Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), was always compassionate in his treatment of the ‘little man’. His exploration of the issues of class and gender inequalities are one of the things for which his writing is best known and in this novel it was the representation of the behaviour and treatment of children which caught my attention the most. From the novel’s opening chapters documenting Jude’s childhood, right through to the end with events concerning Jude’s own children, Hardy paints a picture of a society which regarded children as sinful and burdensome, while the children themselves are naïve and often delusional. Without giving too much away, events regarding Jude’s children are what give the novel a shocking edge and I must admit, this novel stayed with me for a long time afterwards and still makes me feel quite disconcerted when I think of it. Hardy’s final novel, Jude the Obscure has many themes to explore, as well as many musings on morality and society of the time, but it is the representation of children and how this relates to other works of the era that interests me here.
Jude Fawley as a child is intelligent and full of dreams. Hardy presents his occasional slacking with sympathy and describes the ill-treatment he suffers with humour and compassion. Take the following passage, a perfect example of Hardy’s sense of irony. After feeding the birds he is supposed to be scaring away, Jude is attacked by Farmer Troutham, for whom he has been working: “the blanks of the instrument [used to assault Jude]… echoing from the brand-new church tower… the farmer had subscribed to testify his love of God and man.” – p.11. Clearly, the farmer’s love of man does not extend to children, nor does his love of God extend to any particularly Christian behaviour. It is interesting that some of the first adult characters to whom we are introduced (Jude’s Aunt Drusilla, Farmer Throutham, Physician Vilbert) are all at best indifferent to children and at worst physically or emotionally violent towards them.
Jude himself is fairly one-dimensional, shown to be simply ‘good’.It is extremely poignant that Jude thinks, “if only he could prevent himself growing up! He did not want to be a man”. Growing up, discovering the evil of the word, losing sight of one’s aspirations (no matter how unrealistic they are) is profoundly sad and Hardy, ever cheery, leads us to question which is preferable: experiencing some degree of innocent optimism before adulthood snatches it away, or never having to undergo the crippling disappointment, as is the case with Jude’s younger children.
Jude’s son, Old Man Time, was never even given a proper name as a child, a fact which ties in with the concept that children are nothing but a burden; anonymous, numerous and perhaps even interchangeable with one another. A character created at a time when childhood mortality was still very high, Old Man Time is a fairly grotesque figure, full of contradictions. Young but cynical, impulsive and naïve but also haunted, Old Man Time does possess a child-like desire to be a part of Jude’s family with Sue, to please and be of use. A more depressing or depressed child, however, has never been conjured in literature before, one example being when he says, “I should like the flowers very much, if I didn’t keep on thinking they’d be all withered in a few days”. – p.262. Ultimately, this child of contradictions cannot function within the world he occupies; he feels too keenly as children do, but has the capacity of an adult to take cold action. Hardy has presented us, then, with a character that is practically unviable as a person, much like the relationship between Jude and Sue. He is a boy who should never have been born, unwanted as he was, and it is very little wonder that he believes himself and his siblings to be burdens. In fact, Victorian attitudes to children followed a similar line of thinking; think back to the old adage that children must be ‘seen but not heard’.
Another avenue explored in Jude the Obscure is delusions; more specifically, the delusions of children. Jude’s educational aspirations, fired up by a child’s tendency towards obsession, are a continued theme throughout the novel. We see how Jude’s continued childlikeness keeps the hope alive and that as he matures the futility of this hope becomes apparent. The terrible action of Old Man Time is triggered by another form of delusion, the ultimate worthlessness of a child’s life, although given the context of the times, it is possible that it is far from a delusion. This is shown starkly when he expresses “that whenever children be born that are not wanted they should be killed directly, before their souls come to ‘em and not allowed to grow big and walk about!” –p.296. This terrible statement may be disguised by the child’s use of language, but the world-weariness is there. However, it could be noted that while Jude’s aspirations are borne from a naivety that continues well into adulthood, Old Man Time’s despair comes from an awareness of human nature and society far beyond his years.
Hardy presents an ironic and subversively critical glimpse of Victorian attitudes to children and childhood and at time this reminded me very much of the novels of Charles Dickens. Adults’ treatment of children, the idea that children were ‘little adults’ and the sad reality of poverty, overcrowding and mortality are all concepts explored within this novel in a touching and sometimes shocking way. In fact, the final chapters contrasted quite sharply, I felt, with the earlier part of the novel; we are awoken abruptly from the meandering and sometimes word-heavy narrative by a graphic and horrifying conclusion. That is all I will say for now, because I have tried very hard to avoid giving away any spoilers. I was very unfortunate in that I read far too much background research regarding this novel and totally spoilt it for myself! Definitely give this one a go – it’s thoroughly worth wading through. Thomas Hardy is one is my favourite novelists and I am looking forward to reading The Return of the Native soon for my book club.
My next post will be the long-awaited comment on War and Peace, focusing on the presentation of parent-child relationships. As always, feel free to leave a comment or drop me an e-mail. And thanks for reading!
- K
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