Evolution or Degeneration in Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure in the Context of the Darwinism

초록

The Victorian England was an age of transition and paradox in that it had experienced progress in relation to science and technology; however, at the same time contrasting ideas co-existed, for example, materialism and anti-materialism, secularization and spirituality. While it is coloured with the sense of progress, it has to deal with the idea of degeneration. Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species may symbolize the hope of advancement, but the people still appear to experience the sense of degeneration. If we look at Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure, we can find such thought in the two characters, Jude and Sue. Accordingly, this essay investigates Jude the Obscure, particularly, in terms of religion and women in two characters, Jude and Sue, in the context of the Victorian age. This essay portrays that the two characters attempt to build up a kind of new identity in relation to education and womanhood against a traditional authority, but their failures allude to degeneration in Hardy’s pessimism.

키워드