Jude the Obscure: Part 6, Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

Jude and Sue find lodgings in the Beersheba district, and Jude finds some stonemasonry work. They spend much of their time sitting silently together, both in anguish. Sue declares that they “must conform,” as they have tried to fight God and have failed. Jude accuses himself of being a “seducer,” a man who corrupted Sue’s inherently pure nature.

Sue is fixated on the idea that they are being punished, and she decides that she still rightfully belongs to Phillotson, as she and Jude never really married. She feels that she has sinned against God by leaving Phillotson, and her children’s death was the result. In the following weeks Sue grows more obsessively religious and concerned with “mortifying the flesh,” while Jude remains agnostic, feeling he is battling only humanity and blind chance.

Sue says she wishes she could take back all her unorthodox views and formidable intellect. Jude is upset by this, and he asks Sue to marry him if that will satisfy her new fear of the law. Sue refuses. She says that she has started going to church in secret, and she thinks she must leave Jude and return to Phillotson. Jude realizes that he and Sue are switching places in terms of religious belief.

A few days later Arabella visits the couple. She says she visited the children’s graves but didn’t feel comfortable coming to the funeral. Arabella offhandedly describes Sue as Jude’s wife, but Sue denies this and leaves. Arabella tells Jude that her father has returned from Australia and she is living with him now. She departs after a respectable amount of time.

Meanwhile Sue has disappeared, and Jude goes to look for her at the church, though it is nighttime. He finds Sue there sobbing and prostrating herself. Sue rebukes Jude for coming, but tells him that she sees the children’s tragedy as a sign and punishment from God – Arabella’s child, who was born in wedlock, killed Sue’s children, who were born out of wedlock.

Jude responds by lamenting that the once brilliant, wise Sue has so degraded herself, and he tells her that she is making him hate religion. Jude asks Sue to come home with him, as they are husband and wife according to “Nature’s law.” Sue refuses, saying that they are not married under “Heaven’s law.” Later she laments that the world was not ready for such “pioneers” as they tried to be, but that she is now totally broken and ready to submit to society.

Jude accuses Sue of never having really loved him. She says she does love him, but she started out merely desiring to be loved by him. She begs Jude to leave her, as she is now convinced that she must return to Phillotson. Jude pleads with Sue but finally relents, saying that their “highest and purest love” is now ruined, and declaring “let the veil of our temple be rent in two.” Jude kisses Sue’s face as she weeps, and then he departs in silence.