Meet the Cast
Jude Fawley
They Say I'm a Dreamer (And Maybe I Am the Only One)In the beginning, Jude's tale has the makings of a real rags-to-riches story. Jude is a classic small-town kid with big dreams and he has the dri...
Sue Bridehead
Sue Bridehead remains a pretty tough nut to crack: even her creator, Thomas Hardy himself questions what, exactly, her deal is. In Hardy's "Postscript" to the first novel of Jude the Obscure, he qu...
Arabella Donn
They Call me a Schemer…Whew. Arabella is a piece of work. She is so selfish, thoughtless, and manipulative that it's hard to take her seriously as a character in some ways—she's like a cartoon...
Richard Phillotson
Richard Phillotson kicks off the novel. He leaves his job as schoolmaster in the small town where Jude lives in order to pursue his dreams of becoming a scholar in Christminster. As we discover, th...
Little Father Time
Little Father Time doesn't show up until really late in the novel, but boy does he make his role count. From the moment we meet the child of Jude and Arabella, we know something is a little off. He...
The Advisors: Aunt Drusilla, Mrs. Edlin, Gillingham
These three characters—Jude and Sue's aunt Drusilla, the widow Mrs. Edlin, and Phillotson's friend Gillingham—are all on hand to give helpful advice. But the people they are advising—Jude, Su...