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In the aspect of marriage, Mill suffers from the degenerate marriage system aswell. When he first meets his later wife, Harriet Taylor, she is already married to Mr.Taylor. And on account of her marriage, they can only be friends no matter how closetheir souls are. Even so, they are still judged by their families and friends. After twoyears of the death of Mr. Taylor, they finally get married. Due to his suffering, he feelsthe same for those souls who have been oppressed by the traditional marriage system.Therefore, he firmly stands on the opposite side of tradition and consistently fightsagainst the stringent marriage system.

Mill describes the general situation of the Victorian era in his On Marriage. Hefirstly states that all kinds of moralities are compromises among contradictory characters. And then marriage as the most prevalent morality, in order to obtaingeneral pacification, people in marriage are appealed to renounce what really makethem happy (1984: 37). This unreasonable social demand will inevitably lead to manyunfortunate marriages. And society is made up thousands of family units. Therefore,as time passes, it will obstruct the development of the whole society. Thus as aproponent of utilitarianism, there is no doubt that Mill is disapproved of it, for it iscontrary to his philosophical beliefs. Moreover, it is evidently showed in his otherworks.

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2.2 The Contractual Marriage between Jude and Arabella

The contractual marriage in the Victorian era here discussed refers to the kind ofmarriage that is bestowed by religion and social law. In other words, only this sort ofmarriage is admitted by the Victorian society and people, religiously and legally. Beisdes, in the eyes of the Victorians, marriage is a gift that God bestows to virtuouspeople. As a result, people in this era have severe restraints on marriage. “Onceentered into, marriage was for life. It came to be regarded as the seat of all social, aswell as Christian, virtue” (Davis et al. 2). Marriage becomes the standard for people toevaluate morality. Contractual marriage thus occupies a reputable religious status inVictorian times. So this is exactly why Arabella manages to make Jude marry her andJude is thus manipulated by the Victorian marriage system.

In the marriages between Jude and Arabella, as a “Yahoo” (Heilman 307),Arabella shrewdly takes advantage of this feature of marriage to satisfy her ownmaterial needs and carnal desire. She twice tricks Jude to marry her. In the first time,the way that they meet each other indicates the nature of their marriage. In order toattract Jude’s attention, Arabella throws “the characteristic part of a barrow-pig”(Hardy 2012: 29) at him. This object that she flings is chosen by intention andcertainly reflects the meaning of flirtation. So the naive Jude is successfully hookedup and agrees to go out with her. Later, for tying Jude permanently, she takesPhysician Vilbert’s advice and pretends to be pregnant. Eventually, she manages to getmarried with Jude. And tragic stories in the novel b本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。