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Critical Analysis Of Sue Bridehead

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Sue Bridehead: the Unmarried Feminist
"The social moulds civilization fits us into have no more relation to our actual shapes than the conventional shapes of the constellations have to the real star-patterns. I am called Mrs. Richard Phillotson, living a calm wedded life with my counterpart of that name. But I am not really Mrs. Richard Phillotson, but a woman tossed about, all alone, with aberrant passions, and unaccountable antipathies" (Jude the Obscure 1895)
Sue represents the new woman, a woman who was not submissive to the stereotypical women roles of her society. She may seem to not have already gone through a successful process of self-formation, however Jude, gets impressed by her liberal ideas.
Sue is not similar to Hardy’s other heroines. Her view on marriage also differs from other heroines because she acknowledges the fact that she 's a member of an oppressed sex rightly seeking autonomy. Despite Sue’s final return to her husband, her marriage with Phillotson and her experience with him are adequate to prove her as a new woman. She expresses her view about marriage by saying that “What tortures me so much is the necessity of being responsive to this man whenever he wishes." (Jude the Obscure P. 211)
Sue criticises marriage and believes that the institution of marriage brings limitation to the freedom of the couple and bounds them into it. She has to behave according to the orders of her husband or the man who owns her whether he 's her brother, father or

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