Thomas Hardy

Study question Thomas Hardy

Facts about Thomas Hardy

➾ Hardy was a healthy yet fragile child who showed unusual sensitivity to music and could read almost before walking.

➾ While apprenticed to an architect, Hardy intensely self-studied Greek daily between four and eight in the morning.

➾ His final architectural job, restoring a church in Cornwall, was how he met his first wife, Emma Lavinia Gifford.

➾ Hardy’s first published novel, Desperate Remedies, required him to advance £75, most of which was eventually returned.

➾ He stopped writing novels after the severe critical backlash and controversy caused by the publication of Jude the Obscure.

➾ Hardy often altered novels like Tess to soften his social satire and make them suitable for family readers during magazine serialization.

➾ He believed in ‘meliorism’ (gradual improvement of the world) until 1914, when the horrors of World War I shattered that view.

➾ Hardy’s love for architecture, music, and country folklore was fostered by the varied interests of his stonemason father and reading mother.

➾ Although his first marriage was unhappy, the death of his wife Emma in 1912 prompted him to write some of his most profound poetry.

➾ Hardy secretly wrote his own authorized autobiography, which was later published under the name of his second wife, Florence Dugdale.

➾ Hardy had a divided burial: his ashes were interred in Westminster Abbey while his heart was buried separately at Stinsford near his ancestors.

Thomas Hardy MCQs

1. When was Thomas Hardy born?

A. January 11, 1928
B. September 2, 1840
C. June 2, 1840
D. June 22, 1840

C. June 2, 1840
He was born on this date in Dorset, England.

2. In what location was Thomas Hardy born?

A. Dorchester, Dorset
B. Stinsford, Dorset
C. Higher Bockhampton, Stinsford, Dorset
D. Max Gate, Dorchester

C. Higher Bockhampton, Stinsford, Dorset
He was born in England, in a small cottage in this hamlet, where his father lived.

3. What was the primary business of Thomas Hardy’s father?

A. Farming and agriculture
B. Stone masoning and building
C. Teaching and schooling
D. Church restoration

B. Stone masoning and building
Thomas Hardy Sr. was a master mason and local builder.

4. Hardy was sensitive to which art form, often playing the dance fiddle for his family?

A. Painting
B. Drama
C. Architecture
D. Music

D. Music
Music, particularly local folk music, was a lifelong passion and influence on his writing.

5. Which ancient language did Hardy begin studying at the age of twelve?

A. Greek
B. French
C. Latin
D. German

C. Latin
He began the study of Latin at age twelve.

6. At what age did Hardy become a student of the architect John Hicks?

A. Twelve
B. Sixteen
C. Eighteen
D. Twenty-two

B. Sixteen
He began his apprenticeship in architecture under Hicks in Dorchester in 1856.

7. How did Hardy pursue his Greek studies while apprenticed to Hicks?

A. By attending night classes in Dorchester.
B. By receiving tutoring from John Hicks.
C. By studying between four and eight in the morning.
D. By reading books supplied by George Meredith.

C. By studying between four and eight in the morning.
This commitment to self-education highlights his early intellectual ambition.

