Most discussions of Jude the Obscure will undoubtedly center on Hardy's controversial views on marriage and education.

Perhaps an ideal starting point for discussion would be, does Hardy create a fair representation of the institutions to support his criticism? All the marriages represented in the novel are perfectly dreadful, but is this true because, as Sue maintains, marriage inevitably leads to a diminished love between partners, or do the marriages in this novel fail because of character defects of one or more of the partners (for example, Arabella's dishonesty, Sue's frigidity)? Another version of the same question might be, are Jude's and Sue's problems the result of the institution of marriage, or of Sue's attitudes toward this social institution? Does her refusal to marry, even after they have become sexually intimate, suggest a critique of marriage or some kind of fastidiousness on her part? Several recent...