ODB: Jude Part Second

I find it strange how much difficulty I am having in divining the overall moral lesson implicit in Jude's tragic tale. As with all victorian works, there is a moral cautioning present, but I cannot seem to divine exactly what the caution is from. Much like Sue's astounding "turn to the right-about like this" (276, Hardy), all the tale seems to build to the advent of joy following Jude's release of all of his stultified ideals and beliefs. For one transcendant moment, Jude finds true love and happiness, and we are lead to believe it is because of his newfound disregard for old practices and traditions. And then all of a moment it all goes to hell! The murder/suicide of little Father Time is unforeseen, unforeshadowed, and entirely unexpected. From the greatest height of contentment in the narrative it falls to the deepest chasm of tragedy it is yet to explore. From this point on there is no further happiness for any character in the tale.

Which is he, or if he is both, what story does he tell?

And even futher, what in heaven's name is the motivation of Father Time? Why that name, why the character, what does this enigmatic child serve the author to say? To be fair, aside from the strangeness of his existence, I found a kindred soul in the boy. No doubt each of us has lead a life filled with adult worries come upon us, seeming to "see all [the world's] terrors before they are old enough to have staying power to resist" (264, Hardy). Father Time's personality left little doubt to the fact that he was an intellectual, and a somber one at that, precisely the stereotype of the typical vitorian scholar. Far too many are the worries we take on in our youth, as a new and changing world finds thousands of novel ways to provide them for us, creating old souls with inexperienced hearts to house them.

A Jude the Obscure

So what is the message to be found here? I confess I simply do not know. It is as confusing in its vagueness as finding that someone would have named a beautiful flower after so dreary and heartrending a tale as Judes. Does Hardy wish to encourage his audience to throw aside convention and tradition and seek happiness in their lives, to seek the happiness Jude so briefly held? Or does he scream that it is a fools errand, an indulgence into wickedness, and that the corruption and loss of all innocence will be its terrible price? These answers are left unclear, unanswered in my mind, for even at the end, when each of them returns to their rightful position in a stultifying and miserable life, they do not find happiness, or even acceptance, only further death and sadness.