Elucidate the vision of life underlying Far from the Madding Crowd.

Elucidate the vision of life underlying Far from the Madding Crowd.

Thomas Hardy has a well defined attitude to life. He is known as a born and confirmed pessimist. He looks upon life as a tragedy rather than a comedy. Again, he believes that “happiness is only an occasional episode in a general drama of pain.” Life is a thing to be put up with. Hardy’s great novels - his masterpieces - reflect the pessimistic outlook. In all of them, Fate or Destiny controls the affairs of human beings. The latter are no longer free agents but helpless puppets in the hands of the force that rules the world. Chance, which is a symbol of Fate, plays a great part in Hardy’s major novels. Invariably it works havoc with the happiness to which his characters aspire.

 In Far from the Madding Crowd, this attitude is only hinted at. This is to say, Hardy’s proverbial pessimism does not find a full or clear expression in this novel. No doubt, chance plays a considerable part in the story; but characters are still comparatively free. They, themselves, are the masters of their fates. Change is, to some extent responsible for their particular misfortunes. For example, it is chance which reduces Oak to utter poverty. It is once again Chance, which by sending Fanny Robin to the wrong church on the day of her marriage, ruins her life. But chance is not predominantly responsible for the tragedies of Bathsheba, Troy and Boldwood. Undoubtedly, it is the type of character each one of them has, which brings them sorrows and misfortunes.

Infact, “Far from the Madding Crowd” suggests that those who surrender themselves to impulses suffer terribly in life. Bathsheba, Troy and Boldwood are all creatures of impulse. They seldom look before or after. Neither the past nor the future has any meaning for them. They live entirely in the present. Thus in a moment of utter thoughtlessness Bathsheba sends valentine to Boldwood. Later on she repents on her mistake but then she is wiser only after the event. If she had not sent valentine to Boldwood or if she had stuck to Bolwood after almost promising to marry him, the story of her life would have been quite different Bolwood suffers because he cannot exercise self-control. His love for Bathsheba amounts to a consuming passion. Valentine kindles a spark in his heart in which he is finally burnt up. On the other hand, Gabriel Oak is dominated by reason. He spares all those agonies which are the lot Bolwood....................................................................................................................................................

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Milan Tomic

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