Far from the Madding Crowd
the two sides of Bathsheba:
the capricious individual and the nineteenth-century heroine
key episodes:
first impressions
the delay at the turnpike
The gatekeeper surveyed the retreating vehicle. ‘That’s a handsome maid,’ he said to Oak.’
‘But she has her faults,’ said Gabriel.
‘True, farmer.’
‘And the greatest of them is - well, what it is always... Vanity.’
Is it Oak or Hardy who thinks that women are ‘always’ vain?
Does Oak come out of this exchange well? Is he too quick to pass judgement? What reasons may he have for finding fault with Bathsheba? Is he right?
Is the whole novel predicated on the idea that Bathsheba must overcome this fault?
Far from the Madding Crowd
the two sides of Bathsheba:
the capricious individual and the nineteenth-century heroine
key episodes:
first impressions
riding beneath the trees
Springing to her accustomed perpendicular like a
bowed sapling, and satisfying herself that nobody was in sight, she seated herself
in the manner demanded by the saddle, though hardly expected of the woman, and
trotted off ...
The ‘sapling’ suggest the youthful energy of Bathsheba, doesn’t it?
Bathsheba sits as a man would on a horse, but Hardy describes this in quite a coy way, and adds that this is ‘hardly expected of the woman’, giving his own nineteenth-century value regarding female decorum.
How is this scene exciting for (i) Oak; (ii) the nineteenth-century reader; (iii) us?
Far from the Madding Crowd
the two sides of Bathsheba:
the capricious individual and the nineteenth-century heroine
key episodes:
madam bailiff
the fire
Bathsheba knows a good thing when she sees one: “He does work hard ... I wish he was shepherd here.”
At the end of this chapter, the situation between the two - Oak and Bathsheba - is reversed. Gabriel looks up - literally - at her, at his ‘cold-hearted darling’ and asks, ‘Do you want a shepherd, ma’am?’
Has Bathsheba really been a ‘cold-hearted darling’?
Far from the Madding Crowd
the two sides of Bathsheba:
the capricious individual and the nineteenth-century heroine
key episodes:
madam bailiff
the first pay-roll
How exactly does this scene - chapter X - reveal Bathsheba as both a female - gentle, emotional, interpersonal - and as an authority figure?
Notice how Laban’s wife answers for him: it is not just Bathsheba who has taken on a make authority.
Far from the Madding Crowd
the two sides of Bathsheba:
the capricious individual and the nineteenth-century heroine
key episodes:
madam bailiff
the corn hall
Among these heavy yeomen a feminine figure glided, the single one of her sex that the room contained... It had required a little determination ... to take up a position here.
Of course, only one man does not stare at her - The numerous evidences of her power to attract were only thrown into greater relief by a marked exception ... It perplexed her first. The man, the man full of ‘dignity’, is Boldwood.
[At the next market, after the Valentine, he does stare, and asks others if she is beautiful.]
Far from the Madding Crowd
the two sides of Bathsheba:
the capricious individual and the nineteenth-century heroine
key episodes:
hiring and firing
the quarrel over the shears; the curing of the flock
What is which really annoys Bathsheba about the way in which Oak answers her questions? His honesty? His perception?
Is she capricious to sack him on the spot, or is she merely expressing her authority?
What is it which persuades Oak to return? His sense of duty to the flock and the men? His pride that he is the only man who can do this thing? Or is it the postscript to the note Bathsheba sends?
[And what does Bathsheba think?]
Far from the Madding Crowd
the two sides of Bathsheba:
the capricious individual and the nineteenth-century heroine
key episodes:
impetuous and rash
the sending of the valentine; the spurs beneath the firs
What are the elements which persuade Bathsheba to send the Valentine to Boldwood? What do these elements tell us about Bathsheba, her capricious nature and her vanity?
How are these elements present in quite a different way when the becomes - literally - entangled - with Troy beneath the firs?
How does Hardy use symbolism in these two key scenes: why is it a ‘seal’ which carries the words, ‘Marry Me’? What is the significance of the spurs getting entangled in the gimp cords?
Oh, and how is Oak again a kind of ‘protector’ here?
Far from the Madding Crowd
the two sides of Bathsheba:
the capricious individual and the nineteenth-century heroine
key episodes:
falling in love
the hollow amid the ferns; Bath
These are racy scenes, especially to a nineteenth-century reader. Look at the ‘hollow amid the ferns’ again; how is the symbolism important here.
Examine the way in which Bathsheba leaves for Bath: what does it tell us about her?
And what about the way Oak again is placed in the role of loyal protector?
What does Oak represent for Bathsheba?
Far from the Madding Crowd
the two sides of Bathsheba:
the capricious individual and the nineteenth-century heroine
key episodes:
regrets
Fanny’s return
What kind of woman unscrews a coffin lid in order to see the corpse of her husband’s lover? [How is Oak again been a kind of ‘protector’ here?]
Is this conventional or unconventional behaviour?
Is it typical of Bathsheba or a weird aberration?
How does she react to Troy’s behaviour?
Far from the Madding Crowd
the two sides of Bathsheba:
the capricious individual and the nineteenth-century heroine
key episodes:
tragedy
Boldwood’s persistence; the party
How has Bathsheba changed after the disappearance of her husband?
How does she react to Boldwood’s bullying? (Is it bullying?)
What precisely does she promise Boldwood? Why?
What image of her are we left with at the tragic end of the party? What does this tell us about Bathsheba now?
How is Oak again a kind of ‘protector’ here?
Far from the Madding Crowd
the two sides of Bathsheba:
the capricious individual and the nineteenth-century heroine
key episodes:
falling in love
Gabriel is persuaded to stay
[Oak has in fact decided not to emigrate, but to leave Bathsheba’s farm to take over at what was Boldwood’s.]
In what ways is the end of the book conventional? Do Oak and Bathsheba simply end up marrying the money? Or is it more than this?
How is this scene a return - albeit in a slightly qualified way - to the exuberance of the younger Bathsheba: ‘Why, Gabriel,’ she said, with a slight laugh, as they went to the door, ‘it seems exactly as if I had come courting you - how dreadful!’
Why should it be ‘dreadful’? And what is the significance of that phrase, with a slight laugh?