8. Which Dorset poet, who kept a school next to Hicks’ office, influenced Hardy?

A. George Meredith
B. Horace Moule
C. Arthur Blomfield
D. The Reverend William Barnes

D. The Reverend William Barnes
Barnes, known for his dialect poetry, encouraged Hardy’s literary interests.

9. In what year did Hardy go to London to work for the architect Arthur Blomfield?

A. 1856
B. 1862
C. 1867
D. 1870

B. 1862
He moved to London to further his architectural career.

10. In what year did ill health force Hardy to leave London and return to Dorchester?

A. 1865
B. 1867
C. 1870
D. 1874

B. 1867
London life proved detrimental to his health, forcing him back to Dorset.

11. What was the title of Hardy’s first novel, which was rejected by publishers?

A. Desperate Remedies
B. Under the Greenwood Tree
C. The Poor Man and the Lady
D. A Pair of Blue Eyes

C. The Poor Man and the Lady
This novel, never published, dealt with social class and romantic ambition.

12. Which critic advised Hardy regarding his first rejected novel?

A. Horace Moule
B. Arthur Blomfield
C. George Meredith
D. The Reverend William Barnes

C. George Meredith
Meredith, working as a reader for Chapman and Hall, recommended Hardy abandon the book but try again.

13. Where did Hardy meet his first wife, Emma, while on a restoration job?

A. Higher Bockhampton
B. Weymouth
C. St. Juliot in Cornwall
D. Max Gate

C. St. Juliot in Cornwall
He met Emma Gifford in 1870 while surveying the restoration of a church there.

14. In what year did Thomas Hardy marry Emma Lavinia Gifford?

A. 1870
B. 1871
C. 1874
D. 1878

C. 1874
They married in London, coinciding with the success of Far From the Madding Crowd.

15. What was the title of Hardy’s first published novel in 1871?

A. Under the Greenwood Tree
B. Desperate Remedies
C. The Return of the Native
D. Far From the Madding Crowd

B. Desperate Remedies
This complex melodrama was his first novel to reach publication.

16. Which 1872 novel was Hardy’s first popular success?

A. A Pair of Blue Eyes
B. The Poor Man and the Lady
C. Under the Greenwood Tree
D. Tess of the d’Urbervilles

C. Under the Greenwood Tree
This gentle novel was his second published work and proved popular with critics and readers.

17. Which 1874 novel’s success allowed Hardy to give up architecture?

A. Desperate Remedies
B. The Mayor of Casterbridge
C. Far From the Madding Crowd
D. The Woodlanders

C. Far From the Madding Crowd
Its serialization in the Cornhill Magazine and subsequent popularity allowed him to dedicate himself entirely to writing.

18. For how many years did Hardy primarily concentrate on writing fiction?

A. Five years
B. Ten years
C. Fifteen years
D. Twenty years

D. Twenty years
He concentrated primarily on writing novels from 1870 until 1891 (Tess) and 1895 (Jude).

19. What fictional region did Hardy create for his novels?

A. Casterbridge
B. Stinsford
C. Wessex
D. Egdon Heath

C. Wessex
He named his fictionalized version of Dorset and the surrounding counties “Wessex,” drawing on Anglo-Saxon history.

20. Which 1878 novel was admired for its setting of Egdon Heath?

A. The Woodlanders
B. A Laodicean
C. The Return of the Native
D. Two on a Tower

C. The Return of the Native
Egdon Heath, the desolate, ancient landscape, functions almost as a character in this novel.

21. What was the name of the house Hardy built near Dorchester?

A. Stinsford Cottage
B. Egdon Hall
C. Max Gate
D. Casterbridge Manor

C. Max Gate
He designed and built this home where he lived for the rest of his life.

22. Which novel, set in a fictionalized Dorchester, features Michael Henchard?

A. The Return of the Native
B. The Woodlanders
C. The Mayor of Casterbridge
D. A Pair of Blue Eyes

C. The Mayor of Casterbridge
The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) centers on the tragic rise and fall of the self-made Michael Henchard in the town of Casterbridge (Dorchester).

23. In what year did Tess of the d’Urbervilles begin its serial run?

A. 1889
B. 1891
C. 1894
D. 1897

B. 1891
It was serialized with modifications due to the controversial content.

24. Which novel’s controversy caused Hardy to abandon novel writing?

A. Tess of the d’Urbervilles
B. Far From the Madding Crowd
C. The Well Beloved
D. Jude the Obscure

D. Jude the Obscure
The vicious public outcry and moral outrage following the publication of Jude the Obscure (1895) led him to stop writing novels entirely.

25. What was the title of Hardy’s last novel, published in 1897?

A. Jude the Obscure
B. The Well Beloved
C. Tess of the d’Urbervilles
D. The Woodlanders

B. The Well Beloved
Although Jude the Obscure (1895) was his last major novel, The Well-Beloved was his final published novel.

