Thomas Hardy's last novel Jude the Obscure (1895) is centred on its working-class
protagonist Jude Fawley's efforts first to become a scholar, then his experiences of
resisting the orthodoxies of his society and lastly defying Christianity as a restrictive
social force on the individuals. This paper aims to discuss Jude's liminal character from
the cultural perspectives on liminality respectively developed by the French ethnographer
Arnold van Gennep and the British cultural anthropologist Victor Turner. Jude as a liminal
character experiences similar transitions or rites of passage as defined and categorized
by van Gennep. Yet, Jude's liminality remains permanent in each stage of his life since he
cannot thoroughly perform the transition rites to leave one social position behind and
undertake a new one. Also, analysed as a liminal character from Turner's understanding
of the term, Jude fails to use the potential that his liminality provides him with to challenge
the societal dogmas. However, he terribly suffers from the consequences of his liminal
identity throughout the story. Jude's tragic end displays how he is punished for his
lifelong liminality that prevents him from moving either to the centre or the margins of his
Victorian society. This essay argues that Hardy's portrayal of Jude as a liminal figure
reminds the defnitions of the term, developed by van Gennep and Turner, but produces a
literary example that is quite antithetical to their conceptions particularly due to his
apparent pessimism. For, Hardy depicts Jude's threshold identity as an obstacle in his
efforts to belong to any particular social, cultural, economic, or intellectual group rather
than an opportunity to challenge each social position
