Croquet Playing In A Cathdrel

In Chapter 52 of Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy compares Boldwood's Christmas party to a Croquet game in a cathdrel to emphasize the strange contrast between outward elegance and inward tension. 

In the Victorian period, croquet was a fashionable lawn game played at country-house parties.  Players dressed in fine clothes, calmly struck brightly coloured balls through hoops.  The game looked graceful and leisurely, but beneath the surface it involved careful strategy, rivalry and attempts to knock an opponent's ball out of position. 

According to Hardy Boldwood's Christmas party resembles such a game because the guests move about politely and decorously, just as croquet players do. Everyone appears cheerful and civilized on the surface.  Yet hidden emotions and conflicting intentions are at work.  Boldwood expects Bathsheba to accept his ring; Bathsheba is anxious and reluctant; Gabriel senses danger; Troy is secretly on his way to the house in disguise.  Their moves are converging towards one decisive moment.

The comparison is deeply ironic.  A croquet game normally resembles refined Victorian leisure; but this Christmas gathering is really a contest of fate.  Each character is making what seems an ordinary social move, while the reader knows that the game is about to end in tragedy.

Hardy's visuals reflect novel's recurring theme: life often appears orderly and civilized, but powerful passions can suddenly overturn that order.  The pleasant Christmas festivities are only the calm surface before the shocking events that follow.

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