26. What was the title of Hardy’s first volume of poetry, published in 1898?

A. Late Lyrics and Earlier
B. Winter Words
C. Wessex Poems
D. Satires of Circumstance

C. Wessex Poems
This collection, published after he abandoned fiction, marked his full-time return to poetry.

27. What was the title of his three-part epic verse drama on the Napoleonic Wars?

A. Winter Words
B. The Dynasts
C. Poems of 1912–13
D. Wessex Tales

B. The Dynasts
This monumental work (1903–08) is a blend of poetry and drama.

28. What major honour did the King award Hardy in 1910?

A. Knight Commander of the Bath
B. Poet Laureate
C. The Order of Merit
D. The Nobel Prize in Literature

C. The Order of Merit
King George V appointed him to the Order of Merit, a high civilian honour.

29. When did Hardy’s first wife, Emma, die?

A. 1910
B. 1912
C. 1914
D. 1928

B. 1912
Emma died suddenly in November 1912, inspiring his most poignant love poems (Poems of 1912–13).

30. Whom did Hardy marry in 1914?

A. Jemima Hand
B. Florence Emily Dugdale
C. Grace Melbury
D. Eustacia Vye

B. Florence Emily Dugdale
He married his secretary, Florence Dugdale, in 1914.

31. What was the title of Hardy’s final volume of verse?

A. Late Lyrics and Earlier
B. Human Shows
C. Winter Words
D. Moments of Vision

C. Winter Words
This final collection was published in 1928, the year of his death.

32. On what date did Thomas Hardy die?

A. June 2, 1840
B. January 11, 1928
C. September 4, 1874
D. December 31, 1927

B. January 11, 1928
He died on this date at Max Gate.

33. Where were Hardy’s cremated remains interred?

A. Max Gate, Dorchester
B. Stinsford Churchyard
C. Westminster Abbey, Poets’ Corner
D. St. Juliot, Cornwall

C. Westminster Abbey, Poets’ Corner
His ashes were interred in Poets’ Corner, a high honour.

34. Where was Hardy’s heart buried?

A. Max Gate, Dorchester
B. Stinsford, near the graves of his ancestors
C. Poets’ Corner
D. St. Juliot in Cornwall

B. Stinsford, near the graves of his ancestors
His heart was removed and buried separately in the churchyard where he had played the fiddle as a young man.

35. Hardy published his novels in serial form, similar to which other English novelist?

A. Scott
B. Dumas
C. Dickens
D. Keats

C. Dickens
Like Charles Dickens, Hardy serialized many of his novels in monthly or weekly magazines.

36. Which collection was the first that Hardy released?

A. Life’s Little Ironies
B. A Changed Man
C. A Group of Noble Dames
D. Wessex Tales

D. Wessex Tales
This collection of short stories was published in 1888.

37. His mother inspired a taste for literature, while his father shared a love of architecture and what?

A. Science
B. Philosophy
C. Music
D. Theology

C. Music
Both parents fostered his cultural interests.

38. Darwinian evolutionism eventually made Hardy what?

A. A Meliorist
B. A severe critic of traditional religion/An agnostic
C. A fatalist
D. A church restorer

B. A severe critic of traditional religion/An agnostic
Scientific theories contributed to his loss of faith in a beneficent God.

39. Hardy lived during the industrial revolution, which led to the disintegration of what?

A. The British empire
B. The family building business
C. Rural customs and traditions
D. The London architectural scene

C. Rural customs and traditions
His novels often lament the passing of the traditional agricultural way of life.

40. The period of changing beliefs in Hardy’s time brought about what feeling?

A. The joy of modernism
B. The ‘ache of modernism’
C. The pursuit of happiness
D. The Immanent Will

B. The ‘ache of modernism’
He coined this phrase to describe the spiritual and existential pain resulting from the erosion of old beliefs.

41. Hardy read Darwin’s Origin of the Species and what other document that influenced his religious views?

A. The Dynasts
B. Wessex Poems
C. Essays and Reviews
D. A Changed Man

C. Essays and Reviews
This publication of liberal theology further challenged traditional Christian doctrines.

42. Hardy struggled to reconcile a beneficent God with the existence of what?

A. The inevitability of war
B. Omnipresent evil and unhappiness
C. The shifting of population
D. The success of his own novels

B. Omnipresent evil and unhappiness
The problem of suffering became central to his philosophical outlook.

43. Until 1914, Hardy considered himself a “meliorist,” believing that what was happening?

A. The universal scheme was unchanging.
B. The universe was completely governed by Fate.
C. The universal scheme was gradually improving.
D. Only poetry could capture human suffering.

