The book can be the sister novel of Tess of the D’urbervilles. It narrates the life tragedy of Jude, a young man in the countryside, in a tragic style. Hardy claims that the novel will “painstakingly interpret a tragic life with unfulfilled ambitions”. Jude the Obscure points out how the shackles of social morality, law, marriage and other stereotypes stifle people’s free will and desire with distinctive social criticism.
