The Price of Principle — Jude the Obscure

After Sue's departure Shaston gossip turns to scandal when Phillotson admits he let his wife go to her lover. The school committee demands his resignation; he refuses, holds a public meeting, and is dismissed after a brawl in which travelling fair workers defend him while respectable townspeople attack.

Ill in bed, he receives an anonymous note forwarded through Jude's contacts, and Sue visits secretly, reflecting sunset into his sickroom with a mirror. Unaware of the ruin she caused, she leaves for Jude; Phillotson then resolves to divorce her so she and Jude can marry legally, as Arabella's case proceeds too.

Hardy shows us something that still happens every day: people who act on conscience often face harsher consequences than those who act on cruelty.

Phillotson gets destroyed for respecting his wife's autonomy, while men who beat their wives face no social consequences.

Society often punishes people more harshly for acting on conscience than for acting on cruelty.

Phillotson loses his school not for mistreating Sue but for letting her go.

Respectable townspeople defend the marriage order; fair workers and outcasts defend the man who showed mercy.

Hardy shows us something that still happens every day: people who act on conscience often face harsher consequences than those who act on cruelty.