C. The universal scheme was gradually improving.
Meliorism is the belief that the world can be made better through human effort.

44. What event shattered Hardy’s belief in meliorism in 1914?

A. The death of his first wife
B. The reaction to Jude the Obscure
C. The absurdity and horror of war
D. The publication of The Dynasts

C. The absurdity and horror of war
The outbreak of World War I made the idea of gradual moral improvement seem impossible.

45. What philosophical outlook is most readily associated with Hardy the novelist?

A. Meliorism
B. Naturalism
C. Romanticism
D. Fatalism

D. Fatalism
Although he considered himself a meliorist, his novels’ pervasive sense of doomed protagonists and tragic coincidence leads critics to label his work as fatalistic.

46. In Hardy’s philosophy, what motif is placed with tremendous importance?

A. Love
B. Nature
C. Time
D. Night

C. Time
His works often focus on the corrosive effects of the past and the relentlessness of time.

47. In Hardy’s philosophy, who is Fate’s most potent instrument against Man’s happiness?

A. The Wessex rustic
B. The Critic
C. Woman
D. The Deity

C. Woman
Hardy’s perception of women (e.g., Sue Bridehead, Tess) as unpredictable and often destructive forces is a recurring idea.

48. Hardy critiques ‘Convention and Law’ because they are contrived by whom, yet work against him?

A. Cruel Nature
B. The Immanent Will
C. Man himself
D. The established Church

C. Man himself
He argues that rigid social laws created by humanity often cause unnecessary suffering to the individuals they are meant to govern.

49. Hardy suggests that most of Tess’s misery was generated by her conventional aspect, and not by what?

A. Angel Clare’s judgment
B. Her innate sensations
C. Alec’s evil intentions
D. The agricultural life

B. Her innate sensations
He frames Tess as a pure woman whose suffering is caused by the cruel social conventions and judgments of others.

50. In The Dynasts, Hardy projects a universe governed by a blind force called what?

A. Fate
B. The Spirit of the Years
C. The Immanent Will
D. The Wessex destiny

C. The Immanent Will
This term refers to the unconscious, indifferent cosmic force that drives the universe, often resulting in human suffering.

Jude the Obscure MCQs

1. Why is Mr. Phillotson leaving the village of Marygreen?

A. Find a better school
B. Pursue university degree
C. Avoid the rector
D. Marry a rich woman

B. Pursue university degree.
He is leaving for Christminster to pursue his “scheme, or dream,” to be a university graduate.

2. What piece of furniture was difficult for Mr. Phillotson to move?

A. Cottage piano
B. Books and papers
C. Desk and chair
D. Bedstead and wardrobe

A. Cottage piano.
The only cumbersome article he owned was a cottage piano, which was perpetually difficult to move.

3. What gift did Mr. Phillotson give young Jude upon his departure?

A. A Latin dictionary
B. A farewell book
C. A pencil and slate
D. A Christminster map

B. A farewell book.
The departing schoolmaster bestowed a book upon Jude as a gift before his journey.

4. What is Jude’s great-aunt Drusilla Fawley’s occupation?

A. Local washerwoman
B. Dairy and farmhand
C. Village baker
D. School mistress

C. Village baker.
Over the door of the cottage was a sign reading: “Drusilla Fawley, Baker”.

5. What family warning did Miss Fawley give Jude?

A. Never to marry
B. Never read books
C. Never leave Marygreen
D. Be kind to animals

A. Never to marry.
Miss Fawley told Jude, “‘Tisn’t for the Fawleys to take that step any more,” referring to marriage.

6. Who is Jude’s cousin mentioned by his great-aunt?

A. Arabella Donn
B. Miss Fontover
C. Anny of Cresscombe
D. Sue Bridehead

D. Sue Bridehead.
Miss Fawley mentions that Jude’s cousin Sue is just like him, “cràzy for books”.

7. What was Jude’s job for Farmer Troutham in the fields?

A. Gleaning the corn
B. Scaring away birds
C. Watering the crops
D. Ploughing the harrow-lines

B. Scaring away birds.
Jude was employed for sixpence a day to keep the rooks and birds off the farmer’s corn.

8. Why did Farmer Troutham strike Jude with his rattle?

A. Jude fell asleep
B. Jude stole corn
C. Jude was disrespectful
D. Jude showed mercy to birds

D. Jude showed mercy to birds.
Jude had let the rooks have some corn, saying they wouldn’t miss it, which angered Troutham.

