Far From the Madding Crowd Themes

No matter what page you turn to in Far from the Madding Crowd, it seems like marriage is always on one of the main characters' minds. First Gabriel wants to marry Bathsheba, then Boldwood does, the...

Far from the Madding Crowd is set in Victorian England, which means that you're going to get a double dose of religion. More specifically, this novel observes the way in which religion shapes peopl...

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a baby carriage. Or, for poor Fanny Robin: first comes love, then comes a baby, and then comes, um, death in the poorhouse. And for sever...

Class is a really big deal in Far from the Madding Crowd. Certain characters move from one class to another as the story unfolds: Gabriel Oak, for example, starts the book as a farmer with his own...

If you just skim Far from the Madding Crowd, you can easily miss how important a role alcohol plays in its action. But beneath all the nature walks and cute baby sheep is more alcohol than on Mardi...

You can't underestimate the role of pride in Far from the Madding Crowd, or in any Victorian novel, for that matter. Characters in Hardy novels are constantly looking for ways to satisfy their prid...

What do you get when a single woman living in the 19th century decides that she's going to manage her uncle's farm all by herself? You get some disgruntled workmen and a whole lot of conversation a...

Thomas Hardy is a bit of a sucker for nature. In most of his books, you'll find a lot of nostalgia for a nice rural, nature-filled world that used to exist. This nature-filled world wasn't always a...