Far from the Madding Crowd Group

Question:

kaplan3386
kaplan3386
Student
Graduate School

How does the meaning of love change according to the characters in "Far from the Madding Crowd"?

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Posted by kaplan3386 on Friday April 25, 2008 at 12:29 AM and tagged with change, characters, far from the madding crowd, love, themes.

Answers:


  1. missblimey Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    Love means different things to the different characters in the novel. For Oak love is something constant and unswerving - even when Bathsheba rejects his first proposal he still tells her that "I shall do one thing in this life - one thing certain - that is, love you, and long for you, and keep wanting you till I die" (chapter 4). It is a promise he keeps to the end of the novel.

    For Boldwood love begins as something alien to him; there are hints that he was jilted in love once but otherwise it seems he has steered clear of romance. By the end of the novel though one could argue he is the character most moved by love - so much so that it has become an obsession which leads him to commit murder.

    I would argue that is it Bathsheba who learns most about the nature of love, and indeed herself, in the course of the novel. She begins seeing love and relationships as a game to be lost and won; she tells Oak that "Marriage would be very nice in one sense. People would talk about me and think I had won my battle" (chapter 4) but she makes it clear that the wedding would be far more important to her than the actual marriage. By the time she meets Troy, however, she begins to see how love can change everything. The way she has become a passive 'victim' of Troy's advances in chapter 28 shows how much she has changed. By the end of the novel her acceptance of Oak demonstrates that she has learnt that love should be a partnership not a battle or a game.

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    Posted by missblimey on Thursday August 14, 2008 at 6:49 AM

  2. sarangij
    sarangij Teacher
    College - Senior

    The novel  "Far from the Madding Crowd" is about the education in love; experience love which is  one of the main subjects in the novel.

    DR JAYDEEP SARANGI

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    Posted by sarangij on Sunday September 14, 2008 at 5:30 AM