The folllowing sample essay on Bathsheba Everdene discusses it in detail, offering basic facts and pros and cons associated with it. To read the essay’s introduction, body and conclusion, scroll down.
She gains a lot of respect from the audience through the rustic characters comments. As they all have strong opinions of her, be they good or bad. More than just Gabriel notice that she is a “very vain feymell”. Billy Smallbury, one of the rustic’s, notices this. Although there are negative views of her, many other characters see her strengths.
Laban Tall commented that “… she’s a brave girl who’ll never tell a lie however much the truth may harm her… ” A good way of showing Bathsheba and Fanny’s differences is by comparing them by another characters views.
Gabriel Oak Character Analysis
Boldwood describes Fanny as a “silly girl – a silly girl” and Bathsheba as a “wretched woman – deluded woman”. This again shows they weakness of Fanny, as silly is a very immature word, and wretched – deluded are both words that show great thought.
As if Boldwood put a lot of effort into describing Bathsheba. Hardy had very modern views about women, and liked to treat them as strong and independent in his books. This reflected his attitude to them. He liked to show his ideas through the way he portrayed them, e. g.. When Bathsheba was described riding the horse through the woods.
Hardy describes Bathsheba as a “handsome”, “careless”, “well-favoured and comely”, “woman in full bloom and vigour”.
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He has a very definite role for her, and sees her as a pure yet bold well spoken woman. There is a very particular quote which describes her perfectly and that is “An Elizabeth in brain and a Mary Stuart in spirit”. This shows how strong and loved she is by Hardy. But I think that he did not have the same view of Fanny. He describes her “like a mere shade upon the earth”. As if she just has nothing to show for herself. She is a very sad character and I think Hardy wrote her to be an exact opposite of Bathsheba.
For instance, they both love Troy, but both have separate outcomes because of their own actions. Troy is an outsider to the village. He represents rootless modernity. He is an outsider with inappropriate values and ideas. He has no relationship with the farming community, as he shows when the storm almost destroys the harvest. He simply gets the farm hands drunk and is oblivious to the vulnerability of the ricks. Troy’s behaviour disrupts the ordered pattern of rural life and yet both Bathsheba and Fanny are either infatuation, be it Bathsheba, or in awe of, in Fanny’s case. I believe that Troy is the link between the two women.
He brings out the weakness in Bathsheba and the strength in Fanny, they both act out of context. In contrast to Oak, he is careless with the women’s feelings and enjoys the pain he inflicts on the characters, such as Boldwood. Both women act out of context when faced with the prospect of loss or desertion. Bathsheba, “bewildered too by the prospect of having to rely on her own resources again” and Fanny who is very secretive ” I don’t want people to know anything about me”. This response is probably expected of Fanny, but I think that it shows a great deal of strength to not have to rely on someone else to carry your burden.
Hardy’s use of “pathetic fallacy” not only shows the characters mood’s but it also helps compare the two. E. g.. We first meet Bathsheba in a big green valley, which represents security, broad openness, and fresh thoughts and feelings. It shows that she is bright and cheerful. We last see Bathsheba when she is married to Oak. Again she is happy, but with a foggy future. When Fanny is first introduced the sky is dull and dark, and she is placed in a graveyard. This automatically gives some kind of hints that maybe she is not healthy and death is not far away.
The audience’s suspicions are then confirmed when Gabriel Oak touches her wrist and deduces that she is suffering from consumption. The bright life of Bathsheba’s entrance gives a good comparison to Fanny’s dull and dingy future. As Fanny walks to the workhouse Hardy describes her as being “in the depths of a moonless and starless night”. As in, there are no lights in the sky or in her future, above her. It shows that everything she is thinking is dark, and she has no glimmer of a chance. Jealousy is often hinted when Bathsheba talks of Fanny. Even her subconscious thoughts think of her.
For instance, when she runs away and sleeps rough under a tree Bathsheba doesn’t sleep “between the beautiful yellowing ferns with their feathery arms”. Which I think describes Fanny, as she has yellow hair and is very frail and beautiful. But she sleeps in a “species of swamp, dotted with fungi… the general aspect of the swamp was malignant… rotting leaves… oozing gills”. This kind of describes her “oozing” feelings and jealousy and disgust towards Fanny and herself. The editor of the Cornhill magazine in 1874 was opposed to having the issue of Fanny’s illegitimate child put into Far from the Madding crowd.
Thomas Hardy wrote his book in segments and each week a chapter of the book would be published. The readers of the Cornhill magazine would have generally been conservative middle class people. The Editor was anxious about the readers reaction to Fanny’s pregnancy because illegitimacy was such a stigma in the 1870’s. Illegitimate mothers were often sectioned and middle class people didn’t like the idea of it. They found it disgraceful. The simple fact that Fanny was ill and dying would have been thought to have been enough.
But I think Hardy wanted to show how desperate and low fanny had become. He also wanted to show that having an illegitimate child was not the “end of the world”. In conclusion, Fanny and Bathsheba are both very individual, and are Hardy’s way of explaining his thoughts about women in his era. Bathsheba was the upper class woman who is thought to be strong and bold, and turns out to be a simple insecure girl. Fanny was viewed as the lower class girl who is unfortunate enough to become ill, and have many horrible things happen to her, but develops into a strong willed character.
Gabriel Oak Character Analysis. (2019, Dec 07). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/paper-on-characters-bathsheba-everdene/
