Gabriel Oak Timeline and Summary

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• We meet Gabriel as a 28-year old bachelor who's just starting to make a living as a farmer. When he meets Bathsheba Everdene for the first time, though, all of his attention goes from farming to winning her hand in marriage. Unfortunately, Bathsheba refuses.
• If Bathsheba's rejection weren't bad enough, Gabriel loses all of his money and property when his flock of sheep get chased off a cliff by one of his dogs. Flat broke, Gabriel has to start all over again from the bottom.
• After helping people put out a fire in a nearby town, Gabriel gets his next job as a shepherd for… yup, Bathsheba Everdene, who has recently inherited her uncle's farm.
• Gabriel works tirelessly to serve Bathsheba, and he won't tolerate any of the other workers speaking badly of her.
• When he finds out about Bathsheba's interest in Sergeant Troy, Gabriel advises Bathsheba to end the relationship because Troy will only bring her down.
• Bathsheba fires him for his honesty, but Gabriel soon gets back into her good books by saving her sheep from dying of bloated stomachs.
• During Bathsheba's wedding ceremony (with Sergeant Troy), Gabriel notices that Bathsheba's crops are all uncovered and that rain might be coming. He needs to do all the work himself in a thunderstorm because all of the workmen are passed out drunk. Bathsheba joins him in doing the work and he feels intensely happy working by her side.
• As time goes on, the neighbor Farmer Boldwood asks Gabriel to work on his farm as well, and this significantly bumps up Gabriel's pay grade.
• When Boldwood has sudden hopes to marry Bathsheba (following Sergeant Troy's apparent death), he plans to go into semi-retirement and gives the management of his farm completely to Gabriel. Now the guy is doing really well.
• After Farmer Boldwood goes to jail for shooting the newly returned Sergeant Troy, Gabriel takes over the total management of his farm and suddenly becomes a wealthy man.
• With his newfound wealth, he makes a fresh proposal to Bathsheba and the two of them get married.