Literary Devices in Far From the Madding Crowd
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
Far from the Madding Crowd is the first novel that Thomas Hardy set in the fictional area of Wessex, England, but it isn't the last. For the rest of his career, Hardy would build an entire mytholog...
Narrator Point of View
Like many Victorian novelists, Thomas Hardy is a big fan of the ol' third-person omniscient. This point of view gives you a whole lot of insight into different characters, and because the narrator...
Genre
If someone asks you what kind of book Far from the Madding Crowd is, it's best to tell them that it's a tragicomedy. Now, a tragicomedy usually refers to a play, but it can also be used to describe...
Tone
Thomas Hardy is a Victorian's Victorian. His tone is about as formal and as wordy as it gets, and it's (for lack of a better, more Victorian word) awesome. Our suggestion for the novice reader of V...
Writing Style
Whenever we read Hardy's narrator, we tend to encounter a lot of proper, formal language. But Hardy creates a really sharp contrast to this formality by also giving us a bunch of dialogue spoken in...
What's Up With the Title?
If your first response to Far from the Madding Crowd was "WTF is madding?" rest assured. You're not the first person to be confused.Hardy borrows this phrase from a famous poem by Thomas Grey title...
What's Up With the Ending?
Then Oak laughed, and Bathsheba smiled, for she never laughed readily now; and their friends turned to go."Yes, I suppose that's the size o't," said Joseph Poorgrass with a cheerful sigh as they mo...
Tough-o-Meter
You might think that this Tough-o-Meter rating is too low for a book published in 1874, but the fact is that Hardy's writing is very, very readable. Not only that, but Far from the Madding Crowd is...
Plot Analysis
Oak's Horrible LuckWe start the novel by meeting Gabriel Oak, a hardworking young man who seems to deserve the best in life. One day, Oak falls in love with a beautiful young woman named Bathsheba....
Booker's Seven Basic Plots Analysis
Far from the Madding Crowd isn't exactly funny ha-ha, but there are definitely enough comedic elements in it for us to call it a comedy. At the point at which he wrote Far from the Madding Crowd,...
Three-Act Plot Analysis
The first third of this book lays the groundwork for the two most important characters: Gabriel Oak and Bathsheba Everdene. We find out in these sections that Oak is a responsible guy whose modesty...
Trivia
We all know that Thomas Hardy was a famous writer. But did you also know he was a highly skilled architect? If so, you're a pretty big Hardy fan. (Source)Hardy remarried in his lifetime. But after...
Steaminess Rating
There is some sex that takes place behind the scenes in this book, but being a proper Victorian, Thomas Hardy never describes it. The closest thing to a mention of sex is Sergeant Troy's claim that...
Allusions
Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (Title of book)John Milton, Paradise Lost (2.22)William Shakespeare, Macbeth (4.3)William Shakespeare, Hamlet (22.22)William Shakespeare, The Temp...