Sheep and the Dog


Isn’t that really, thematically, the whole story?
The whole story of life?
Once outside of man’s own gate it is destroyed by nature.
Beautifully sad.

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Life is an incomplete story!


flfph

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It’s a series of short stories.

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Fairly conclusive and fully comprehensive.



flfph.

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Sort of a mutual agreement. Thanks!

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I still don't get it. Why did the dog run the sheep off the side of the cliff?

Velvet Voice

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I'm guessing that the dog did it because it was just trained to herd sheep and couldn't stop, even at night. It was an uncontrollable urge, unfortunately.

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SPOILER i wondered about that too.. at the very beginning, he is yelling at the dog.. first he says "No, bad dog"... and then he says "You mad dog"... (i turned on captioning) so.. my thought is either the dog was just plain crazy and ran em off the cliff, or maybe he was mad at the owner for yelling at him, and got revenge on the owner.

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Revenge? Hahaha! The dog was clearly young and inexperienced as it bit several sheep while herding.

When Oak said "You mad dog", he was referring to the fact the dog was uncontrollable because the dog still hasn't learned how to conform to the 'rules' of herding. He'll come across this problem in Bathsheba, who'll be seen as uncontrollable for not conforming to the society's rules on how a woman should behave.

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And doesn't Oak shooting the disobedient dog which has destroyed his livelihood foreshadow Boldwood blasting off the villain Troy, come back from the dead to destroy his dream of having Bathsheba?

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@Zerose and Charlo47 : nice thoughts, this post deserves to be saved

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That dog had OCD. It understood it was meant to herd sheep, without the proper understanding of how and why, and continued to chase them when not under direction to do so. The sheep also lacked the sense not to change direction when chased into danger. A metaphor for so many human failings.

As for the whole story of life, the unfortunate truth is that fiction must make sense and convey meaning and life often does not.

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