Far From the Madding Crowd is considered one of Hardy's lighter works. His treatement of characters as being destined to fulfill a tragic, or dramatic, purpose is not so forceful in Far as in his later works, like Tess and Jude.
Not only are the themes more digestable, but the plot (which at times lapses to melodrama) is also more believable than most of his contrived, complicated stories. Carpenter says of Hardy's plot in Far From the Madding Crowd "the plot is one of quality...which is demonstronably superior to his minor works, for it grows principally out of character and natural situations." Post evidence to support Carpenter's statement.
I disagree with Capenter's statement that Far "grows prinipally out of character and natural situations" because I don't think that this book's events were any more believable than the ones in Tess. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this novel, it kept my interest most days, but I can't believe that any sane woman would allow herself to fall for such men and not better control her life and choices. Bathsheba was too easily wooed by Troy, after she had already began to lead on poor old Boldwood. Then Bathsheba fell into Troy's trap and married him, when she went after him determined to end their relationship. How could she be so weak? Then she allowed Boldwood to control her choices after she believed Troy to be dead, and Boldwood's hopes were again raised. Not until after Boldwood shoots and kills Troy and is sentanced to prison, does she finally realize her true love lies with the man who has been a friend and confidant all along, Grabiel Oak. The only smart thing she does in this novel is to follow Oak when he decides to move. She tells him how she feels and they decide to marry. The ending of the novel was my favorite part, because it was the realistic mate for Bathsheba. But I can't believe that the events leading up to it were "natural situations", even for the romantic period in which this novel was written.
ReplyDeleteI partially agree with normagrace that Far's events were not believable for Bathsheba does get herself into situations that a sane woman would reevaluate before continuing in the same direction. The situation with Troy is one where a woman in real life may think twice before acting in such rash manners.
ReplyDeleteHow quickly Bathsheba falls for Troy and marries him is unrealistic and not believeable. Also, the convenience from which both Troy and Boldwood are removed from the path connecting Bathsheba and Gabriel Oak is too surreal. While life may somehow remove obstacles to help you achieve a desired outcome, the ease at which the two men in the way of Gabriel recieving Bathsheba's are removed is unbelieveable.
However, I do believe that the events are more believable in Far than in Tess because Tess's devotion to Angel, and her self-degredation in hopes that Angel will simply remain near her is too much. Hardy seems to portray women as beautiful temptresses who, while having the ultimate decision, are so prone to weakness that an unhappy balance is reached.
Despite the unbelievable events of Far, it does contain more realistic situations, including Troy falling for Bathsheba and leaving Fanny (something that happens even today) and even Bathsheba taking over after the passing of her [uncle?] for history shows us many strong women. The lesser amount of fantastic and dramatic events and the presence of more everyday things (shearing sheep, cutting hay, etc...) help make Far more realistic than Tess (in which a rapist becomes a preacher then gives up missionary work work the woman he raped who is in love with the man she married who left for Brazil after hearing of her rape--crazy, right?).
It appears that Hardy began to run away with his imagination as he wrote more and more novels.
Far seemed to be a much more believable novel than Tess was. Some of the coincidences that happened in Far still made it seem a bit unrealistic, but I felt that most of the events in it could actually occur in real life. I disagree with Norma that her relationship with Troy was unrealistic. Yes, she should have had more sense than what she did, but she was not used to men like him. Most of the men she had been around had been wooed by her and she knew that they liked her and thought her to be beautiful, but they were never so blunt about it or as bold as Troy had been. Troy was more dangerous than the other men had been and that attracted her to him. She was not thinking with her head but led her desire to be with him control what she did. Even today this happens all the time and is why there are so many shotgun weddings in Vegas that end in divorce.
ReplyDeleteThe events in Far were no more fortunate for Bathsheba as the events in Tess were for her, but they were at least more realistic.
I agree with I am mine in that Far is unbelievable because Boldwood and Troy are suddenly removed so Bathsheba can fall into Gabriel’s arms. In real life obstacles do not just disappear, people have to continue struggling until they reach the correct path. Tess was much more believable than Far because obstacles were not magically removed, Tess had to deal with her problems in order to reach happiness with Angel. Unfortunately she dealt with her problems by murdering Alec, which took her from Angel in the end. In Far Hardy gives the impression of being tired of the drama in Bathsheba’s love triangle, so he just eliminates Troy and Boldwood so the novel can come to a close. I also agree with I am mine in that as Hardy continued to write novels, his novels became more realistic. Tess ended realistically, pain equaled happiness, but Far ended to perfectly. There needed to be a bit more struggling to make the novel realistic.
ReplyDeleteI would argue that the plot of Far seemed more realistic than that of Tess because Hardy has a tendency to create more “natural” or relatable situations in Far, such as keeping a farm and falling in love - which are common to everyday people. Also, the novel Far is not as heavy with Hardy’s theme of fate. In Tess, it is far-fetched that every event in the novel is a result of fate and coincidence. As Carpenter mentions in his review, Hardy takes events that happen by chance, and tries to give them order, yet by creating such perfect consciences, his novel does not have the realism effect he is going for. "Yet there is also implicit in Hardy's construction a quality which runs quite contrary to 'realism', in theory if not in practice. Real life does not show such symmetries" (Carpenter, 21).
ReplyDeleteI agree with I am Mine and Krista in saying that Far may be more realistic than Tess, but overall, the events that took place are not very probably in everyday life. The odds of a woman having three men in love with her at the same time, seem pretty unlikely. Plus, not only are they all so madly in love with Bathsheba, but she cannot even choose the right one! First, she falls for Troy based on her initial emotional reaction to his flirtations. Then, once he is out of the picture, she decides to stop stringing Boldwood along, and possibly let herself fall for him. However, if Bathsheba had stayed with Boldwood, Gabriel Oak would have been completely left out. Hardy did not want this, so Bathsheba ends up marrying Oak, the man who had truly loved her from the beginning. The probability of one woman going through three men this quickly seems slim. Therefore, Hardy does not make Far any more realistic. Instead of having events take place due to fate, he makes improbable events occur, making Far no more realistic than Tess.
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