Themes - Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

Themes in Far from the Madding Crowd

        The title Far From the Madding Crowd comes from Thomas Gray's famous 18th-century poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard":

"Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,

Their sober wishes never learned to stray;

Along the cool sequestered vale of life

They kept the noiseless tenor of their way."

      There are many themes in the novel. Here I have presented some important themes.

1 Marriage

       In the novel there are lots of marriages, each male character is expecting to marry Bathsheba in one or the other way. It has started from Gabriel; first Gabriel wanted to marry Bathsheba, then Boldwood, then Sergeant Troy, and then Boldwood again. Fanny Robin wanted to marry Troy, and then Bathsheba actually married Troy, and then Gabriel. Marriage in Far from the Madding Crowd is both a question of love and a question of finance. Troy was interested in marrying Bathsheba just because of her beauty and finance, on the other hand Boldwood wanted to marry Bathsheba because of her beauty and the passion which Boldwood had for her, and Oak wanted to marry Bathsheba because he was in love with her. Bathsheba married Troy because of his abilities, skills, and charming personality. At the end of the novel Bathsheba get married with Oak for his true love.

2. Love

      In the novel love is the most complicated emotion with each character. First Gabriel loves Bathsheba and tries to express it but Bathsheba says she doesn’t love him and denies marrying him. Second time Boldwood has proposed by Bathsheba for marriage just for fun but that fun was converted in disaster. Boldwood doesn’t care about the feeling of Bathsheba, he just want her as his wife. On the other hand Gabriel wants to see Bathsheba happy and for that he silently observes everything.
Troy can be observed as the true lover of Fanny. When Fanny dies he has shown his all true love for her, but it is very poor on his part that he was not able to pass his life with fanny. After the death of Troy, he, Fanny and their child laid in the same grave. On the other hand Troy’s love for Bathsheba was not that much deep and even true. He was just attracted with the money Bathsehba has and her beauty.

3. Class

      Gabriel Oak, was a farmer first and then because of a tragedy happened in his life, he became poor. On the other side, Bathsheba was not  rich but after the death of his uncle she was inherited by property an became rich owner of farm. Boldwood is quite rich man and that is the reason of Bathsheba to think about being wife of Boldwood. Boldwood is also quite confident when he decides to marry Bathsheba because he is aware with the fact that he is enough eligible to marry Bathsheba or any other girl. Troy has married Bathsheba just because of her wealth and he was also misusing her wealth. The story revolves around class mentality in all the characters except Oak. 

4. Pride

       The novel has the protagonist character Bathsheba with pride and Vanity. This novel can be considered the journey of Bathsheba from a woman with proud to losing her proud and accepting true love. She was very egoistic because of her beauty and wealth, but at the end we can observe that she proposed Oak and expecting love from him.

       Troy is also a character with pride because of his abilities and charm. But when Fanny died he lost his pride. He felt true love of Fanny and became aware with his love towards Fanny.
All characters have pride in starting and by the circumstances and destiny they became humble. Hardy has provided a good example for his readers and the power of fate.

5. Gender

       The role of gender is the most important part in the novel. Bathsheba is not only an independent character of the novel but also a strong one. She alone managed her uncle’s wealth, her business and also selected her own life partner by her own choice. It is not possible in the Victorian society that a woman can have affair with three men and marry twice. She suffered because of her decisions but all those were her own decisions.
In the novel, the character of Bathsheba seems stronger than other male characters. Hardy has inverted the typical idea of presenting men and women in society.