Both of the novels, The Mayor of Casterbridge and Jude, the Obscure, written by Thomas Hardy are full of hardships and broken hearts. Many of the characters are hurtful and in return hurt badly. Each of Hardy’s novels seem to portray an underlining feeling of aversion towards marriage. In each of his novels most of the marriages are unfulfilling and don’t work out. Each marriage in the novels ends up as disastrous with the exception of Elizabeth and Farfrae in The Mayor of Casterbridge. Jude and Arabaella's marriage was not a normal marriage just as was Susan and Henchard's. Sue’s and Phillotson was wrong because Sue still loved Jude just as in Farfrae’s and Lucetta’s marriage was wrong because Lucetta had not told him the truth of everything. Thomas Hardy seems to have a bitter outlook on relation ships. Several of his characters in each novel have love affairs and then quickly change their minds. In Mayor of Casterbridge it is Farfrae that seems to be fickle between Lucetta and Elizabeth Jane. In Jude, the Obscure it is Sue who is extremely fickle. She can’t seem to decide on what she really wants. She starts out with Phillotson and then goes to Jude from there she goes back to Phillotson.Each of the novels also experience some sort of death. In the mayor of Casterbridge the big death was Susan. In Jude, the Obscure the big death scene was three children rather then just one person. Jude's other child, Father Time, kills Sue and Jude’s two children by hanging because he thought that Sue and Jude would be better off without any children. In the beginning of the Mayor of Casterbridge there is a parting between Susan and Hechard that also ends up as one of the biggest mistakes of the hero. This too is shown in Jude, the Obscure when Jude marries Arabella, the whole relationship was based more on lust than on love. This too is Jude’s first and biggest mistake. Jude is then forced by his h...
