Hardy's 'Aged Child'
The Problem of Interpreting Little Father Time
Abstract
Keywords:
childhood, Little Father Time, Jude the Obscure, morality, precocity, child suicide, crime
The article discusses the central but minor figure of Little Father Time in Thomas Hardy’s notorious novel Jude the Obscure (1895) and the significance of its climactic murder-suicide scene. This paper examines the episode in detail, interrogating the implications of Time’s act. What is the nature of the actions he commits? Is it childish recklessness or an outbreak of homicidal mania; Christ-like sacrifice, as the text seems to imply; is it euthanasia, a killing in order to save; or is it cold blooded murder? Why does he do it, what are his motives and influences? Is it faulty education, heredity, or natural precocity? This paper attempts to map the meaning of this pivotal scene in the context of the sea change that has come about in the attitudes towards childhood from the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century.
References
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