From Superfluousness to Nothingness:A Brief Analysis of the Characterization in Jude the Obscure ABSTRACT

摘要

Standing out as a master of literature that crosses the 19thand the 20thcenturies, Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) distinguishes himself in the English literature with his distinctive local color, modernistic thoughts, depiction and exploration of real life, especially his last powerful novel Jude the Obscure (1894), which presents a real picture of Victorian society. With the classic image of"superfluous person"in the nineteenth century Russian literature and parts of existential theory, the chief aim of the thesis is to investigate Jude Fawley’s life experience from existence, superfluousness to nothingness,and simultaneously to examine the implication boiled down to"soul’s departing and self-purification"beneath the story’s tragic ending. Exploring the characterization of its protagonist by studying his struggles and sufferings at the end of an era,the thesis is intended to shed new light on works written by Hardy.