Ash she has to rely on hard work. Her self- sacrifice that she does for the sake of her family and Angel makes her a woman of selfless attitude. She loses faith in herself and in the nature around her. She undergoes great hardship. Simon Gatrell in Thomas Hardy and the Proper Study of Mankind observes

the many tensions in her character that lead her to the gallows. The most obvious of those between humility and pride, and between innocence and sensuality but Hardy also makes it clear that there is also a conflict within Tess between acquired conventional belief and instinctive independence of mind. (99)

The harshness of the weather and the infertile field depicts the hard life that Tess is experiencing. She undertakes all the hardships for she optimistically holds on the view that she would be united with Angel one day. Alec tries to overcome her thoughts by persuading her by tricks and lies to come with him. He tries to hypnotise her and tells her to leave her husband forever. Tess who assumes the role of a caretaker for her family fights against the system of the conventional society. The incidents during her motherhood have affected her gravely that she submits herself to Alec for the second time when she feels that she has been treated by Angel in a harsh manner. Yet she could not give away the dreams that she has treasured in her minds to happen in future. Tess values her physical body for Angel and she submits to Alec for the sake of her family. She destroys her dreams and it is she who has taken the decision against her will. Angel’s love for Tess is felt when he reads Tess letters and his self –love is shattered and he goes immediately to meet her. The return of Angel and her inability to accept being a "fugitive in a dream" (434) forces her to murder Alec. She could not think of losing Angel again. The murder clearly illustrates of the waiting opportunity to avenge Alec. Tess’ failure in looking into the past to make a better future is the prime flaw in her. Tess’ failures are caused by her own failings. Her submissive nature and indecisiveness is her primal flaw. Her passivity during the seduction and her submission to Angel in punishing herself defines her flaw. It is her selfless attitude and the decision of giving punishment to herself is the cause of her misery. The destructive character of the protagonists arises from within and not from the outside. The couple enjoys a short span of reunion and she accepts the punishment of the social law.

Jude the Obscure is yet another milestone in defining the ways of an individual. It is the grimmest of Hardy’s tragedies. It deals with the modern themes of failure, frustration, disharmony and isolation as inescapable conditions of life. In the works of Richard Carpenter "The last novel Hardy wrote is also is most modern , turning away as it does from agricultural setting and pastoral with to a restless world of cities and psychological insecurities" (138). It is a tragedy of ‘unfulfilled aims’. It is Jude’s search "the presence of signified, a fixed meaning in life" (Garson 153). Jude is also a victim to his impulses. Hardy has aggressively discussed the issues of love, marriage and sex in an outraging manner. Feeling that he is in an age that needed some repair and reform on the socialistic conventional views of the society Hardy has written this novel highlighting the modern world’s psychological insecurities and the harsh city life. This novel has been Hardy’s new attempt of discussing issues in a striking manner as Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover who owes so much to Hardy in expressing the ideas of sexual natures of man and woman related with marriage. The hero of the story is Jude Fawley, a south – Wessex villager. The novel is about the suffering of a man who thinks himself worthless and useless since the drowning of his mother and death of his father. Being made an orphan he is considered to be the same to his Aunt Drusilla and later to Arabella and Sue. The sympathy towards his unsecured life is reflected when he feels mercy for a set of birds. It highlights his sickening feeling towards creatures that treat cruelly another. The criticism is that Jude and Sue do not have a family to support them and they hence do not know the importance of family. Jude has intellectual aspirations but they are never fulfilled because of a sensuous temperament and the play of circumstances. Jude wants to be a scholar but he is entangled in a love affair with Arabella, "a mere female animal" (46) and is compelled to marry her. She leaves him and he starts his studies again and wants to become a priest. But this time he falls in love with his cousin, Sue a lively intelligent young school teacher. But she marries an elderly school master Phillotson. Disappointed, bitter and unhappy, Jude takes to drinking and dies miserably.

