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I Will Survive[1]: Jude the Obscure’s Arabella

At first glance, Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure appears as a tragic story of Jude’s failed relationships and achievements, but in the background of the novel is the rational character, Arabella, whose thoughts and ideas are suppressed by Hardy and Jude. They portray the down-to-earth Arabella as a heartless seductress, and many read her as such, but that does not mean she is not a survivor. Arabella encompasses the archetype of the Earth Mother who lives off of her fertility and sexuality. Arabella is just that, a sexual creature that understands the cycle of life and death, and what must be done in order to maintain that cycle. She does everything in her power to survive as a Victorian woman while also fulfilling the duties of the Earth Mother. This attitude forces the reader to view her as a vile, selfish, and promiscuous person. Hardy describes Arabella’s natural instincts as animalistic, “a complete and substantial female animal—no more, no less.”[2] Jude tells his story from a biased view, a very sensitive, emotional, and ideal perspective that tends to ignore practicality or reality. Because he is a dreamer in a Victorian world, he does not belong and is unable to survive because of the Victorians’ intolerance to the idealistic. Most men in literature are terribly afraid of the Earth Mother, but Jude’s daydreaming prevents him from seeing the power and importance she holds. She has a power he cannot possess nor understand—the power of life and death. Arabella is the Earth Mother, the survivor, and the hero of Jude the Obscure.

“Love”

Arabella’s actions are animalistic and overt, but only because the Earth Mother must conform to the standards of the Victorian woman in order to accomplish her goals. In a Victorian world, the creation of life starts with love. Like the old rhyme, “First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage.” These are the rules Arabella must follow to complete the circle of life. Arabella pursues love in order to survive in the Victorian society, and she goes about it in a direct manner:

On a sudden something smacked him sharply in the ear, and he became aware that a soft cold substance had been flung at him and had fallen at his feet. A glance told him what it was—a piece of flesh, the characteristic part of a barrow-pig, which the country-men used for greasing their boots, as it was useless for any other purpose.[3]

Arabella uses the pig penis as her missile to portray to Jude what she wants from him. She does not want a sentimental relationship, she wants a sexual relationship. The goddess of fertility simply wants to have sex, not engage in an emotional affair, but Jude sees the penis and says, “used for greasing their boots, as it was useless for any other purpose.” Jude does not understand the gesture, which results in mixed communication. He does not see that he is dispensable, just as the pig’s penis. All Arabella needs is a man to help her reproduce, she can easily throw him away like the pig. Her action of throwing the penis was a sign for Jude: that is all he is to her, that is all she wants from him, and it is easy for her to throw away. Jude assumes that all love is the same; he is unable to open his mind to different concepts of the feeling. His love is a courtly love, where secrecy and passion motivate the pursuit. Arabella’s idea of love is a more practical sense of the feeling. What she wants from Jude is his body–his social status, prestige, future, and goals hold no importance to her. Once Arabella fulfills her idea of love, she moves towards the next step—marriage.

“Marriage”

Arabella’s relationship with Jude appalls him because it is purely sexual and because she does not share the same feelings that he does. Her fake hair, her fake dimples, her fake pregnancy, and her fake innocence disgust him. Even though he is aware that he is repulsed by her deceit, he still clings on to his fantasies, “For his own soothing he kept up a factitious belief in her. His idea of her was the thing of most consequence, not Arabella herself.”[4] These fake elements of Arabella that Jude detests are the only survival tools Arabella is given. For a pig-farmer’s daughter in the Victorian era, she overcomes great obstacles in order to achieve her goals. She climbs the social ladder and marries against all odds, even though her reputation and social status are enough to keep anyone from marrying her. To find a husband despite her repute, Arabella chooses her husband wisely. She chooses a man that she knows will not care about these elements of her character. Her goal is not to find someone that understands her, cares for her, or even loves her, but to find someone that will have sex with her. While her friends call Jude simple-minded, she knows he is not stupid but a daydreamer, unlike ordinary Victorian men. He does not have the same ethical views. As an idealist, Jude freely pursues a woman for the romantic elements of the relationship rather than the practicality of starting a family. Although Arabella chooses Jude for his unorthodox views of love and marriage, she fails to see his different views of life and death.

“Life and Death”[5]

The idea of life and death between Jude and Arabella stands as the major disagreement between the two characters. When Jude must kill a pig, he chooses to do so quickly and mercifully, but Arabella wants the pig killed slowly for the blackpot. Jude is reluctant to kill the pig, and while doing so says, “It is a hateful business!” Arabella shortly retorts, “Pigs must be killed.” Once the pig is dead, Jude exclaims with relief, “Thank God! … He’s dead.” Arabella scorns him, “What’s God got to do with such a messy job as pig-killing, I should like to know! … Poor folks must live.”[6] Jude’s focus on the pig’s pain averts him from the reality of the situation—they survive by killing pigs. Arabella understands that by killing the pig, they are supporting life; things are born and things die, there is no avoiding the situation. Arabella’s idea of the circle of life[7] is commonly disregarded as her insensitivity to other creatures, but on the contrary, it shows her acute appreciation of life by accentuating her understanding of the cycle. Differing ideas of life and death spark many of their conflicts in the novel.

