Far from the Madding Crowd Group

Question:

chanelle
chanelle
Student
High School - 11th Grade

In 'Far from the madding crowd', what are your impressions about the love shown by bathsheba's 3 suitors-Troy, Gabriel, and Boldwood?

Rate question:

Posted by chanelle on Tuesday December 2, 2008 at 3:00 PM and tagged with far from the madding crowd, love.

Answers:

  1. wintersdiscontent
    wintersdiscontent

    The first lover you mention, Troy, is  one of the rake archetype, that is, a love 'em and leave 'em type of fellow.  The love of a rake is what one might very easily call lust.  A charming enough girl is Bathsheba, and tempting as a conquest, but little more than that.  In Troy's lust, it is in reality Troy himself who receives the love and admiration, more so because of his pretty conquest.  A narcissistic love.

    In Boldwood we find something altogether different.  Like any good Byronic hero, Boldwood is a man of deep and frenzied passions.  Like Troy, Boldwood wishes to make a conquest of Bathsheba.  Unlike Troy, Boldwood is more willing by far to sacrifice for his love, as best shown in his shooting of Troy.  One might characterize his love as erotic love, extending no further than his passion and desire for Bathsheba as object.

    Gabriel varies from the other two.  The humble shepherd is just as humble in his amorous notions.  From the very beginning of the novel, when first he gazes at Bathsheba, we see that he admires her deeply. However, in his pessimistic viewing of her vanity, he does not delight in the young woman chiefly for her aesthetic qualities--or how she would have others value them.  Gabriel's love might be seen in the more Christian sense of agape.  It is a self-sacrificing, patient love, which burns steadily, instead of flaring up only to be extinguished just as quickly, like that of Troy, or engulfing all in its flames, like that of Boldwood.

    Rate answer:

    Posted by wintersdiscontent on Saturday December 6, 2008 at 7:16 PM