"What is the relation between the image of the 'rural' and the idea of England in 'Jude the Obscure' and 'Howard's End'."

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Garrett Halliwell                

EGL 352

Paper 1

Garrett Halliwell

ID#104678790

“What is the relation between the image of the ‘rural’ and the idea of England in ‘Jude the Obscure’ and ‘Howard’s End’.”

The novel by Thomas Hardy, ‘Jude the Obscure’, and E.M. Forster’s ‘ Howard’s End’, are two novels narrating the lives and times of various people These chronicle the environmental and social aspects surrounding the characters in them, and their progression through life. Each delivers a stark contrast in the lives of the main characters, and the different troubles and pleasures they incur during their lifetime. . This essay will show a connection between these two novels in the context that they display the image of the rural and the historic, international image that the British common wealth established amongst the rest of the worlds cultures.

        The first area that needs to be addressed when answering this question is the image of the rural. The simple, universal definition of the term rural in Standard English, means the characteristics of, or pertaining to the country and the people living in the country. The novel by Thomas Hardy ‘Jude The Obscure’ is the best source to draw details and perceptions for this idea of the rural, as the theme and it’s main character Jude, is largely based on his rural lifetime. When thinking about the rural, often one of the first images we get is the image of a livelihood based around agriculture. Agriculture and other simple professions seem to be the main stay of the economic structure of a rural environment. Evidence for this image can be found in ‘Jude The Obscure’. From Jude’s early life as a boy we see him scaring away birds from crops

“ Just now he’s a-scaring of birds for farmer Troutham. It keeps him out of mischty.” (Page 17‘Jude the obscure’)

This quote also is symbolic of the language differences within the rural and the urbane. The city linguistic system is more proper in the sense that they don’t conjoin words or shorten words ‘mischty’ being an example of the latter. The image of the rural, as seen in terms of their work is primitive and largely agricultural. The rural people are seen to live in a less sophisticated habitat, boarding rooms and lodges; also small farming cottages are often the main perceptions of rural habitats. Another major aspect of the perception of the rural can be described as a ‘small town attitude’. What this means, is that the people within the community are tightly knit and highly communicative. It could also be suggested that these ‘small town attitude’ people have a resentment for the more urbane people, this is also in the text of ‘Jude the obscure’. They may be right in some cases but as Jude displays in Hardy’s novel, he aspires to be more city like. He reads to become more intellectual, wiser and to master the various linguistic abilities of the higher social class. There are two main other cases which display common rural activities. These are the tendencies to go to church and to commune in public houses.

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There are several scenes set where Jude is in a Public house, either trying to assimilate himself with the more intellectual parts of society, of which he fails, and other times when he is simply drinking away his sorrows. The rural, in the sense of the image that the novel ‘Jude the obscure’ portrays or proposes, suggests many common theologies about the life style. These can be summarized but may not be fully comprehended in the manner in which they where supposed to be taken. These are, in their simplest form, unsophisticated habitats, lower levels of education, primitive livelihoods, small ...

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