The Wedding Jude Gives Away — Jude the Obscure

A letter arrives signed Susanna Florence Mary Bridehead, the full name unused since her first note. She and Phillotson will marry in three or four weeks. He has said there is no object in waiting now she is not at the training school. Wish me joy, she writes, and he must not refuse. Jude can eat no breakfast. Everything seems turning to satire. O Susanna Florence Mary, he says at his bench: you don't know what marriage means. He wonders whether his own confession pricked her into proving the school wrong. He determines to play the Spartan.

A second note asks the question: Jude, will you give me away? He is her only married relation on the spot. The prayer-book, she adds, hands her over like a she-goat. He agrees, offers his lodging as the house she should marry from, and moves to larger rooms. She lives on another floor. Their occasional supper is mechanical. On the wedding morning they breakfast together, and she takes his arm through the mud to St. Thomas. They walk the nave to the altar rail like a couple just married, two hours early, because she likes to do things like this.

Phillotson's train is early. She tells him they have been rehearsing. Jude buys two or three yards of white tulle and throws it over her bonnet as a veil. At the real service he wishes he had not undertaken the business. She can hardly command herself when he gives her to Phillotson. After the meal she looks back from the pavement with a frightened light in her eyes. On the carriage-step she claims a forgotten handkerchief. Jude follows. Her lips part as if she will avow something. She goes on. The sentence stays unspoken.