One of Jude’s great ambitions in life is to become a scholar. Another important dream of his life is to become a Reverend Father in the church. All his dreams are shattered by two women of opposite nature the sensuous Arabella and the fastidious Sue. Jude is entangled in a love affair with Arabella because of his sensuous temperament and he is also entrapped into marrying her. A woman of vulgar designs, Arabella tricks Jude into a marriage by falsely asserting that she is pregnant. Arabella frustrates his efforts to make himself a scholar. "It is a complete smashing up of my plans … Dreams about books and degrees and impossible scholarships and all that" (70). Arabella overwhelms him with her physical charms and voluptuousness and Jude just cannot resist it. In the words of Sengupta in Thomas Hardy : The Novelist of Tragic Vision,

Arabella is the gross symbol of sex in contradistinction to Sue who is cold and sexless. In the form of Arabella, the power of sex runs through the whole book from her first deliberate seduction of a grave and artistic youth… to Jude’s futile attempt at suicide. (167).

He has completely forgotten his studies. His weakness for a woman proves to be a hindrance to his academic progress. Soon Jude finds that there is no argument between their tastes and priorities and Arabella leaves him on the pretext of visiting her parents Jude is shocked. Sengupta again remarks "With such divergent natures, Jude the day dreamer Arabella, the realist the marriage goes to the rocks very soon" (149). It does not take Jude long to realize that

their lives were ruined, by the fundamental error of their matrimonial union that of having based a permanent contract on a temporary feeling which had no necessary connection with affinities that alone render a life - long comradeship tolerable.(85)

Jude resumes his studies. But he now falls in love with his cousin Sue Bridehead, an intelligent young school teacher. Though he is disappointed in his love affair with Arabella, he is not cautious in his approach to women. He develops intimate relationship with the lovely Sue. That is because of his deep seated desire for sexual and emotional relationship with a lady. Though he has come to pursue the path of learning, his susceptibility to women remains. Hardy himself admits it when he calls him " a ridiculously affectionate fellow" (105) . His desire to become a priest becomes thwarted in the same manner as his aspiration to become a scholar. The human impulse is more powerful in him than the divine one. Sue marries an elderly schoolmaster, Philloston. But Jude loves her secretly. Disappointed in her marriage with Phillotson, Sue comes back to Jude. Jude marries her without any pricks of conscience. Sue with her typical feminine intuition is able to see through Jude’s weaknesses of character

You are Joseph the dreamer of dreams, Dear Jude, And a Tragic Don Quixote, and sometimes you are St. Stephen who, while they were stoning him who would see heaven opened ! Oh. My poor friend and comrade, you will suffer yet (254).

Jude pursues Sue both before and after her marriage with Phillotson. There is a constant internal warfare between flesh and spirit. His living with Sue is not approved by society. The death of their children causes a moral setback in Sue and she goes back to her former husband Phillotson. Jude’s second marriage with Sue is broken. He has been very depressed after losing Sue. But this depression has not enabled him to develop a philosophical detachment. On the contrary he once again allows himself to be trapped by the clever Arabella and remarries her under the adverse influence of liquor. But he is not able to derive any kind of happiness deserted by Sue, he becomes broken hearted and sick. In spite of his illness, he desires to see Sue for the last time and travels to Marygreen and meets her in the church. His health further deteriorates and Arabella too deserts him. She is so heartless that she leaves him alone at home and Jude dies uncared for. His sensuality is responsible for his failure in realising his aims. Jude falls victim to his own sensuality. In the words of Richard Carpenter ,

Jude’s problems , has he himself admits are not entirely of society’s making , just as his story is not entirely a social tract. His character accounts for the bulk of his difficulties and provides the motive force for the events in the novel" he continues to say "Jude is pulled this way and that by desires, weaknesses and misfortunes until he comes to be like a bewildered bear in the pit of his own emotion .(143-45)

He admits that his weakness for women and addiction to liquor are responsible for his ruin. His first aspiration for academic pursuits is spoiled by Arabella and his second aspiration for priesthood is destroyed by Sue. The blame may be shared by fate and a hostile society. But it is his sensual temperament that is mainly responsible for his fall. In a war between flesh and spirit, the cravings of the flesh gains mastery over him and he forgets his literary pursuits. Jude cannot subdue the flame of passion kindled in his heart by Arabella and Sue. Even after Arabella has left him, he does not retrace his steps. Again he falls in love with Sue and fins fresh attractions in her. He cannot control the intensity of his sexual passions and so his failure and frustration could not be prevented. Sengupta says that"Jude the Obscure is a dual tragedy. It is Jude’s tragedy as well as Sue’s" (157). Albert Gueard in Thomas Hardy : The Novels and Stories has pointed out " Sue combines with her sexlessness and even repugnance to the gross sexual act, a very strong impulse to arouse sexual desire in men" ( qtd Sengupta 157).