9. What philosophical conflict troubled Jude after his punishment?

A. God’s will versus man’s
B. Good crops versus famine
C. Learning versus labour
D. Mercy versus cruelty

D. Mercy versus cruelty.
He was sickened that mercy towards God’s birds was cruelty towards God’s gardener.

10. What did Christminster look like to Jude from a distance at night?

A. Rows of lamps
B. A stone fortress
C. A light halo
D. A ghostly cathedral

C. A light halo.
Jude saw only “a halo or glow-fog overarching the place against the black heavens”.

11. According to the carter, what is produced at Christminster like radishes?

A. Silver cups
B. Learned Dons
C. Foreign tongues
D. Parsons are raised

D. Parsons are raised.
The carter tells Jude they “raise pa’sons there like radishes in a bed”.

12. What was Physician Vilbert’s profession?

A. University professor
B. Local apothecary
C. Stone-mason
D. Itinerant quack doctor

D. Itinerant quack doctor.
Vilbert was an “itinerant quack-doctor, well known to the rustic population”.

13. What did Jude initially believe was the key to learning Latin and Greek?

A. Secret cipher rule
B. Years of plodding
C. University tutoring
D. Memorizing words

A. Secret cipher rule.
He believed grammar contained a “secret cipher” to transmute his speech into foreign words.

14. What realization caused Jude deep misery after receiving the grammars?

A. They were too expensive
B. He lacked sufficient brains
C. Phillotson had sent old books
D. Every word must be memorized

D. Every word must be memorized.
He realized learning required “every word… to be individually committed to memory”.

15. How did Jude study the classics while working as a baker’s boy?

A. At the well
B. Driving bread cart
C. In the pig-sty
D. During the night

B. Driving bread cart.
He read his classic volumes fixed open on his knees while guiding his bread-cart.

16. What was the police official’s chief concern about Jude’s reading while driving?

A. Damage to the cart
B. Jude’s academic distraction
C. Danger to Jude himself
D. Neglecting his aunt

C. Danger to Jude himself.
The policeman considered that in the lonely district, the primary danger was to Jude himself.

17. What pagan deities did Jude kneel to while reading the Carmen Sæculare?

A. Jupiter and Juno
B. Venus and Mars
C. Diana and Phoebus
D. Vesta and Vulcan

C. Diana and Phoebus.
He knelt and turned to the moon (Diana) and the setting sun (Phoebus).

18. How did Arabella first intentionally attract Jude’s notice?

A. Hailed him loudly
B. Sent a note to him
C. Threw pig offal
D. Spoke flirtatiously

C. Threw pig offal.
A piece of pig’s flesh, “the characteristic part of a barrow-pig,” was flung at him.

19. What did Arabella want Jude to do?

A. Have her, marry her
B. Help her work
C. Buy her new clothes
D. Leave Christminster

A. Have her, marry her.
Arabella told her friends she wanted Jude “to have me—to marry me!”.

20. How did Arabella deceive Jude into marrying her quickly?

A. Claiming huge wealth
B. Mistaken pregnancy
C. Pretending illness
D. Faking her name

B. Mistaken pregnancy.
She falsely claimed to be pregnant, forcing Jude to marry her “ready or no”.

21. What did villagers predict Jude would have to sell after marriage?

A. His old clothes
B. His new furniture
C. Books for saucepans
D. The cart and horse

C. Books for saucepans.
The people of the parish said Jude would “have to sell his books to buy saucepans”.

22. During the pig sticking, what did the pig’s eyes show Arabella?

A. Fear of death
B. Deep resentment
C. Eloquently keen reproach
D. Extreme pain

C. Eloquently keen reproach.
The dying pig’s glazing eyes fixed on Arabella with “the eloquently keen reproach of a creature”.

