Far from the Madding Crowd
far from the madding crowd
FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD – Themes and Messages
Fate as a Theme
Fate and coincidence are frequently used in the plot. • Bathsheba arrives just in time to save Gabriel suffocating in his lambing hut, and he in turn happens to arrive in Weatherbury in time to save Bathsheba’s crops and becomes her new shepherd. • Bathsheba’s Valentine sent as a joke has a fatal effect on Boldwood, who falls desperately in love with her. It is fate that decided whether or not to send that Valentine. • It is fate that Fanny confuses two churches so Troy does not marry her. • Bathsheba is forced t withdraw her dismissal of Gabriel, when the following day, her sheep become fatally sick and only Gabriel has the skill to cure them. • Due to Joseph’s drunkenness, the funeral of Fanny is postponed, enabling Bathsheba the chance to open the coffin and discover Fanny with her dead baby. • The weather becomes a malignant force, an agent of fate in the later parts of the story. The storm at Harvest supper nearly destroys Bathsheba’s crops. • Rain washes away the flowers that Troy has carefully planted on Fanny’s grave. • By chance, Troy is saved from drowning. • It is fate that on the very night Bathsheba agrees to marry Boldwood, Troy returns and Boldwood shoots him.
Love as a Theme
Hardy compares Bathsheba’s three suitors. He contrasts both the romantic love of Troy and the obsessive passion of Boldwood with the friendship-like relationship of Bathsheba and Gabriel’s final union. The penniless Bathsheba rejects Gabriel’s first proposal , as she does not love him. She sensibly advises him to “marry a woman with money, who would stock a larger farm for him”. As a wealthy gentleman, farmer Boldwood offers Bathsheba a rise in social status, but he too is rejected, as she does not love him. Bathsheba states confidentially at the start of the novel that
FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD – Themes and Messages
Fate as a Theme
Fate and coincidence are frequently used in the plot. • Bathsheba arrives just in time to save Gabriel suffocating in his lambing hut, and he in turn happens to arrive in Weatherbury in time to save Bathsheba’s crops and becomes her new shepherd. • Bathsheba’s Valentine sent as a joke has a fatal effect on Boldwood, who falls desperately in love with her. It is fate that decided whether or not to send that Valentine. • It is fate that Fanny confuses two churches so Troy does not marry her. • Bathsheba is forced t withdraw her dismissal of Gabriel, when the following day, her sheep become fatally sick and only Gabriel has the skill to cure them. • Due to Joseph’s drunkenness, the funeral of Fanny is postponed, enabling Bathsheba the chance to open the coffin and discover Fanny with her dead baby. • The weather becomes a malignant force, an agent of fate in the later parts of the story. The storm at Harvest supper nearly destroys Bathsheba’s crops. • Rain washes away the flowers that Troy has carefully planted on Fanny’s grave. • By chance, Troy is saved from drowning. • It is fate that on the very night Bathsheba agrees to marry Boldwood, Troy returns and Boldwood shoots him.
Love as a Theme
Hardy compares Bathsheba’s three suitors. He contrasts both the romantic love of Troy and the obsessive passion of Boldwood with the friendship-like relationship of Bathsheba and Gabriel’s final union. The penniless Bathsheba rejects Gabriel’s first proposal , as she does not love him. She sensibly advises him to “marry a woman with money, who would stock a larger farm for him”. As a wealthy gentleman, farmer Boldwood offers Bathsheba a rise in social status, but he too is rejected, as she does not love him. Bathsheba states confidentially at the start of the novel that