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Quiz about Thomas Hardys Jude the Obscure
Quiz about Thomas Hardys Jude the Obscure

Thomas Hardy's "Jude the Obscure" Quiz


"Jude the Obscure" was so controversial that Thomas Hardy never wrote another novel after its publication. Test your knowledge of one of Hardy's most famous works!

A multiple-choice quiz by musettae. Estimated time: 6 mins.
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Author
musettae
Time
6 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
181,317
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
25
Difficulty
Tough
Avg Score
15 / 25
Plays
2044
Awards
Top 20% Quiz
Last 3 plays: Guest 223 (21/25), Guest 106 (17/25), Guest 171 (23/25).
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Question 1 of 25
1. Jude Fawley, the novel's protagonist, longs to become a __________. Circumstances force him instead to become a __________. Hint


Question 2 of 25
2. How does Arabella trap Jude into marrying her the first time? Hint


Question 3 of 25
3. On their wedding night, what physical attribute of Arabella does Jude discover to be false? Hint


Question 4 of 25
4. Where does Jude first see Sue? Hint


Question 5 of 25
5. What statues does Sue buy from the street vendor? Hint


Question 6 of 25
6. How are Jude and Sue related? Hint


Question 7 of 25
7. Who introduces Sue to Phillotson? Hint


Question 8 of 25
8. Where does Jude encounter Arabella for the first time since she has left him? Hint


Question 9 of 25
9. What event causes Phillotson to consent to Sue's desire to leave him for Jude? Hint


Question 10 of 25
10. Why does Arabella grant Jude a divorce? Hint


Question 11 of 25
11. According to the legend told by the Widow Edlin, what happened to Jude's and Sue's common ancestor? Hint


Question 12 of 25
12. Why doesn't Sue want to marry Jude, even after they are already living together? Hint


Question 13 of 25
13. Why is Drusilla opposed to Jude marrying? Hint


Question 14 of 25
14. Little Father Time is the son of which couple? Hint


Question 15 of 25
15. What event precipitates the marriage of Jude and Sue? Hint


Question 16 of 25
16. Choose the correct order of marriages and divorces as they occur in the novel. Hint


Question 17 of 25
17. On what special day do Jude, Sue, and their family return to Christminster? Hint


Question 18 of 25
18. What happens to Jude's three oldest children? Hint


Question 19 of 25
19. How does Sue react to the fates of her children? Hint


Question 20 of 25
20. According to Jude, what are his two greatest weaknesses? Hint


Question 21 of 25
21. On the eve of her second marriage to Phillotson, what does the Widow Edlin advise Sue? Hint


Question 22 of 25
22. How does Arabella get Jude to marry her the second time? Hint


Question 23 of 25
23. What is Sue's fate? Hint


Question 24 of 25
24. When Arabella discovers that Jude is dead, which of these does she do first? Hint


Question 25 of 25
25. Which character utters the last lines of the novel? Hint





Most Recent Scores
Oct 26 2024 : Guest 223: 21/25
Oct 26 2024 : Guest 106: 17/25
Oct 26 2024 : Guest 171: 23/25
Oct 24 2024 : Guest 154: 6/25
Oct 23 2024 : Guest 106: 21/25
Oct 22 2024 : Guest 110: 11/25
Oct 22 2024 : Guest 157: 7/25
Oct 13 2024 : Guest 157: 17/25
Oct 13 2024 : Guest 27: 21/25

Score Distribution

quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Jude Fawley, the novel's protagonist, longs to become a __________. Circumstances force him instead to become a __________.

Answer: scholar; stonemason

After Jude's teacher leaves for Christminster on the path towards scholastic study, Jude decides that he wants to attend the university himself and acquire a Doctorate of Divinity. Societal circumstances, including his poverty and his early marriage to Arabella, prevent Jude's study at the University. Instead, Jude earns a living as an itinerant stone-cutter.
2. How does Arabella trap Jude into marrying her the first time?

Answer: she feigns pregnancy

Hardy's treatment of the unhappy marriage of Jude and Arabella exemplifies an important theme in the novel: marriage as a trap. Hardy critiques the permanency of a contract negotiated due to a fleeting lust between two individuals. Soon after their marriage, Jude realizes that although the "transitory instinct" of sexual attraction had passed, "the marriage remained."
3. On their wedding night, what physical attribute of Arabella does Jude discover to be false?

Answer: her hair

Jude learns that Arabella wears a hairpiece when she removes it in preparation for bed. He does not discover Arabella's ability to produce false dimples or her feigned pregnancy until later.
4. Where does Jude first see Sue?

Answer: in a portrait owned by his aunt Drusilla

When Jude moves to Christminster, he asks his aunt to send the portrait to him. He later spies Sue at her place of employment and at church, and she comes to see him at the stonemason's yard. However, they do not actually converse until their arranged meeting on a street in Christminster.
5. What statues does Sue buy from the street vendor?

Answer: Venus and Apollo

Sue's purchase of these figures significantly shows her appreciation of antiquity and her veneration of classical values rather than Christian teachings. To conceal the identities of the statues from her landlady, Sue lies that they are representations of Peter and Mary Magdalen. The opposition of philosophy and reason with Christian morality is a major theme of the novel.
6. How are Jude and Sue related?

