Orality in Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure: Diachronic Approach

Abstract

The paper unveils some salient issues in Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure in order to further illuminate the obscure nature of the web of meanings in the novel through recourse to psychoanalysis and the place of orality in the explication of the behaviour of Jude. The search for meaning may take the form of review of the text as well as the application of psychoanalysis in order to provide a scientific backing to the claims that are made therein. The unwritten historical scripts of the people of Wessex are also considered as instrumental in the semantic import of the text. The paper sums up the challenges that Jude faces to be borne out of the deep and dark level of the unconscious typifying the family lineage. It is, therefore, the inability of Jude to cross the boundary between his own ego and that of the family that is responsible for his inability to live a normal life and to this, the oral environment provides a clue.