Of course Jude is aware of his faults. Self – knowledge comes to him. Self – realization dawns on him.

I m in a chaos of principles - grouping in the dark – acting by instinct and not after example . . . . I doubt if I have anything more for my present rule of life than following inclinations, which do me and nobody else any harm and actually give pleasure to those I love best(402)

Albert Gueard in his study of Thomas Hardy points out that in Jude the Obscure "the tragic attitude lays the blame not on the stars but on ourselves; it sees fate in character"(152). It is seen that Hardy lays the blame on Jude’s innate weakness of character. Jude himself attributes his failures to his "impulses", "affections", "vices" and "inclinations". But he never takes any efforts to control his impulses. He never acts to change his path. He continues to be a dreamer and achieves nothing. Albert Gueard rightly maintains that Jude the obscure is not tragic. When Sue goes back to Philloston, Jude cries out "you know what a weak fellow I am. My two Arch enemies you know my weakness for woman kind and my impulse to strong liquor. Don’t abandon me to them Sue, to save your soul only"(435). Here once again we are at the very core of Jude’s tragedy – a tragedy stemming from the weakness of characters. Here we see the pitiable cry of a weak man, seeking the help of a woman to save his soul too.

A character who goes out to his doom without struggling against the odds of life or without resisting the forces of evil which bring about his ruin may be pathetic but cannot be tragic. It is the heroic struggle and the passionate defiance of fate by Tess and Lear which endow them with a majesty and grandeur. We experience feeling that some one of great worth has been lost when we them destroyed. There is no such feeling aroused in Jude the Obscure. There is not much of a heroic struggle in Jude’s life if there was to be a struggle, he should not have remarried Arabella and again he should have stayed on with Sue and defied the hostile society. He has neither the rational strength to put up a brave fight. In the battle for life, the weak man drops out. That is the case of Jude, he has been an utter failure in life: both in ambition and in love because "it is really only ever the material and subsisting life that he attains" ( Dolin 221) . And this how Arabella sums up his character: "Never such a tender fool as Jude is, if a woman seems in trouble and coaxes him bit. Just as he used to be about birds and things" (330-31). He is so weak that he is unable to achieve his aspirations. There is great crisis indeed in both the emotional and intellectual life of Jude. But there is no great struggle, no resistance and no defiance. For his vision is blurred on account of sensuality as well as dreamy visionary attitude towards life. He just submits, succumbs and surrenders. He submits to the dictates of his heart, succumbs to temptations and surrenders to seductive charms of women and magic of liquor. There is nothing heroic about his deeds. He is caught in the clutches of a "war waged between flesh and spirit" (Orel 32). He leads a squalid life and gives up his ambitions and desires that he longed for from his childhood "The intentions as to reading, working, and learning, which he had so precisely formulated only a few minutes earlier, were suffering a curious collapse into a corner, he knew not how" (41). The protagonist come to their tragic doom through a flaw in their character. Jude’s sensuous temperament, Arabella’s gross sexuality and Sue’s immense inconsistency bring about the tragedy.

Hardy deals with the real issues of mankind: Marriage, Love and Sex. Hardy seems to caution that when they are based on wrong motives, they bring about ruin. The central issue in most of the novels is sexual love, a grinding passion that sweeps men and women along despite themselves,. Infidelity, illegitimacy and immorality lead to grief. So much so man misses the bliss of married life and the joy of true love. It is reflected in Tess’s relations with Alec, Eustacia’s relations with Wildeve, Bathsheba’s relations with Troy, Jude’s relations with Arabella and in the seduction of Fanny Robin. The novels portray the wrecked lives of the people. Hardy speaks out frankly on serious issues that produce a constant conflict in human life. Hardy is an objective writer. He is a keen observer of life. He interprets his observation in terms of human feelings. Everywhere he discovers the active and soverign presence of a force in the form of a tragic flaw in man He portrays the real human predicament. His theme is mankind’s predicament in the universe. Hardy’s vision of life yields an account of the world and the universe we live in.