Jude returns to Marygreen at the notice of his dying aunt. He encounters Arabella at a bar, and she offers to accompany him the next day. Jude does not trust her intentions, suspecting her reasons: “There was something particularly uncongenial in the idea of Arabella, who had no more sympathy than a tigress with his relations or him, coming to the bedside of his dying aunt, and meeting Sue.”[8] Arabella is not the unsympathetic animal Jude depicts her as. Her second marriage to Cartlett has turned stale and lacks the sexual attention that she desires. This supports the belief that Arabella is the Earth Mother figure of the novel because if she would stay in the unfruitful marriage, then she would die. She needs a productive sexual relationship in order to live, and searches for a new companion in order to fulfill her sexual desires. She uses the opportunity to try and reunite with Jude, but he sees her pursuit as lack of sympathy, and this repulses him. But the situation is like the pig: Arabella understands that Drucilla’s death is inevitable because she is ill and old. The Earth Mother is not sympathetic towards the dying because she knows that fertility and life will always follow.

Arabella’s lack of grief and remorse over the deaths of Little Father Time, Carlett, and Jude seem to have earned the disdain of Hardy and readers, but her reactions were neither callous nor heartless. There is no visible sorrow with the deaths, but only because she knows she must continue on with her life. She does not crumble like Sue at the death of Little Father Time, and she continues to survive even after the death of her two husbands. Her actions are not selfish; they are survival tactics. After the death of Cartlett and the argument with her father, Arabella is homeless and penniless, so she returns to Jude. As Jude grew ill and towards death, Arabella explained, “Weak women must provide for a rainy day. And if my poor fellow upstairs do go off—as I suppose he will soon—it’s well to keep chances open. And I can’t pick and choose now as I could when I was younger. And one must take the old if one can’t get the young.”[9] Understandably, this reaction to Jude’s death is seen as ruthless, but her circumstance would not have called for anything else. The options for a single, lower-class woman of that time were discussed in class: living with the family, prostitution, or suicide. She recognizes the dilemma she is in, and that in order to survive, she must find a new husband.

“Animal Rights”

Arabella is the true Victorian hero of the novel, but do Arabella’s views of life and death conflict with the Victorian’s ideas of animal rights? Most would say yes because of her pig slaughtering—she wants the pig to slowly die from the loss of blood. But her intentions are not suffering, her intentions are survival. John Oswald argues that if people were forced to kill the animals themselves, they would turn to vegetarianism:

On the carcass we feed, without remorse, because the dying struggles of the butchered creature are secluded from our sight; because his cries pierce not our ear; because his agonizing shrieks sink not into our soul: but were we forced, with our own hands, to assassinate the animals whom we devour, who is there amongst us that would not throw down, with detestation, the knife; and, rather than imbrue his hands in the murder of the lamb, consent, forever, to forego the favorite repast?[10]

Those who slaughter the animals are “brutal” and “inured.” But how can the Earth Mother be against animal rights? She loves and respects all creatures—and that is exactly Arabella’s character. She does not falter between humans and animals; they are equals in her eyes. Her reaction to the death of humans is the same as the death of pigs. Victorian activist, Arthur Schopenhauer, agreed that animals have the same natural rights as humans, despite lacking free will and intelligence. But he considers vegetarianism superfluous. The emphasis on animal rights is the consideration in morality. Vegetarianism is not necessary for animal rights. Cruelty and abuse towards the animals before the slaughter is the immoral injustice. Just as Arabella has little remorse toward the pig, Arabella has little remorse toward the death of her husbands and child because she views it as an occurrence that is inevitable and necessary. The death of the pig is necessary in order for them to survive. This in no way conflicts with the Victorian ideas of animal rights.

Nevertheless, arguments that Jude is the animal activist hold strong. He allows the crows to eat the corn, he tiptoes around the worms, and he kills the pig quickly. Yes, these things all protect the animals, but what about the people? He has no consideration towards humans. If not consideration, he lacks an understanding of humans. He does not understand the elements of human survival. Ultimately, this is what causes his downfall at the end of the novel. Without the corn, how will the farmer survive? Without the blackpot, how will Jude support his family? Animal rights stress animal and human equality. Jude almost puts the animals on a pedestal, higher than himself. Jude is an idealist, borderline naturalist, that can not foresee or confront the consequences to his actions.

Arabella is the only character in Jude the Obscure that is able to survive after the novel’s end. Arabella was able to continue to exist as the Earth Mother in the Victorian world although her lifestyle was looked down upon, she lost her child, and she was widowed twice. She is a sexually-driven female that is perceived as innocent and angelic to society in order to live without ill repute. Arabella had to outwit, outlast, and outplay in order to survive through the hardships she faced. Her strong will and understanding of the cycle of life helped her survive through daily tasks, the pressures of society, and the death of her family. Arabella is able to rise above from a position of weakness and live successfully in the Victorian world. If she had given into emotions like Jude, she would have failed just as he had.

Total WC: 2,155
Quotes: 312
WC: 1843