23. Why did Arabella tell Jude not to stick the pig too deeply?

A. To prolong its life
B. To conserve the blood
C. Must bleed slowly
D. She wanted to finish

C. Must bleed slowly.
She insisted that for the meat to be “well bled,” the animal must die slowly.

24. What single word did Jude cut on the milestone years before?

A. CHRISTMINSTER
B. LEARNING
C. THITHER
D. LOVE

C. THITHER.
Jude found his inscription, embodying his youthful aspirations, on the milestone: “THITHER”.

25. What was the name of the suburb where Jude first lodged in Christminster?

A. Mildew Lane
B. The Fourways
C. Beersheba
D. Cardinal College

C. Beersheba.
Jude took a room in a suburb which was nick-named “Beersheba,” though he did not know it.

26. What action did Jude take after being rejected by the college head?

A. Wrote another letter
B. Drank heavily
C. Wrote quote on wall
D. Attended a concert

C. Wrote quote on wall.
Jude wrote the quotation from Job xii. 3 on the college wall with chalk.

27. What act did Jude perform in the pub when drunk with the workmen?

A. Sang a hymn
B. Fought a man
C. Recited the Creed in Latin
D. Quoted Shakespeare

C. Recited the Creed in Latin.
Egged on by the others, Jude recited the Nicene Creed in Latin in the tavern.

28. What ancient deities did Sue buy from the image-man?

A. Mars and Mercury
B. Venus and Apollo
C. Juno and Diana
D. Plato and Socrates

B. Venus and Apollo.
Sue bought plaster statuettes of Venus and Apollo, the largest figures on the tray.

29. After buying the pagan statues, what famous poem did Sue read?

A. The Raven
B. Thou hast conquered
C. Excelsior
D. Carmen Saeculare

B. Thou hast conquered.
She read the poem containing the line: “Thou hast conquered, O pale Galilean”.

30. What was Mr. Phillotson’s occupation when Jude found him again?

A. Parish priest
B. Professor
C. Village schoolmaster
D. College Don

C. Village schoolmaster.
Sue tells Jude that Mr. Phillotson lives at Lumsdon and is a “village schoolmaster”.

31. How did Sue escape the Melchester Training School confinement?

A. Ran out the door
B. Waded through river
C. Climbed the wall
D. Got a friend to help

B. Waded through river.
She got out of the window and “walked through the largest river in the county”.

32. How did Sue customize her New Testament?

A. Burned the Epistles
B. Rearranged chronologically
C. Wrote notes in Greek
D. Translated passages

B. Rearranged chronologically.
She cut up the Epistles and Gospels, arranging them in chronological order of writing.

33. What kind of building did Jude and Sue visit together outside Melchester?

A. A local church
B. Wardour Castle
C. Christminster College
D. The carpenter’s shop

B. Wardour Castle.
Jude and Sue agreed to visit Wardour Castle, which was a classic Corinthian building.

34. What crucial fact did Jude finally reveal to Sue in the marketplace?

A. He was poor
B. He was married
C. He lost his faith
D. He disliked Christminster

B. He was married.
Jude confessed his “brief narrative,” culminating in the fact he had married a wife.

35. What philosophical works did Jude burn in his garden?

A. Roman antiquities
B. Greek classics
C. Patristic literature
D. Theological and ethical

D. Theological and ethical.
Jude collected and burned all his theological and ethical works in a shallow hole.

36. What did Sue confess was her true problem in her marriage to Phillotson?

A. Phillotson was cruel
B. He was always working
C. Physical aversion
D. He was too strict

C. Physical aversion.
Sue admitted that living with Phillotson as a husband was a “torture” due to a “physical objection”.

