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Literary Devices
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Part 1, Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Babel Before the Flood:
When the young Jude Fawley runs into a group of rural workers in Part 1, Chapter 3, he asks them if they have come from Christminster. They scoff at him, telling him they have nothing to do with the place. In this interaction, Hardy makes an allusion to the doomed city of Babel in the Bible. He suggests that, through the eyes of the carter and his companions, Babel and Christminster might as well be the same thing:
‘O, they never look at anything that folks like we can understand, ’ the carter continued, by way of passing the time. ‘On’y foreign tongues used before the Flood when no two families spoke alike. They read that sort of thing as fast as a night-hawk will whir. ’Tis all learning there – nothing but learning, except religion.
"Before the Flood" as it is alluded to here refers to the period described in the Bible before the "cleansing of the world" that Noah escaped in the Ark. To these workers, the university is filled with sinners that have nothing to do with the real life of contemporary England. The university is so ancient that it's practically antediluvian (meaning “before the Flood.”) The speech of Babel and the learned speech of the university are aligned in this passage. The carter implies that the men of the University are sinful and distant from the real world and that their easy command of "foreign tongues" that normal people can't understand is linked to this remoteness from everyday life.
Jude is confused by this conversation because he has always believed learning and religion to be fundamentally aligned. The carter, however, distinguishes between education and religion in this passage, implying that being educated means one cannot be a good Christian.
Related Themes:
Part 1, Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis—Samson and Delilah:
Hardy foreshadows Jude's marital misery in a scene from Part 1, Chapter 7, in which Jude and Arabella eat at an inn. He does so by alluding to the biblical story of Samson and Delilah, making this allusion in relation to a painting of Samson and Delilah hanging above the table at the inn:
The maid-servant recognized Jude, and whispered her surprise to her mistress in the background, that he, the student, ‘who kept hisself up so particular, ’ should have suddenly descended so low as to keep company with Arabella. The latter guessed what was being said, and laughed as she met the serious and tender gaze of her lover – the low and triumphant laugh of a careless woman who sees she is winning her game.
They sat and looked round the room, and at the picture of Samson and Delilah which hung on the wall.
In this biblical story, an immoral woman seduces a good man and robs him of his powers for personal and social gain. Jude in this situation is aligned with Samson, while Arabella is aligned with Delilah. Unbeknownst to him, she is beginning to lead him down a path that will eventually destroy him.
Everyone can see that Jude who “kept hisself up so particular” is keeping company with someone below his station, but Arabella brazenly doesn't care. She "laughs" as she meets Jude's "serious and tender gaze" because, like Delilah with Samson, she knows she has snared him. Later, in Part 1, Chapter 11, when Jude is so unhappy he is contemplating suicide, he comes back to this inn and sees the painting again:
He supposed he was not a sufficiently dignified person for suicide. Peaceful death abhorred him as a subject, and would not take him. What could he do of a lower kind than self-extermination; what was there less noble, more in keeping with his present degraded position? [...] He struck down the hill northwards and came to an obscure public-house. On entering and sitting down the sight of the picture of Samson and Delilah on the wall caused him to recognize the place as that he had visited with Arabella on that first Sunday evening of their courtship.
Jude’s misery is intensified by seeing the picture, as he recognizes himself in the story this time. The fact that Arabella leaves him shortly after this seems like a very good thing, although it’s in violation of the religious and social principles that made them marry initially. However, in this moment he feels so low that he thinks he is not even good enough or "sufficiently dignified" to commit suicide. He enters an "obscure" public house to drown his sorrows; whenever Jude is associated with this word, it's never a good sign.
Related Themes:
Part 1, Chapter 11
Explanation and Analysis—Samson and Delilah:
Hardy foreshadows Jude's marital misery in a scene from Part 1, Chapter 7, in which Jude and Arabella eat at an inn. He does so by alluding to the biblical story of Samson and Delilah, making this allusion in relation to a painting of Samson and Delilah hanging above the table at the inn:
The maid-servant recognized Jude, and whispered her surprise to her mistress in the background, that he, the student, ‘who kept hisself up so particular, ’ should have suddenly descended so low as to keep company with Arabella. The latter guessed what was being said, and laughed as she met the serious and tender gaze of her lover – the low and triumphant laugh of a careless woman who sees she is winning her game.
They sat and looked round the room, and at the picture of Samson and Delilah which hung on the wall.
In this biblical story, an immoral woman seduces a good man and robs him of his powers for personal and social gain. Jude in this situation is aligned with Samson, while Arabella is aligned with Delilah. Unbeknownst to him, she is beginning to lead him down a path that will eventually destroy him.
Everyone can see that Jude who “kept hisself up so particular” is keeping company with someone below his station, but Arabella brazenly doesn't care. She "laughs" as she meets Jude's "serious and tender gaze" because, like Delilah with Samson, she knows she has snared him. Later, in Part 1, Chapter 11, when Jude is so unhappy he is contemplating suicide, he comes back to this inn and sees the painting again:
He supposed he was not a sufficiently dignified person for suicide. Peaceful death abhorred him as a subject, and would not take him. What could he do of a lower kind than self-extermination; what was there less noble, more in keeping with his present degraded position? [...] He struck down the hill northwards and came to an obscure public-house. On entering and sitting down the sight of the picture of Samson and Delilah on the wall caused him to recognize the place as that he had visited with Arabella on that first Sunday evening of their courtship.
Jude’s misery is intensified by seeing the picture, as he recognizes himself in the story this time. The fact that Arabella leaves him shortly after this seems like a very good thing, although it’s in violation of the religious and social principles that made them marry initially. However, in this moment he feels so low that he thinks he is not even good enough or "sufficiently dignified" to commit suicide. He enters an "obscure" public house to drown his sorrows; whenever Jude is associated with this word, it's never a good sign.
Related Themes:
Part 2, Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Hymn to Proserpine:
In the third chapter of Part 2, Hardy alludes to a poem by a Victorian contemporary of his, foreshadowing Sue Bridehead’s later encounters with death and the extreme highs and lows of her life. When Sue can't sleep after an awkward interaction with Jude, she turns to a book of poetry by the Victorian writer Algernon Swinburne. It falls open to these lines from "The Hymn to Proserpine":
– ‘Thou hast conquered, O pale Galilean
The world has grown grey from thy breath!’
This poem centers around a speech made by the Roman Emperor Julian after Christianity was first established in Rome—an event that significantly restructured its culture. This is another moment in the text where Sue shows a scholarly interest in non-Christian deities and world history while also demonstrating that she’s reading and understanding contemporary poetry enough to understand Swinburne’s lines. She seems shaken herself by the poem, as immediately after this she “extinguishes” her candle and lies down in the dark again.
Hardy only puts a small bit of this poem into the novel. It's unnerving enough by itself, and it signals that something is wrong even if the reader isn't familiar with Swinburne. However, the poem as a whole directly addresses what is to come for Sue later in the novel. In his "Hymn to Proserpine," Swinburne references and mourns the eventual death of all gods as the world changes and regimes die out. By including a subtle reference to this poem, Hardy delicately foreshadows the deaths to come in Sue's life, as well as the "death" of her intellectual freedom and happiness.
Related Themes:
