Education of the republic of uzbekistan samarkand state institute of foreign languages

Thomas Hardy

The second part of the 19^th century was the era when women started to realize that being a wife and mother without having the opportunity to study or to have a proper job is not acceptable. The term feminism was not coined yet, nor there were any female groups supporting women’s rights, however, Hardy portrayed some of his female characters as feminists. Far From the Madding Crowd (1874) is not considered to be Hardy’s masterpiece, nonetheless, the protagonist, Bathsheba Everdene, is portrayed as a feisty feminist, who as she says: “Well, what I mean is that I shouldn't mind being a bride at a wedding, if I could be one without having a husband.”⁴⁰ It was not only the protagonist in Far From the Madding Crowd who is a feminist, but also other characters in Hardy’s novels, such as Tess in Tess of the d’Urbervilles or Sue in Jude the Obscure can be perceived as feminists. Even though the female characters in
Hardy’s books seem to be radicals, and in this case Bathsheba Everdene does have strong feminist attitude and is provocative, outspoken and always seems to be ahead of her time, some claim that Hardy was a misogynist. However, as states Alisar M. Duckworth in her essay Women and Sexuality in the Novels of Thomas Hardy, Hardy was seemed misogynist predominantly to Victorian readers. Mainly because he “neglected to provide comforting portraits of women finding the proper outlet for their energy in marriage,”⁴⁵ nonetheless, Duckworth also claims that these critiques lead to conclusion that Victorian novels “points to sexist ethics of a bourgeois society that had domesticated the political oppression of earlier social structures.”⁴¹ More recent readers have already started to identify themselves with more modern point of view.
Moreover, rebellious Hardy refused to follow the dictate of the society, hence the tragic ending of Jude the Obscure and Tess of the D’Urbervilles, and even though the ending of Far From the Madding Crowd was happy, he disputed the idea that marriage is the only goal of a woman’s sexuality. The author also criticized the Victorian patriarchy by the critique of the legal system, he did not agree with the fact that a woman should hand over all her property to her husband after getting married, which Hardy also illustrated very well in the following quote:
“It appears that ordinary men take wives because possession is not possible without marriage, and that ordinary women accept husbands because marriage is not possible without possession; with totally differing aims the method is the same on both sides. But the understood incentive on the woman's part was wanting here. Besides, Bathsheba's position as absolute mistress of a farm and house was a novel one, and the novelty had not yet begun to wear off.”⁴²
Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd promotes a feminist ideology that suggest that women are as strong and capable of having power in work and romantic relationship as men are,⁴³ which shows Hardy’s approval of female autonomy. Bathsheba, as independent as she can be, encounters three men throughout the book who affect her and each of them represent different values to her; farmer Gabriel Oak represents domesticity and equal partnership, wealthy William Boldwood is offering her high status in society but is attracted to the idea of love more than to Bathsheba, and Sergeant Troy is driven to Bathsheba by passionate love and her money. As these men gradually walk into her life her own perspective of life changes. There is apparent
Hardy’s argument for love, he prefers love based on equality and friendship which shows the relationship of Bathsheba and Gabriel Oak, rather than based on superficial love which shows the marriage of Bathsheba and Sergeant Troy.
The relationship between Gabriel and Bathsheba is mutually beneficial and positive, they both change their opinions on each other throughout the whole book, which also develops into their marriage. Even though Gabriel thought of Bathsheba that she is vain and superficial and she declined his first proposal, at the end of the novel they finally found a way how to be together. Nicole Miller argues in her analysis of the novel that Hardy depicts Bathsheba as “a self-reliant and a strong woman whose strength only increases in the face of adversity.”⁴⁴ The feeling of independence is also very important for the female protagonist, her courtship to Gabriel and her refusal to move away and give up her farm shows that she never loses her individuality or personal integrity.⁴⁵ Hardy depicts her self-sufficiency, independence and youthful frivolity as her strengths.
As Alistar Duckworth says in her analysis there is apparent approval of women’s sexuality and implicit erotic implications in Hardy’s novels.⁴⁶ Duckworth also states that in Hardy infiltrates his “subversively erotic descriptions of Bathsheba’s sexual nature in metaphoric sequences that barely conceal their sexual content,”⁴⁷ as in descriptions of Bathsheba’s sexual desires and receptivity. The most sexual scene of the novel is the encounter of Bathsheba and Sergeant Troy in a forest. The scene is outrageous and explicit and Bathsheba’s longing for Troy is palpable; “She felt powerless to withstand or deny him. He was altogether too much for her. [The kiss] brought the blood beating into her face, set her feet stinging as if aflame to the very hollows of her feet and enlarged emotion to a compass which quite swamped thought... She felt like one who has sinned a great sin.”⁴⁸ The encounter leaves Bathsheba breathless and confused as she never felt such desire for a man before.
On the other hand, the relationship between Bathsheba and Gabriel Oak was different, it was not only about desire but about mutual partnership, support and affection as it is demonstrated in the following excerpt:
“Theirs was that substantial affection which arise when the two who are thrown together begin first by knowing the rougher sides of each other’s character, and not the best till further on, the romance growing up in the interstices of a mass of hard prosaic reality. This good-fellowship—camaraderie—usually occurring through similarity of pursuits, is unfortunately seldom superadded to love between the sexes, because men and women associate not in their labours but in their pleasure merely. Where however happy circumstance permits its development the compounded feeling proves itself to be the only love which is strong as death – that love which many waters cannot quench, nor the floods drown, beside which the passion usually called by the name is evanescent as steam.”⁴⁹
Essentially, the story is about ‘breaking’ or ‘taming’ Bathsheba, before the marriage she wanted to prove everyone that she is capable of everything; “I shall be up before you are awake, I shall be afield before you are up... In short, I shall astonish you all”⁵⁰ but after marrying Gabriel she became console that to rely on somebody is beneficial and that it does not ultimately mean losing her independence. This fact demonstrates that Hardy projected her with female and male characteristics; she is a brilliant businesswoman, she can take a man’s job yet she also shows her feminine self. Bathsheba’s argument: “It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs”⁵¹ also suggests that Hardy was ahead of time because this quote has been used many times since then and supports a feminist viewpoint. Hardy shows that both sexes are capable of embodying masculine and feminine strengths and weaknesses,⁵² and that women do not have only feminine virtues.