Hardys Jude the Obscure :: Religion Religion Jude Hardy Essays

braws Jude the put offIn Hardys Jude the Obscure, Hardy shows his views on theology andcommitment to the Church which were express to have declined in the latter years ofhis life. (Ingham, xxvii) Throughout the book Hardy displays his smell outing that faith is something that people subprogram in order to action themselves by givingtheir lives meaning. One instance in which Hardy clear displays this is whenhe writes, It had been the yearning of his heart to find something to anchor on,to cling to. (Ingham, 94) In order to bring out this point Hardy chooses tocreate Jude as an orphan and has him come from obscure origins. By doing this hecreates a portion who is looking for something to give him an identity. As aresult of his relationship with Mr. Phillotson (who leaves for Christminster inorder to become ordained), he finds religion and feels that he can use it tohelp him gain an identity. Hardy feels that people should shy away from their hoary ways of thinking and begin t o form new opinions of their own. He feels thatpeople should not just blindly follow religion without deciding for themselvesthat this is what they want. race should not be as Jude who becomes obsessedwith religion simply because his instruct Phillotson felt this way. One of themajor reasons that causes Hardy to have these views is that he feels religionleads to hypocrisy. He feels that spell has some desires that go against the lawsof religion, and these desires lead man to feel very hypocritical. Thesefeelings of hypocrisy then cause man to have many inner conflicts that lead tomany problems. This negativity towards religion is seen both done symbols inthe book and in the plot itself. The symbols that convey this message argon thename Jude, which is an allusion to Judas Iscariot who was a traitor to Jesus.The name Jude can also be a reference to the wandering Jew. The second symbol isChristminster. Christminster symbolizes a institution in which Jude sees howremarkable the C hurch is, but it is a place that exists solely in Judesimagination. Another symbol that we encounter is that of Samson who is symbolicof man going after women that are forbidden to him. We also encounter areference to Nebuchadnezzars furnace, which is used to question God by asking wherefore the righteous suffer. Finally, the job Jude chooses is also symbolic of theanti-religious attitude that is shown.The negativity towards religion is first revealed in the name Jude.