Jude the Obscure characters
In the beginning, Jude's tale has the makings of a real rags-to-riches story. Jude is a classic small-town kid with big dreams, and he has the drive to achieve what he wants. It is no accident that at one point Sue compares him to two of the biggest dreamers ever, Joseph of Biblical and...
Sue is a very independent, strong and sympathetic character. Also she is Jude's intelligent cousin. She has changed several jobs. She works first as an artist-designer and later as a teacher. Sue is a modern woman and a free-thinker. She rebels in her marriage and carries out a...
Arabella is the flirtatious daughter of a pig-butcher who lives in Alfredston, near Marygreen. She is Jude's first romance. She is so selfish, thoughtless, and manipulative that it's hard to take her seriously as a character in some ways—she's like a cartoon villain or something...
The schoolmaster of Marygreen, and young Jude Fawley's role model. He never realizes his dream of getting a university degree and marries Sue Bridehead, twenty years his junior. He leaves his job as a schoolmaster in the small town where Jude lives to pursue his dreams of becoming a scholar in...
Little Father Time doesn't show up until really late in the novel, but boy does he make his role count. From the moment we meet the child of Jude and Arabella, we know something is a little off. He gets his nickname because he is "Age masquerading as Juvenility"—in other words...
We doesn’t know a lot of useful, or at least any other information about this character. She doesn’t have a big role or impact. But still, she is Jude's elderly great-aunt, who works as a baker in Marygreen. She is a fiercely devout evangelical who raises him indifferently after...
A kindly old widow whom Jude hires to take care of Aunt Drusilla when the latter falls ill. She becomes a close friend of Jude and Sue. These three characters—Jude and Sue's aunt Drusilla, the widow Mrs. Edlin, and Phillotson's friend Gillingham—are all on hand to give helpful...
The same situation is here. Gillingham is a character who appears in the novel very rarely. He is Mr. Phillotson’s best friend since they were kids. Like some other characters like Phillotson and Sue, he also works as a teacher in Shaston. He doesn’t have a big impact and a big role in...