![]() ![]() Both cases had been too insignificant to be reported in the papers, further than by name in a long list of other undefended cases. The same concluding incident in Jude’s suit against Arabella had occurred about a month or two earlier. It's a throwaway usage of the word, not hugely significant, but it emphasises the point that poor people such as they are considered "obscure" by society, not worth paying much attention to: ![]() There's even one passage in the story where the word "obscure" is used by Jude himself, in reference to his and Sue's divorces. In the end he dies unknown, unheard of, without qualifications, none of his dreams achieved - in a word, in obscurity. This makes more sense in terms of the character of Jude: he spends so much time trying to enter into one of the colleges of Oxford Christminster, to achieve an education, to study theology, even to become an academic clergyman, but in the end he remains a stonemason and labourer, his obscurity in the world upper-class academia guaranteeing his rejection from every college he approaches. Official policy has changed, for reasons that remain obscure. ![]() ![]() Not clear and difficult to understand or see: Indeed, the Cambridge English Dictionary lists two meanings: You seem to be assuming that "obscure" means something like "strange" or "difficult to understand", but the more common (in my experience) meaning of the word is something more like "unknown" or "not famous". TL DR: you're getting the wrong meaning of "obscure". ![]()
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