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Why Sue wanted to go back to Phillotson?

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Knight
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Why Sue wanted to go back to Phillotson?

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In the novel Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy, Sue was broken after the death of her children. She went to their graves and wept even on the insistence of Jude to go back to lodge. Jude was broken too but he understood that he had to care for Sue.

However, even after these events Jude thought of living with Sue for whole life with the sorrow of their dead children but Sue had some other religious and moral principles in her mind. She decided to leave Jude [to die] and to have a full marital relation with Phillotson.

My question is what were her thoughts behind leaving Jude and living with Phillotson again? Did she think that that way will provide her some consolation?
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DWill

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Re: Why Sue wanted to go back to Phillotson?

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Knight wrote:In the novel Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy, Sue was broken after the death of her children. She went to their graves and wept even on the insistence of Jude to go back to lodge. Jude was broken too but he understood that he had to care for Sue.

However, even after these events Jude thought of living with Sue for whole life with the sorrow of their dead children but Sue had some other religious and moral principles in her mind. She decided to leave Jude [to die] and to have a full marital relation with Phillotson.

My question is what were her thoughts behind leaving Jude and living with Phillotson again? Did she think that that way will provide her some consolation?
Sorry, I don't recall this novel well enough to have any response. It's on the list to reread, but I don't know when.

Hardy was very glad to get back to poetry after the intense negative reaction to this book caused him to abandon fiction. Strange to think about Hardy as so controversial, when in personality he was mild and fairly conventional.
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