Communicating a Conflict in Relationships; Hardy's Uses of Natural Imagery in 'Far from the Madding Crowd' Anonymous College

In a novel titled Far from the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy could hardly proceed without copious description of the natural and pastoral setting of his work. The simple plot details demand notes on rusticity and Hardy’s Victorian sensibilities allow attention to humble characters and the hardships of their lives. Gabriel Oak works as a shepherd and it is on a farm that he becomes serviceable to his employer Bathsheba and grows in her estimation. The other characters and their country ways contrast with Gabriel’s and Bathsheba’s manners and interest in reading; these country characters need a rural setting for consistency in their portraits. However, the intensity of detail in landscape descriptions points to more important uses of natural imagery in the development of the work.

The interest that both the author and the central character Gabriel Oak take in the details of nature is more than incidentally keen. The most easily seen use Hardy makes of these details is in characterization: Gabriel’s attention to and interpretation of the signs of nature are a shorthand for the competence at his work that characterizes him throughout and earns him admiration from all. For instance, in chapter two, several paragraphs are devoted to a...