Jude the Obscure

From the time he is a boy, Jude possesses an aversion to causing suffering, particularly when it comes to animals. His refusals to throw rocks at birds to keep them out of a field or to prolong the suffering of a pig are early examples of his compassion and how that compassion can often be read as weakness by people like Arabella.

Suffering and trapped animals also come to symbolize Jude’s own impossible plight. This is particularly true of the rabbit caught in the gin trap. When he sees the rabbit, Jude reflects on his situation, pondering what he has done to deserve being ensnared in a trap that will maim him for life. He compares Arabella’s deceitful actions to a gin trap, which may catch its target but inflicts lasting damage. Jude wonders “what he had done, or she lost, for that matter, that he deserved to be caught in a gin which would cripple him, if not her also, for the rest of a lifetime” (54). This wondering becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as Arabella’s marriage to Jude prevents him from attaining his dream of attending Christminster. Even when Arabella departs for Australia, effectively freeing him from the trap, Jude’s marital status obstructs his pursuit of a relationship with Sue. After their respective divorces, Jude and Sue are both too scarred by their past relationships to marry each other, further exacerbating their emotional wounds. They essentially become rabbits in the field, waiting for death. In the case of the literal rabbit, Jude ends its suffering by killing it, acknowledging there is no hope for the creature. This serves as a foreshadowing of Jude’s own fate; caught in Arabella’s trap, he becomes a reflection of his namesake—a hopeless case—until his death. It also provides a grim foreshadowing of Little Father Time’s intentions when he kills his half-siblings and himself.