ly want (247). Jude marries Arabella, Sue marries Phillotson, both pairs divorce, and then Jude and Sue are coerced into marriage by the same people (Draper 247). In the end, Sue is destroyed (Hardwick 73). She gives in to the sexually incompatible Phillotson and starts going to church, an institution that she has always criticized (Hardwick 73).It is easier for Sue to give into marriage than to sex (Hardwick 71). The name “Bridehead” itself is ironic (Hardwick 71). The irony, says Hardwick, comes in her misgivings about sex and marriage (71). She also says that Sue feels an intense aversion to Phillotson (72). Draper classifies Sue as one who has a weak sexual appetite (252). Because of this, she is unable to sleep with Phillotson (Draper 252). She hides in a closet and jumps out of a window to avoid all sexual contact with her husband (Hardwick 72). Draper notes that these events were foreshadowed earlier in the novel (245). When Sue was young and said, “Move on, aunty! This is no sight for modest eyes,” Hardy was foreshadowing how Sue teases men but will not sexually satisfy them (Draper 245). Sue’s thoughts on marriage are best described in what she says to Jude:I am called Mrs. Richard Phillotson, living a calm wedded life with my counterpart of that name. But I am not really Mr. Richard Phillotson, but a woman tossed about, all alone, with aberrant passions, and unaccountable antipathies (233).The physical differences between Sue and Arabella further the fact that they are complete opposites in the novel (Weinstein 236). Sue is a striking, thin, frail woman who is continually analyzing her situation (Hardwick 67). In contrast, Arabella is chubbier, she is less attractive, and she is always thinking of sex (Hardwick 67). Philip M. Weinstein writes that Sue is “not in any clarifying way a woman at all” (236). Jude’s great-aunt’s friend identified Sue’s natu...
