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“He couldn’t remember being a child and being able to define happiness: there was only misery, or fear, and the absence of misery or fear, and the latter state was all he had needed or wanted.”
Jude grew up believing that if he were safe, he would be happy, so in Part II, Chapter 1, he cannot understand why his pupil Felix is lonely and sad. As a young adult, Jude believes that happiness is merely the absence of threat, and he revels in the safety and security of his apartment home. Over time, his friends and family suggest that he expand his definition of happiness to include companionship, perhaps even romantic love. The notion is foreign to Jude, and although he acknowledges feeling lonely, he struggles to locate his happiness in a relationship. Felix, therefore, poses a unique challenge to Jude as he learns to expand his definition of happiness to include being in the presence of people for whom you care with the knowledge that they also care for you.
“And of all the ways in which he changed himself as an adult, it would be this, this idea that he could create at least some part of his own future, that would be the most difficult lesson to learn, as well as the most rewarding.”
In Part V, Chapter 2, Jude looks back on himself as an abused child in a hotel room with Brother Luke and wonders why he did not take the money and run. Jude torments himself with the possible ways he could have saved himself, however small and debasing. Even as an adult, he struggles to see the deeper truth about possibilities and happiness. While the novel’s characters might live in a world of endless possibility, they are also limited by their own beliefs of what is possible for them. Jude’s capabilities are great, but his imagination is small. His friends give him the insight to see a bigger world.
“… the pressure to achieve happiness felt almost oppressive, as if happiness were something that everyone should and could attain, and that any sort of compromise in its pursuit was somehow your fault.”
Willem, in Part I, Chapter 2, works as a waiter at Ortolan with other actor–waiters, when he contemplates how his own career might turn out. Success is never guaranteed and certainly not in a profession as fickle as entertainment, but Willem recognizes that in modern-day New York, life stands wide open for anyone brave and bold enough to grab hold of its possibilities and turn them to one’s own benefit. At this point in Willem’s life, happiness is endlessly attainable, and he feels compelled like his peers to brave the chances of the day, forge his way in the world, and claim his happiness.
