Far From the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy

Far From the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy

             

                                    Thomas Hardy’s novel “Far From the Madding Crowd” is a romantic tragedy. Far From the Madding Crowd was called Far From the Frenzied Crowd but was changed to Far From the Madding Crowd. The title taken from the poem “Elegy in a Country Churchyard”, written by Thomas Gray in 1750.

Character List:

Gabrial Oak

Bathsheba Everdene

Sgt. Francis frank Troy

William Boldwood

Fanny Robin, etc.

                In Far From the Madding Crowd almost all the scenes and incidents takes place in the world which is away from the superficial glittering light of city. Hardy emphasis the importance of the country life which is away from the trappings and seductions that the busy world present very convincingly.

                 Hardy shows the differentiated between rural people and city people. City people are more cunning, selfish, arrogant, etc. While rural people are more humble, close to nature, innocent and self sufficient, etc. In the novel the protagonist Gabrial Oak is very much close to the nature and also to the animals and he could predict what will happen with the change in the atmosphere.

                 Gabrial Oak fall in love with Bathsheba and also wants to marry with her. Bathsheba attracted towards the glittering light of city same as Bathsheba attracted towards the glittering light of city people but she cannot saw the shadow under the light and trapping by Troy. She was not aware about the evil mentality of Troy. She married with Troy and after marriage she comes to know about the reality of Troy. Boldwood also wants to marry with Bathsheba but he couldn’t marry. So, at the end out of revenge motif he killed Troy and Bathsheba goes with the hero- Gabrial oak.

                  Here one important character is Fanny Robin, who is victim of Troy and also of society. She wasn’t accepted by Troy and society. She suffering a lot compared to the other characters.

                 In this novel “Nature” plays a vital role. Nature is friend, adviser, victim and destroyer also. It is design the life of character and also having the power to destroy the design. All the characters are victim of cycle of nature. We can say that sometimes characters are not responsible for their deconstruction but they are circumstancized by nature. For example- the character like Fanny Robin.

                  Thus in the novel of Hardy not only female characters but male characters also suffer. Thus, we can say that human beings essentially tragic creatures that are destined to suffer.

           The title also compared with Wole Soyinka’s “The Swamp Dweller”. Wole Soyinka’s character like Alu considered city as a Swamp. Wole differentiated the life between rural and city people. Traditional people try to distance themselves from the city life. They considered city life as a swamp. Instead of that all the characters are not interested in their own life. City people are considered as a shrewder, selfish, etc.