Jude Fawley is a rural stonemason with intellectual aspirations.Frustrated by poverty and the indifference of the academic instiyutions at the University of Cristminster his only change of fulfilment seems to lie in his relationship with his unconventional free thinking cousin ,Sue Bridehead. But life as social outcast proves underminig ,and when tragedy occurs Sue has no resilince andd jude is left in despair.

Hardy`s portrait of Jude  the idealist and dreamer who is a prioner of his own phyysical nature is one of the most haunting and desperate of his creations. Jude the Obscure is a dark yet compassionations account of the insurmountable frustrationss of human existence which reflecet hardy`s yearning for the spiritual values of the past and his despair at their decline.