Jude the Obscure characters

Appears from the start

An orphaned village boy distressed by the departure of his schoolmaster, Phillotson, from Marygreen. Sensitive and eager for learning, he treasures the older man's promise to remember him and send books.

Appears from the start

The village schoolmaster at Marygreen and an early model for Jude's ambitions. He leaves for Christminster hoping study there will lead to a university degree and ordination, and his departure gives the young Jude a powerful image of a larger intellectual world.

First appears in chapter 2

Jude's elderly great-aunt and guardian in Marygreen. Blunt and pessimistic about the Fawley family, she warns that marriage has repeatedly brought its members unhappiness and discourages Jude's idealized plans.

First appears in chapter 4

A traveling seller of remedies who claims enough learning to impress the young Jude. He promises to obtain Latin and Greek grammars in exchange for Jude's assistance, encouraging the boy's hopes while proving unreliable.

First appears in chapter 6

A lively young woman from near Marygreen who attracts Jude while he is working toward his scholarly plans. Practical, physically confident, and deliberately flirtatious, she turns a chance encounter into an invitation to join her and her companions.

First appears in chapter 6

Arabella's companion, who joins her in discussing how to secure Jude's attention and supports her practical approach to courtship.

First appears in chapter 13

Jude's cousin, known to him first through family talk and then encountered in Christminster, where she works for a maker of religious objects. Her intelligence and apparent independence intensify his wish to know her despite the family warning against contact.

First appears in chapter 31

A friend and colleague of Phillotson who listens as the schoolmaster confronts the collapse of his marriage. He represents the conventional judgment Phillotson risks when deciding whether to release an unwilling wife.

Also known as Little Father Time

First appears in chapter 37

Jude and Arabella's solemn young son, sent to live with Jude and Sue after spending his early childhood away from them. Quiet, prematurely grave, and anxious about the cost of his own existence, he joins a household already living under financial and social pressure.

First appears in chapter 35

Arabella's second husband, an Australian publican whom she married while her marriage to Jude still legally existed. His death leaves her free to return to England and reopen her connection with Jude.