Women And Nature In Thomas Hardy's Far From The Madding Crowd

INTERPRETATION OF HARDY’S TWO NOVELS IN THE LIGHT OF ECOFEMINISM: FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD & TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES

Ayşe Sidre Loğoğlu
Yeditepe University

CPLT 510 Masterpieces of English Literature
Assistant Professor Adriana Raducanu
May 27, 2016

Abstract

Emerging in the late 20th century, ecofeminist movement stems from Ecologism and Feminism and reveals the relationship between woman and nature. As a result of nature’s being exploited by the Industrial Revolution, which gradually boomed during the nineteenth century, ecofeminism got involved in the literary studies.
Thomas Hardy so much refers to Ecofeminism by giving place to the rural and urban life in the Victorian era and draws an interconnection between nature

Far From the Madding Crowd
In Far from the Madding Crowd, the protagonist, Bathsheba Everdeen is well-educated, intelligent, independent and beautiful mistress; she has strong self-value and self-consciousness.
3.2.1. The interconnection of Nature and Woman
According to Ecofeminists, women are identified with nature since the ancient times. Women are much closer to nature and can be harmonized together. The psychological and physical features of women are intimately related to nature. In this novel, it is so obvious that Hardy inter-mingled the nature and female. The moods and actions of Bathsheba are in a relation with the changing seasons. The heroine coincides with the three men who less or more interfere her life. Spring is the time of revival, fertility, and seeding; Summer is the time of growing and blossoming; then, Fall is the time of withering and defoliation; and lastly Winter is the death of nature. Hardy describes the environment as follows when Bathsheba first encounters with Gabriel Oak:

At such a time, Bathsheba and Oak, who was profoundly fascinated by Bathsheba’s energetic and beautiful appearance, spread their love

When Tess is raped and becomes pregnant as a young woman, a situation for which she is condemned by patriarchal society’s inflexible values while her rapist goes on with his life in the same state as it was before he raped her, nature itself reflects the darkness and confusion of this moment in her life. Therefore, her situation in real life can be connected with what nature has suffered. In the novel, there are certain indications that nature itself both effects and is affected by the human affairs. For example, fog is a significant reflection of nature for the intriguing things. It is on a dark night that Tess is seduced by Alec in the Chase Woods. Tess and Alec, who go on a trip in the woods, are surrounded by heavy fog and darkness. Thus, Tess does not fully recognize that Alec intentionally approached her to seduce her. Furthermore, she and Angel make their first acquaintance on the diary in “The spectral half-compounded aqueous light”. So, fog represents the feeling of confusion about that Tess will encounter with many troubles in her future