Answer: they are cousins

Jude and Sue both mention society's disapproval of cousins getting married.
7. Who introduces Sue to Phillotson?

Answer: Jude

Phillotson was Jude's teacher in Marygreen. When Jude discovers Sue's desire to teach, he introduces her to Phillotson in Christminster.
8. Where does Jude encounter Arabella for the first time since she has left him?

Answer: at a bar in Christminster

Jude finds Arabella working as a barmaid in Christminster when he accompanies an old friend to the bar for a drink. Depressed by the advent of Sue's recent marriage, Jude is tempted to drink at the bar, and is later seduced by Arabella.
9. What event causes Phillotson to consent to Sue's desire to leave him for Jude?

Answer: Sue jumps out of a window to escape Phillotson

When Sue first asks Phillotson if he will allow her to leave him, her husband refuses. It is only after Sue jumps out of her bedroom window when Phillotson accidentally enters the room that he lets her go to be with her lover.
10. Why does Arabella grant Jude a divorce?

Answer: she wants to marry another man

While she is in Australia, Arabella meets another man. Believing Jude is dead, she and the Australian marry. She realizes a divorce will make her second marriage legal.
11. According to the legend told by the Widow Edlin, what happened to Jude's and Sue's common ancestor?

Answer: he was hanged

The Widow Edlin recounts the story of Jude's and Sue's ancestor whose wife ran away from him, taking their child with her. The child died, and the husband attempted to steal the child's coffin from his wife's house. He was caught and hanged for burglary. Mrs. Edlin tells this story to illustrate why Sue's and Jude's family has always had bad luck with marriage.
12. Why doesn't Sue want to marry Jude, even after they are already living together?

Answer: she feels it will destroy their happiness

Sue believes, based partly on previous experience, that once two people are married their passion for each other dissolves: "'it is foreign to a man's nature to go on loving a person when he is told that he must and shall be that person's lover.'" She thinks that marriage "'is destructive to a passion whose essence is its gratuitousness.'"
13. Why is Drusilla opposed to Jude marrying?

Answer: because their family has bad luck with marriage

Drusilla spends her entire life unmarried, and advises against any member of her family marrying because none who have married have found happiness.
14. Little Father Time is the son of which couple?

Answer: Jude and Arabella

Little Father Time is a product of their marriage, although Arabella does not tell Jude about their son for many years. The child spends the first years of his life in Australia with Arabella's family.
15. What event precipitates the marriage of Jude and Sue?

Answer: they never marry

Although Jude and Sue comes close to legally marrying several times in the novel, Sue always changes her mind shortly before they go through the ceremony. Finally, the couple begin to tell people that they are legally married, even though they are not.
16. Choose the correct order of marriages and divorces as they occur in the novel.

Answer: Jude and Arabella marry, Sue and Phillotson marry, Jude and Arabella divorce, Sue and Phillotson divorce, Sue and Phillotson marry, Jude and Arabella marry

Jude and Arabella marry before Jude ever meets Sue. Jude is still legally married to Arabella when Sue and Phillotson marry. Jude's divorce from Arabella becomes final shortly before Sue's and Phillotson's divorce is made official. Years later, Sue returns to Phillotson and becomes his wife again, and urges Jude to remarry Arabella. Jude and Sue never marry, nor do Phillotson and Arabella.
17. On what special day do Jude, Sue, and their family return to Christminster?

Answer: Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day, held at the University, honors graduating scholars. Hardy models the University at Christminster on Oxford University. The following year, Jude dies on Remembrance Day, after remembering his own failed ambitions.
18. What happens to Jude's three oldest children?

Answer: they commit suicide

After Sue reveals to Little Father Time that so many children make it difficult for the family to survive, he and the other two children hang themselves.
19. How does Sue react to the fates of her children?

Answer: she renounces her ties to Jude

The deaths of the three oldest children, shortly followed by Sue's delivery of a stillborn, convince Sue that her life with Jude is immoral and cursed. She decides that she is still bound to Phillotson, and resolves to return to him.
20. According to Jude, what are his two greatest weaknesses?

Answer: women and alcohol

Jude tells Sue that she is the only one who can keep him from his two "arch enemies."
21. On the eve of her second marriage to Phillotson, what does the Widow Edlin advise Sue?

Answer: not to marry Phillotson

Mrs. Edlin tells Sue that she is making a mistake by marrying Phillotson, and that she should not marry him because she is still in love with Jude. However, she does not specifically tell Sue to go back to Jude.
22. How does Arabella get Jude to marry her the second time?

Answer: she gets him drunk

Arabella manages to keep Jude so intoxicated that he is not thinking clearly. She then tells him that he promised to marry her, and believing her, he feels obligated to fulfill his word.
23. What is Sue's fate?

Answer: she consummates her marriage with Phillotson

Although Sue's and Phillotson's marriage is only nominal at first, Sue ultimately decides that the moral thing to do is to submit fully to her husband, even though he repulses her.
24. When Arabella discovers that Jude is dead, which of these does she do first?

Answer: she goes to see the boat races

Arabella's selfish desire to see the boat races with her friends surpasses her duties toward her dead husband.
25. Which character utters the last lines of the novel?

Answer: Arabella

Arabella's final assessment of Sue's fate, spoken as she and the Widow Edlin view Jude's body: "She's never found peace since she left his arms, and never will again till she's as he is now!"
Source: Author musettae

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