Jude Fawley is presented in Hardy's novel as an ordinary, working-class man of humble origins struggling hard to realize his dreams but thwarted by a cruel fate and a pitiless, snobbish social system. Jude is therefore more like a traditional Marxist literary hero rather than a Greek hero of tragic myth. He is the outsider that is denied access to improvement and social advancement by the rigid and conservative class-system. .
Part of Jude's tragedy arises from his incurable idealism. As a child he is fascinated with Christminster. It is the focus of all his dreams, a shining ideal of intellectual life. He studies But even though he realizes his ambitions may be futile, the university remains an obsession with him. Society is shown here to be an unfair task master, dictating who is deserving of the rewards of education based not on ability but on birthright. The class distinctions and discriminations are not his only stumbling block towards his goal of education, he similarly idealizes Sue as the perfect intellectual woman, but here too he is disillusioned and frustrated. .
The first time he sees her at work in the ecclesiastical shop, she is designing on zinc the word "Alleluia." Jude is impressed with her beauty and the work she is. He has begun to idealize her. Hardy demonstrates Jude's inaccurate perception of Sue's character. He is seeing her for what he wants to her to be, and not for what she really is. When she passes him on the street, he is again enchanted by her grace and delicate charm. She is a strong contrast to Arabella. The reader is gradually shown how Jude builds a new illusion, this time about his cousin. Nevertheless, he says he will think of her only in "quite a family way," because he is still married to Arabella and fears the Fawley family curse in matters of love and marriage. He tells himself that Sue will be a "kindly star, an elevating power . . .
