Far from the Madding Crowd

Love is dominant theme in this novel. Two major love themes are that class barriers interfere with love and that mistakes in love cause grave damage. Gabriel Oak early on falls in love with and...

In Hardy's "Far From the Madding Crowd" there are several different themes at work. One of the obvious is of course the theme of unrequited love. This is shown by Gabriel Oak's love for...

Sergeant Frank Troy frequently displays poor behavior that is partially responsible for his death. He is also a pivotal character because his relationship with Bathsheba Everdene is essential for...

Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd is a typical Victorian novel, meaning it uses a variety of narrative points of view. It includes an omniscient narrator and switches between the perspective of...

Hardy is famed for his portrayal of the nineteenth-century rural England in his fiction. The ordinary inhabitants of the English countryside, the rustics, are a vital component in his work – and...

First, I don't know that one could legitimately argue that Hardy intends for what happens between Frank Troy and Fanny to be interpreted as revenge on Fanny's part. Fanny does not seek revenge....

There are three major themes in Hardy's novel: unrequited love, catastrophe, and social hierarchy. The following is excerpt from eNotes. You can find much more detailed information on each theme...

Fanny Robin is cheated by her lover Sergeant Frank Troy. They plan to get married, but when she turns up late to the ceremony, having gone to the wrong church, he uses this as an excuse to jilt...

The main driver of events in Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd is character rather than fate. Farmer Oak meets Bathsheba in their small rural community where everyone knows everyone. He...

Some of the themes in “Far From the Madding Crowd” are unrequited love, the social caste system, and tragedy. The biggest part of the novel is about Gabriel being in love with Bathsheba. Through...

landscape: a section or expanse of rural scenery, usually extensive, that can be seen from a single viewpoint. (Random House Dictionary) The dry leaves in the ditch simmered and boiled in the same...

One theme that runs throughout Hardy's work is the moral purity of the natural world, and of the people who live by the natural rhythms and impulses of a humble life, close to nature. Hardy...

The first thing to note about Bathsheba is that she is vain. This is the first characteristic that Hardy strikingly emphasizes with such elaborate detail as she sits atop her belongings, while she...

The plot of Far From the Madding Crowd is constructed on surprising, sometimes melodramatic plot twists, dramatic irony, and a strong female protagonist. Surprising plot twists include the dramatic...

Thomas Hardy was both a Romantic and Realist. His characters tend to possess the best of both literary worlds. Bathsheba Everdene, of Far from the Maddening Crowd, possesses characteristics which...

Chapter 27, “Hiving the Bees,” further establishes the beginnings of a relationship between Bathsheba and Sergeant Frank Troy by hinting at their romantic attraction for one another. This idea is...

We are informed in the first chapter that Farmer Oak is a young man of "sound judgment, easy motions, proper dress, and general good character." We are also told, however, that Gabriel Oak is...

I think the symbolism represented by the beautiful, luminous moon is a good example. Hardy uses it to represent love. The phases of the moon and even if it is present or not say a great deal about...

Gabriel proves his undying loyalty to Bathsheba by putting aside his own feelings and devoting himself to years of selfless toil and unconditional support for her in both her business endeavors and...

Chapter 1 is simple one in which Farmer Gabriel Oak and Bathsheba are both introduced to us and are simultaneously introduced to each other, or rather, Oak witnesses Bathsheba's actions and is thus...

Yes, a feminist interpretation would work well for Far From the Madding Crowd. One strand of feminist criticism examines how writers depict women in a piece of literature and what this says about...

One of the joys of reading Far from the Madding Crowd comes from experiencing its rich and detailed descriptive language. Hardy, as the novel reveals, knew his artists, and many of his scenes read...

Hardy, though he lived a very normal, contented life, promotes the idea of fatalism or determinism in all his works. While there is almost always a "higher power" in his works (referred to as...

Frank Troy is the principal antagonist in Far from the Madding Crowd. He is not particularly malevolent but is impulsive, cynical, and irresponsible. He cruelly abandons Fanny Robin and only...

Probably the first thing a modern reader would notice about Hardy's language in Far from the Madding Crowd is what appears to be its heavily florid style. In this, he's no different from most...

As the remainder of this quote indicates, the meaning here is that the valentine is a small thing that hints at potentially enormous change, or "contemptibly little suggesting possibilities of the...

In chapter 12, Bathsheba attends the market at the Corn Exchange. Her presence there is noteworthy because all of the other people in attendance are men. The tone of the first half of the chapter...

I think the novel abundantly examines several philosophical concepts. For example, it raises the philosophical pondering of how we all lead our lives. If we are going to be victimized by the same...

The pivotal event in Chapters 35-38 relating to landscape is the severe storm that would have obliterated Bathsheba's hayricks had Gabriel not thatched them. The chapters are full of nature...

Troy goes to Bath on vacation.

The community in which the story is set is called Wessex. Wessex is a fictional English county used by the author Hardy in many of his works, and bears similarities to the factual Dorset county,...

One of the things that makes this story, in some folks opinion, more than a simple love story with a happily ever after ending is the absolute importance of class over nearly everything else in...

At at time in English literature when little focus was placed on rustics (Dickens was primarily focused on the urban poor), Hardy gave the rural poor a voice and place in this novel, primarily...

In chapter 12, Bathsheba causes a stir when she arrives at the market in Casterbridge to sell her grain. She is the only woman selling among the men. Chapter 12, like the rest of the novel, is told...

Bathsheba is the central figure of the novel. At the beginning of the novel she is around twenty years old and poor, helping to tend her aunt's farm. She is vain. The first time Oak sees her she...

Consider first the title of the novel - Far from the Madding Crowd. It suggest that the "crowd", i.e. public opinion, has huge influence over the characters in the novel. The social...

This is a very large question, so I will try to get you started and hope to steer you in the right direction. A main point of Plato's Symposium is that everyone has a perfect other. If one can find...

Thomas Hardy uses an omniscient third-person narrator to explain the action and to provide extensive, detailed descriptions and the characters’ thoughts. Chapter 12 of the novel centers on...

When Bathsheba arrives at the Corn Exchange in chapter 12 , her voice is said to be "as a romance after sermons." This simile helps to emphasize how different Bathsheba is from the rest of the...

In a comparative task, you need to define the terms of the question. So here you need to consider what is meant by a 'hero'. Is it the character who is central to the plot of the novel? Does it...