Jude the Obscure: Part 6, Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

Meanwhile Phillotson is at Marygreen ruminating on his encounter with Arabella. He reads about the deaths of Jude and Sue’s children in the newspaper. Later he meets Arabella again, as she has moved back to Alfredston. Arabella tells Phillotson that Sue has left Jude and become religious as a way of dealing with the tragedy. She says that Sue now considers herself belonging only to Phillotson. Arabella gives Phillotson Sue’s address and then leaves, practicing making dimples in her cheeks as she walks.

Phillotson writes to Sue and asks her to come to Marygreen. He also writes that he has suffered for his decision to divorce her, as their society does not allow one to act according to one’s own moral compass, but then he removes this paragraph.

One day Sue comes to Jude’s lodgings and asks him to come out and meet her. They go to the cemetery together and Sue tells Jude that Phillotson has agreed to take her back and marry her again. Jude begs her to reconsider, again citing their own love, but finally he weeps that Sue’s “once keen vision was dimmed.” He calls her return to Phillotson a “fanatic prostitution.” Sue admits that she doesn’t love Phillotson, but she feels this is her duty.

They reach the graves of their children, and Sue says that they died to show her the error of her ways. She tells Jude that she will marry Phillotson at Marygreen, and asks him to send her her belongings. Then she bids Jude farewell, calling him her “fellow-sinner, and kindest friend,” and Jude calls her his “mistaken wife.”