An Analysis Of Bathsheba's Far From The Madding Crowd

He attacks the Victorian society that crashes women’s desire to lead a free life. During the story she experiences gender bias that was the lot of all women at that time. Bathsheba’s attitude towards life is a sign of her desire to step outside the boundaries of the traditional female role. Bathsheba shows her strength of will and her faith in the position of woman who is able to perform her duty in keeping with men’s standards in her society. She shocks people by taking a decision to be "a farmer in her own person" with an aggressive confidence. Her decision is against the current standards of society, so people make her suffer by gossiping behind her. In fact Hardy had always been interested in exploring social possibilities for women in

Even her own maid cannot accept some parts of the behavior of Bathsheba. When Bathsheba asks Liddy her maid if she seems mannish, Liddy replies “Oh no, not mannish; but so almighty womanish that ’it's getting on that way sometimes”. The maid believes that Bathsheba’s desirability and powerful personality are almost a failing in the social milieu of which they are a part. As it should be obvious by now the novel follows the vicissitudes of the independent young woman Bathsheba who is her own boss. Bathsheba is an orphan who lives with her aunt. Having inherited Weatherbury Farm from her uncle, she decides to manage it on her own without a bailiff. In spite of the assumptions of the day that “the female brain's not equal to the demands of commerce or the professions, and women, simply by virtue of their sex, had no business mingling with men in a man’s world”, Bathsheba becomes the master of her own farm and begins to make her presence felt what has traditionally been basically men’s world. This is evident in the scene in which Bathsheba enters the male-dominated Corn Exchange. Upon her entry every face “turned towards her, and those that were already turned rigidly fixed there” . This passage makes it apparent that her behaviour is against the expectations of society and her appearance in such a

She is strong willed for taking such a post and has enough confidence to stand tall in the crowd. In fact Bathsheba believes that a woman can be as strong and as intelligent as aman. She wants to prove that a woman does not need to depend on a man in this world, but can be independent and self-sufficient in all respects. She thus has a modern woman’s views and her opinion mismatches her own society’s values. Another example of the stereotypical nature that Victorian men and society ascribed to women is that they believed that a woman’s career would be to please a man. They saw women as merely sex objects who exist to give men pleasure and satisfaction. Only women were seen to have physical beauty and regarded as emotional beings unfit for education and higher pursuits. Bathsheba breaks these stereotypes. She is aware of her pretty face, but her beauty allows her to prove to her society that she is more than a stay-at-home woman. All she wants is to be seen as a free and independent human being. She says, “I shall never forgive God for making me a woman and dearly am I beginning to pay for the honour of owning a pretty face” . Her objection to God demonstrates her rebellion against the ideologies which cause gender difference and give rights to men over women, even if these kinds of beliefs are derived from religious doctrines. Altick says,Bathsheba’s attitude toward women such as herself differs from