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The Works of Thomas Hardy Few things attract more attention than controversy, and no other author knew this well than Thomas Hardy. During the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries, Hardy's work shocked the public and threw the critics into an uproar. And yet, he managed to change the face of literature for the better. Hardy's work was filled with controversial topics, and his influence is evident in many different aspects of literature. An author of great talent, Hardy wrote in many styles, though not as successfully as he may have wanted.
When he was writing melodrama, social comedy, or novels of consciousness, he could be both trivial and banal. Though he was not always widely accepted as a conventional author. Hardy's novels flourished from 1872 - 1895, releasing 5 separate novels, as well as plays and poetry. He wrote most of his first four novels, including Under the Milkwood Tree and Far From the Madding Crowd, in a bedroom in the cottage. (1) During those twenty years, Hardy's better known novels were released.
Hardy's works Far from the Madding Crowd, To Please His Wife, and Neutral Tones are all rather controversial, they make Hardy's audience think about various social and psychological issues that the author introduces in his writings. Certainly, those works can be distinguished from the rest of his literary heritage because of their style and structure, as well as the wide array of important issues that Hardy brings about in them. The characters developed by Hardy help him a great deal to illustrate his points and uncover the themes of his writings. Far from the Madding Crowd, Hardy's passionate tale of the beautiful, headstrong farmer Bathsheba Everdene and her three suitors, firmly established the thirty-four-year-old writer as a popular novelist. (2) Gabriel Oak is the hero of Far From the Madding Crowd but Bathsheba Everdene is a more ordinary person who is a mixture of good and bad.
Gabriel Oak does not change very much through the novel, he is always noble and reliable, but Bathsheba changes as the experiences in her life force her to learn and change, and that helps Hardy to show his audience the basic sociological aspects of persons life. When we first meet Bathsheba, the gatekeeper tells Gabriel that this beautiful, black-haired woman has one fault: "vanity", but she is obviously attractive enough for Gabriel to ask for her hand in marriage, and she is independent and honest enough to tell him she would never marry him because she does not love him. At this time Bathsheba has no fortune of her own while Gabriel has earned enough to purchase a farm with 200 sheep. His prospects were good, and it would have been easy for Bathsheba to accept him at a time when women were expected to take second place to men. The next time they meet it is Bathsheba who has a small fortune and Gabriel who is penniless. After Gabriel has saved the straw-rick from a fire, Bathsheba hires him as a shepherd.
They respect each other, and it is hard to believe that Gabriel Oakdene would work for any man or woman he did not respect. He certainly would not work for a bad employer. She enjoys the independence or running the farm on her own, and when she turns to Gabriel for his opinion, they have a quarrel and she orders him to leave the farm. We must remember Bathsheba was in a difficult position, she was a woman in a man's world with no man other than Gabriel to turn to, and she was his employer. When she writes to him, "Do not desert me, Gabriel! he returns and saves all the sheep but one.
Gabriel agrees to return to the farm and it looks like all will be well. Then Bathsheba marries Frank Troy, who disappears after the death of Fanny Robin and her baby. Bathsheba turns once again to the one man who she can trust. Her conversations with Gabriel Oak show us how much she changed because of the lessons life has taught her.
And the lessons are not over. Frank Troy returns to claim her as if he was just one of her possessions. Bathsheba proposes marriage to Gabriel, and after a quiet wedding, the two have dinner at the farm, and all the men of the village come to sing and play for them. This is not the mad, passionate love between Bathsheba and Frank Troy. Bathsheba has been through so much. She has learned so much.
This is a more mature love that will last their lifetimes. But it is still a happy ending, and maybe it is the ending that Bathsheba Everdene deserves. Words Count: 777. Bibliography: web web
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Research essay sample on The Works Of Thomas Hardy
