Ok, so Jude's life just gets worse and worse as the book goes on. A lot of his terrible plight comes from his lack of confidence. If he had just told Sue that he loved her and that Philloston wasn't the right person for her, then a lot of this mess would not have happened at all. Eventually Jude tells Due about his marriage to Arabella and Sue is pissed because she feels lied to. After their fight, Sue and Jude decide to just stay friends and she will marry Philloston like she told him she would. She only wants to marry him for stability in her workplace and because she kind of already promised him they would get married and Sue felt that she owed him for getting her into training school. Jude ends up giving her away at the wedding. He gets a letter saying that his Aunt is really sick and might die, he tells Sue and they plan to go there soon to see the dying Aunt.
So Jude goes back to Christminister, where he meets Arabella again working at another bar. They go to a hotel and "hook-up", which is alright since they are technically still married; they just haven't seen each other in a long time. The next morning Arabella tells Jude that she married another man in Australia, even though they are still married. Jude kinda feels bad on his way on to Marygreen because he was supposed to meet Sue at a train station that night, but ditches her for sex with Arabella, but he doesn't tell her that right away. Sue and Jude meet up and go on to see the Aunt, but she miraculously gets better. Sue ends up telling him that she is not happy in her marriage (no big surprise there with an eighteen year difference between the two). Sue won't let Jude visit because it will remind her how much her life and marriage sucks. Suddenly Jude decides to be a musician; I'm guessing to take his mind off of women for a while. Jude does that a lot; when things start to go sour he will find something to bury his head in until the situation blows over. Sometimes it is books, a new profession or drinking and now music.
Jude gets invited to dinner with Sue and travels to Shaston. He shows up at the school and he and Sue discuss their friendship, again (isn't this like the fifth time?). They talk for a while and Sue asks him to come by the house later in the week. Soon after, he hears that his aunt died and he and Sue travel back for the funeral. Once there, the two talk of Sue's marriage, yet again, and Sue admits regret for marring Philloston but she has to go back. They hint that divorce is on the way for both parties. Sue asks Philloston if she can move away with Jude because she doesn't really love Richard. She even sleeps in a closet to keep from sleeping with him. He finally agrees and Jude and Sue run of together, happily ever after. NOT!! There is still like 200 pages of misery and pain left to go.
Jude is so dumb, that he ends up taking Sue to the same hotel where he slept with Arabella only about a month ago, and he was recognized by the maid. Jude doesn't see the problem since Arabella is his legal wife and Sue has already expressed that she is not ready for a sexual relationship. A little later, Philloston's job is threatened for allowing his wife to commit adultery. The two couples, Richard and Sue, and Jude and Arabella, decide to legally divorce, since that will make everybody a lot happier.
Jude and Sue love together as lovers for a while, and one day Arabella shows up. Jude is at work and Sue turns her away. Arabella returns later that evening and asks Jude to accompany her to an inn in town so as they can talk. Sue is adamant that Jude doesn't go. This is the point that Sue realizes that she does love Jude and is jealous of Arabella. Sue agrees to marry Jude if he will stay with her. Of course, he agrees, and completely forgets about Arabella. The next day Sue feels kind of bad for Arabella and goes to see her; Arabella is rude (as would anybody be to the new love of their ex) but listens to Sue. The wedding is postponed and the they get a letter from Arabella containing what she had come to tell Jude. Arabella was pregnant when she left Jude and had their baby eight months after she arrived in Australia, and now she doesn't really want the child and was sending the child to Jude. Jude and Sue are sort of excited that the child will be coming in a few weeks, since that will give them plenty of time to marry and make the family proper. But Arabella waited to the very last minute to tell Jude, and the child arrived that night. The kid was one of those that a fifty year old was born in a kid’s body, and he was named Little Father Time by his grandparents because he seemed so old. When he arrives he automatically calls Sue and Jude Mother and Father (probably because the child never really had a mother or saw much of his father. Jude and Sue still contemplate marriage, despite the many omens they have against it; but eventually don't.
Some time later Arabella spots the family walking during a festival and makes a comment about them to her new husband on how that child couldn't have been theirs since they have not been married long enough, but they look happy enough. The family moves to find more work. A few years later Sue sees Arabella again, only this time she is in mourning because her husband has died. Sue doesn't have great news either; Jude is sick and has had to revert to baking and having Sue sell cookies to make money since they have had two more children and have one on the way; but wants to go back to Christminister again, hoping maybe he will die there. Arabella and her friend return to their lodgings and on the way pick up and have an interesting conversation with Richard Philloston. Upon the families return to Christminister is when the super terrible tragic ending starts.
Little Jude, no longer called Little Father Time, we find out is a very smart and observant little boy. He asks Sue if the Children are the reason that they cannot find a house big enough for them all and their father, and she tells him yes. It is true, half of the places that they find are not big enough or the owner doesn't want to house children or the sickly, but it is mostly because the people have heard of Jude and Sue's story and don't want then occupying their lease. Little Jude is upset because he thinks that he should never have been born, nor should any of the other children (including the one that Sue has in her belly now). The next morning, Jude feels better and comes to see his family (he had been living in different lodgings to provide extra room since the children were already having to sleep in a closet), and has breakfast with Sue. He goes upstairs after hearing Sue scream to find her lying in the floor at the closet door. As he looked up he sees that the two youngest children were dangling from the garment hanger with a piece of string around their necks, dead. The oldest was hanging from a nail on the wall with an overturned chair next to him. They later found the suicide note from little Jude on the floor simply stating " Done because we are too menny". Sue and the land lady try to revive the children but it is too late.
To make a super long ending short, Sue and Jude move are extremely depressed and after the funerals move away. Sue thinks that she should go back to Richard since she actually married him when she never legally married Jude. She also believed that God was punishing he by having little Jude, who was born in a legal marriage, to murder her illegitimate bastards. Sue decides to return to Richard and he takes her back. Arabella decides the same and takes Jude back. Her and her father thinks Jude should re-marry Arabella, and they do. Then Jude gets sick. So smart one over here gets the bright idea to walk to Sue's house in the rain to see her one last time before he dies. She still loves Jude but tells him that she never wants to see him ever again. Almost exactly one year after the family moved to Christminister Jude dies. Arabella, the loving wife that she is, decides that she can afford to go watch the boat races with a bunch of men before dealing with her husband's body. At the funeral, Mrs. Edlin asks Arabella if Sue is to come to the funeral. Jude wouldn't allow Arabella to send Sue any news of him after their last meeting, so she never finds out that Jude has died. Hardy does a good job of writing elaborate stories to push his intended themes, but god they are quit depressing.
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