Jude the Obscure Religion Quotes

Before religion enters the picture, Jude dreams of being a scholar. He studies the classics. However, religion holds such sway in this time and place that Jude decides at one point that his focus has been all wrong, and that he should be studying the Testaments and leading a better life. At moments of doubt throughout his life, Jude will often return to religion to try to regroup. That is, until he is shunned because of his choices, his kids get killed, and the woman he loves leaves him—then he decides he's had enough of this whole religion thing. Hey, a guy can only take so much, right?

Ah, even God can't compete with the ladies as far as Jude is concerned. While he might go back to his religious studies in moments of doubt, he lets them slide quite a bit when he is first courting Arabella (as in this quote) and throughout his pursuit of Sue.

It's just good to keep in mind that in the time and place of the novel, there is the "Christian" world, and there is everything that falls outside of that world. Here, the novel is quoting from Edward Gibbon's giant eighteenth-century history book, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon is asking how it is that the "Pagan and philosophic world" could have ignored the miracles that were the signs of the birth and rise of Jesus. Hardy's quote here emphasizes that the struggle between personal Christian faith and the intellectual study of philosophy and non-Christian cultures isn't exactly new—it's something Gibbon faces way back in the eighteenth century, over a hundred years before poor Jude.

Sue is smart, sexy, and has a rebellious streak? No wonder Jude falls for her so badly. One of our first glimpses at the great Sue Bridehead is this little act of revolt. She visits a market and makes the nearly scandalous decision to buy figures that bear images of non-Christian deities. This is such a big deal that she has to cover them while returning home, and eventually, the head of the house where she stays sees them and smashes them.

Speaking of those figures: This is what Sue says when she buys Venus and Apollo. She is pretty clear about being sick of "those everlasting church fal-lals"—in other words, images of saints and Christian religious subjects. Again, Hardy establishes her as a rebel, and right now, most of her little rebellions seem to be against religion.

Oh, Jude, once again a lady has entered your life, whatever will you do? While our hero let his religious studies falter when he first met Arabella, he now turns to religion to help him rid himself of his desire for Sue. Um, it doesn't really work out—if it did, we wouldn't have much of a novel, really.

Sue is talking about those pesky statues that she bought. Even though she'll take her steps to stand up to the religion of the land, she's not comfortable enough to let Jude know about it until they know each other better. Hey, it's all about trust.

Classic Sue—always turning to the classics. For her, happiness is defined by the Greeks, and not the Christians. She almost seems at times like she belongs in a different era. This changes in the end, but for the majority of the novel, she revels in those "pagan" beliefs and philosophies because they give her a degree of freedom that she doesn't get from the strict Christian beliefs of the people around her.

It can't be said enough that in a boldly Christian world, Sue sees herself and Jude as being something outside it. At least, until she embraces religion and kind of becomes a zealot and pretty much becomes everything she once mocked towards the end of the novel.

Even for poor Phillotson, the battle between the church and women rages inside him. Now, it could be argued that while Phillotson might not see it this way, Hardy is much more in favor of women than he is of religion.