![]() Hardy, like Sue, had some controversial ideas about the institution of marriage, which he uses Sue to voice throughout the novel. There is more to Sue than even Hardy quite expected-which is a good thing, right? Sue takes on a life of her own in the novel, beyond the strict intentions of her author. ![]() ![]() Hardy just wasn't intending to present Sue as the first representation in fiction of a feminist. In other words, it is not that Hardy disagrees with the German critic exactly. In response, here is what Hardy had to say: 'No doubt there can be more in a book than the author consciously puts there.' ( Hardy, "Preface to the First Edition") In Hardy's "Postscript" to the first novel of Jude the Obscure, he quotes a German critic describing Sue as the 'first delineation in fiction of the woman who was coming into notice in the thousands every year – the woman of the Feminist movement…the "bachelor' girl."' In other words, this German critic claims that Sue is the first representation of a new social type of woman becoming more and more common: the unmarried feminist. ![]() Sue Bridehead remains a pretty tough nut to crack: even her creator, Thomas Hardy himself questions what, exactly, her deal is. ![]()
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