Masterpiece Theatre Jude moves to the city to work as a stonemason, save his money, and eventually enter college. After a meeting with his wise cousin, Sue Bridehead, Jude seeks out his boyhood schoolmaster, Richard Phillotson. Seeing that he can't ... (more)dissuade Jude from pursuing his dreams of higher education, the schoolmaster writes him a letter of recommendation to Cardinal College. Jude is overjoyed, but his spirits are soon darkened considerably when the president of Cardinal College denies him entry to the school because of his impoverished appearance, low social status, and unorthodox self-education. Soon thereafter, Phillotson is appointed master at a much larger school in his hometown and asks Sue to enroll in a nearby college and become his wife. She neither accepts nor declines the offer, but gives him reason to hope for the future.