37. What request did the School Committee make to Phillotson after Sue left?

A. Resign immediately
B. Divorce his wife
C. Move to a new town
D. Send his resignation

D. Send his resignation.
The committee requested Phillotson to resign due to his “scandalous conduct” in letting Sue go.

38. What agreement did Jude make with Arabella regarding a divorce?

A. He would pay her money
B. They would meet secretly
C. To enable her second marriage
D. To take the children

C. To enable her second marriage.
Arabella wrote asking Jude for a divorce to “honestly and legally marry that man”.

39. What surprising news did Arabella send to Jude via letter?

A. She was ill
B. They had a son
C. She returned to Sydney
D. She became a nun

B. They had a son.
Arabella revealed that there was a boy born of their marriage eight months after she left.

40. Why was the boy given the nickname Father Time?

A. Loved old clocks
B. Looked prematurely aged
C. Was always late
D. Loved history

B. Looked prematurely aged.
The child explained that “Little Father Time” was a nickname “because I looked so aged”.

41. Why had the boy not been christened previously?

A. Arabella forgot
B. To save funeral expense
C. Jude refused
D. They lacked money

B. To save funeral expense.
He explained that if he died in damnation, it would save the expense of a Christian funeral.

42. What couple preceded Jude and Sue at the registrar’s office?

A. A wealthy Don and bride
B. Two shy young lovers
C. Soldier and pregnant woman
D. Arabella and Cartlett

C. Soldier and pregnant woman.
They saw a soldier and a woman, who was pregnant and had a black eye, being married.

43. What did Sue ultimately decide about legal marriage at the office?

A. It was necessary
B. It was beautiful
C. They must postpone it
D. It was too cheap

C. They must postpone it.
They left the office, agreeing that an irrevocable oath was too risky for them.

44. What structure did Jude model his Christminster cakes after?

A. College windows/pinnacles
B. Famous cathedrals
C. Ancient monuments
D. Holy figures

A. College windows/pinnacles.
The cakes were molded as “Traceried-windows, and cloisters,” based on the colleges.

45. Why did Arabella tell Sue she was selling cakes?

A. Jude was injured
B. She was curious
C. She needed the money
D. As a temporary occupation

D. As a temporary occupation.
Sue explained to Arabella that selling cakes was “only a temporary occupation” for them.

46. What was Arabella’s status when she met Sue at the fair?

A. Separated from Cartlett
B. New barmaid
C. Widow of Cartlett
D. Reconciled with Jude

C. Widow of Cartlett.
Arabella was in deep mourning, having lost her husband Cartlett six weeks prior.

47. What did Father Time write on the note before killing the children?

A. Mother, forgive me
B. Done because we are too many
C. I wish I hadn’t been born
D. God is not loving

B. Done because we are too many.
A note was found upon the floor saying: “Done because we are too many”.

48. What did Sue say the affliction was attempting to stop them from doing?

A. Living in Christminster
B. Having any money
C. Learning, labour, love
D. Being truthful

C. Learning, labour, love.
Sue lamented that the external power said: “You shan’t learn! … You shan’t labour! Now it says, ‘You shan’t love!'”.

49. Why did Sue decide to return and remarry Phillotson?

A. She hated Jude
B. Sense of duty
C. She needed security
D. Jude asked her to

B. Sense of duty.
Sue said she was returning because “self-abnegation is the higher road,” driven by a new sense of duty.

50. What sounds did Jude hear as he lay dying alone?

A. Church bells ringing
B. Arabella weeping
C. Phillotson singing
D. Remembrance Day cheers

D. Remembrance Day cheers.
Jude heard shouts and hurrahs from the “Remembrance games” near the river as he passed away.

Brief Overview

Jude the Obscure is a novel by Thomas Hardy, first published in 1895. It is a profound Victorian tragedy that uses elements of naturalism and the Bildungsroman to critique the rigid social, educational, and marital conventions of the time.

The novel follows Jude Fawley, a poor stonemason who has a deep ambition to become a scholar at the prestigious colleges of Christminster (Oxford). He is unable to gain entry due to his working-class status. His studies are first ruined when he is tricked into marriage by Arabella Donn, a coarse woman who soon leaves him.

Jude then meets and falls deeply in love with his intellectual cousin, Sue Bridehead. Sue marries Phillotson, Jude’s former schoolmaster, but is miserable and leaves him. Phillotson, showing great kindness, releases her from the marriage so she can be with Jude.

Jude and Sue live together but refuse to marry legally, seeing the marriage contract as a societal trap. Jude’s young son, Father Time, joins them. Society harshly judges their unconventional, unmarried life. The boy, internalizing the community’s judgment, tragically kills himself and the other two children, leaving a note saying they were “too menny.”

This tragedy destroys Sue’s unconventional ideas. She becomes convinced they are being punished by God and must conform to societal rules. She leaves Jude to remarry Phillotson, despite still loving Jude. Jude, heartbroken and very ill, dies alone in Christminster.