Classics Retold

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 dis...

Joseph Poorgrass was to take back Bathsheba home from the Greenhill Fair.  But it was discovered in the afternoon that Joseph was suffering from his old complaint,  a multiplying eye  As a coachman he was hardly safe in that condition.  So it was decided that Oak would take his place in Bathsheba's conveyance and drive her back home.  But Oak had found himself occupied with those portions of Boldwood's flocks that were not disposed of.  Bathsheba resolved to drive herself, as she had  many times done from Casterbridge to market, and trusted her good angel for performing the journey.  Boldwood offered to ride on horseback beside her.  The moon having risen, and the gig being ready she drove across the hilltop in the wending ways which led downwards. Only the moon and the hill it flooded with light existed. The rest of the world was in oblivion. Boldwood on horseback was following her. They descended into the low lands.  The sounds of thos...

In Chapter 51 of Far From The Madding Crowd, Bathsheba says to Gabriel Oak: "Some rash acts of my past life have taught me that a watched woman must have very much circumspection to retain a very little credit."  A Watched Woman means a woman whose conduct is constantly observed, judged, and discussed by neighbours and well wishers.  In the social world of Victorian England, especially in small village community (Weatherbury), a widow or a woman living without a husband was was under close public scrutiny.  Every visit, rumour, or conversation could become the subject of gossip.  A woman's reputation (credit) was considered fragile.  Even innocent actions could be interpreted unfavorably.  Bathsheba has learned this through painful experience: Her playful valentine to Boldwood had led to his obsessive love. Her impulsive marriage to Sergeant Troy became public knowledge and ended in misery.  Now, if she appears to encourage Boldwood, while Troy's death...

In Chapter 51 of Far From The Madding Crowd, Joseph Poorgrass complains about "multiplying eye". The phrase is Joseph's own humourous euphemism for double vision.  This, he stated earlier in another way, "I look double to you --- I mean, you look double to me." His multiplying eye appears after spending a long time in a public house. It is really the effect of drunkenness, though Joseph prefers to describe it as if it were a medical affliction rather than admit he had too much of alcohol.  The paradox is that Joseph Poorgrass is aware of the real reason for this phenomenon: His excessive drinking.  Being a pious, timid, and self deceiving person, he prefers to describe it as if it were a medical affliction. Hardy uses this recurring phrase to provide a comic relief through Joseph's innocent self deception.  It reveals his innocent rustic character. It gives a practical reason why Gabriel Oak was originally supposed to drive Bathsheba home.  When Gabriel beco...

Greenhill was the  Nijni Novgorod of Wessex. Greenhill sheep Fair was a yearly gathering. It used to take place upon the summit of a hill.  There on the hill remains an ancient rampart of  earthwork in oval shape encircled by a trench. There were two openings face to face.  Two winding roads ascended to each of these openings.  The summit had a level green spce of twenty or thirty acres. A few permanent erections dotted the space, but the majority patronized canvas alone for resting and feeding during the time of their sojourn here. Shepherds who attended with their flocks from long distances started from two or three days before the fair, driving their charges a few miles each day, and resting them at night in hired fields at way side, at previously chosen points.  The shepherd of each flock marched behind; a bundle containing his kit for the week strapped upon his shoulders; and in his hand his crook, which he used as the staff of his pilgrimage.  S...

Major Malley's Reel was a well-, known traditional Irish reel - a lively dance tune in quick time. Reels were extremely popular throughout Britain and Ireland in the eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries, especially at fairs, inns and country gatherings.  The tune evokes the festive atmosphere of Greenhill Fair. The dancers are old bent men. Despite their age they are energetically dancing a cheerful reel.  The lively music forms a striking backdrop to the much darker events unfolding nearby, where Troy secretly meets Pennyways after snatching the note from Bathsheba.  Hardy often places moments of private tragedy against scenes of public merriment.  Major Malley's Reel is a popular country dance tune, easily recognised by Victorian readers. 

In Chapter 50 of Far From The Madding Crowd, the 'sinuosities of her little ear" is one of Thomas Hardy's painterly description of Bathsheba.  Sinuosities mean the curves, winding outlines and delicate folds.   Little ears refers simply to small and finely shaped ears. So, the phrase means graceful curves and intricate folds of her small ears.  Hardy is drawing attention to  tiny details of her anatomy that influenced sergeant Troy and that attracts him to return to her and the comforts of her home and the village. Hardy often pauses the narrative to paint a character almost as if they were the subject of a portrait.  The word sinuosity comes from Latin the sinuosus, meaning full of bends and curves.  It is commonly used to describe winding rivers, roads, or ornamental shapes, and Hardy applies here to the delicate natural curves of the human ears.