attracted to the vulgarity of Troy? I mean he grabbed her crotch. Did she not see he would not have respected her? I honestly can't figure out why she married him. Did she see him as a challenge??
I'm actually very balanced. I have a chip on both shoulders.
When you compare all three suitors with each other, you will realize that Gabriel and Boldwood treat Bathsheba as a property. Both tell her that their economic situation is stable and that she would have a comfortable life as a housewife, just playing the piano etc.. so, they push her to the margins of being a passive housewife, although she likes to work and live freely like a man.
Therefore, she feels constrained and not being loved at all.
Have you realized that none of them both tell her how beautiful she is? Or how much they love her? None of them show any kind of affection where she could feel flattered or experience her sexual awakening. You must imagine that the novel/movie takes place in the Victorian era where women did not have much freedom and were restricted: No acceptance for a proper education, working, traveling, experiencing love and sex before marriage...etc.
It is Troy who opens her eyes to sexuality, as she is inexperienced with such impulses. She doesn't perceive his attitude and intrusive sexual behavior as "vulgar". She likes it, actually. That's why she wants to marry him as soon as possible. He tells her directly that he feels attracted to her and finds her beautiful, and that's the first time she hears that from someone.
Her reaction could be interpreted on the level of a typical female behavior by being drawn to dark and voluptuous men, comparable to Eve being tempted by Satan to eat the forbidden fruit. Women still feel very easily attracted by bad boys, as many evil characters in movies/novels are much loved by them.
The Victorian era dealt a lot with female psychology, as the innocent and virtuous heroine who is seduced by the tall and dark stranger, is a common theme in Gothic fiction. The heroine always overlooks the nicer, more faithful "friend" of her social circle (here it is Gabriel) and is allured by the new stranger (Troy). In the end, she always confronts the reality (that she wasn't loved), but the "evil" seducer serves as a catalyst for the heroine's maturity and character development.
Nevertheless, Thomas Hardy writes for Bathsheba a happy ending, while letting Boldwood shoot Troy to death and releasing Bathsheba from her marriage to finally achieve her happiness with Gabriel. Without Troy, she isn't able to learn what real love is, as she mistakes love with sexual craving and a few false compliments and blandishments.
Thank you for your fine analysis. So she married him for excitement because he was the one man who could dazzle her with sex appeal? I saw her as being far more pragmatic than that. It surprised me. She goes from being a powerful businesswoman to a submissive fool, not even bothering to ask him, "by the way, do you have any idea how to run a farm?". We see her wake up one morning with Troy sitting on the bed and she looks conflicted. I don't know why. Knowing him, he probably wasn't too tender in the lovemaking department. Further, we see him becoming abusive with her, both verbally and physically and she inexplicably submits. I see this could be the mentality of a Victorian woman, but she had created her own world on the farm, where she equaled herself with men. She fired the manager and strongly defied him for being useless, then went on to build a successful enterprise. And, obviously, she shunned Victorian-age mores when she bathed the sheep. And then....she acquiesces to her husband squandering all her money. I just don't see the antithesis of her before the marriage vs her after the marriage as being realistic, since we've seen, from the start, that she's an extremely strong-willed and self-centered person. And I would have expected her to be savvy enough to see Troy as the arrogant loser that he was. If he turned her on, why not have a fling? She didn't come across as being too priggish to be sexually active before marriage.
Also, you mention Oak and Boldwood treating her as property. Nothing would make me feel like property more than a man (who I've just met) grabbing my crotch. Boldwood, of course, was whack, but Oak was tender and respectful. So, she had very twisted views about what a man/woman relationship should be. Perhaps this was because she was raised on her own. You're right, something attracted her to the bad boy. It would have been far more realistic, though, if she fooled around with the bad guy, but married the good guy.
What I've mentioned are things I would have expected to occur, but I know that Hardy did write with his own psychology in mind. I don't see it as psychology of Victorian-era woman as a whole, though, but that of a very conflicted woman with her own mental issues.
Thank you again for your response.
I'm actually very balanced. I have a chip on both shoulders.
You are welcome ;)
So she married him for excitement because he was the one man who could dazzle her with sex appeal? I saw her as being far more pragmatic than that.
I just don't see the antithesis of her before the marriage vs her after the marriage as being realistic
Nothing would make me feel like property more than a man (who I've just met) grabbing my crotch.
It would have been far more realistic, though, if she fooled around with the bad guy, but married the good guy.
When I remember correctly, one of the first sentences she says to Gabriel, when he comes to court her, is: "I want somebody to tame me. I am too independent, and you would never be able to,
I disagree with the analysis that both Boldwood and Oak treat Basheba "as property." On the contrary, it's Troy who treats her as a source of money, and little more. Boldwood is "in love" with her, and has leveraged his own happiness on her response to this...while Oak loves her, and deeply, but it's more than just passion, and his own happiness is not dependant on her response
shareWhen Boldwood and Oak make their marriage proposals, they talk as if they're making a business transactions. They do not speak passionately. They say things like, "I have lots of money, you will have nice couches to sit on and a piano all your own, you won't have to work". Verbally, they aren't offering her passionate love. Instead they're trying to appeal to her desire for money, comfort, security, all those things that pretty women often trade their looks in for.
In comparison, Troy woos her. He tells her she's beautiful. It's not that he loves her more than the other two guys (as is later revealed, his love for her is quite small and insignificant), it's that he understands how to make a woman feel desirable. He appreciates romance.
Bathsheba has money, land, and farm smarts. A good sex life is all she is lacking to complete a pretty sweet deal. Troy is the only man (at that point in the story) who offers her something she doesn't already have. (In both proposals Oak and Boldwood are like "I'll get you a piano" and she's like "I . . . already have a piano."). Troy is sexy and dangerous, and Bathsheba gets caught up in his dazzling personality. He's the loveable bad boy until he has her in a place where she can't cut him off.
In Oak's original proposal it sounds very much like a transaction. When she says that she's uncomfortable with the idea of giving up her financial independence he's basically like "Well that's dumb!". At that point in the story Oak isn't able to really put himself in Bathsheba's shoes. He respects her, but as the story goes on he becomes someone who really listens to her and treats her as an equal.
Boldwood offers Bathsheba only financial enhancement and respect, but there is no passion or sexual attraction between them. Boldwood may be attracted to Bathsheba, but that attraction is expressed very awkwardly. In the book, Boldwood does not hesitate to interfere in Bathsheba's life if he thinks it's what is "good for her" (in one part he tries to bribe Troy to leave town).
The book and the movie also make it very clear that Bathsheba knows right away that she has made a mistake by marrying Troy. She even says in the movie that he manipulated her by talking about other girls being sexy and out of jealousy she proved her love by marrying him. She knows she was a fool. She knows she was manipulated. It happens to the best of us. And once the marriage has happened, what choice does she have but try to make the best of things?
The thing about marriage proposals in those days, though, is that even with an element of personal attraction present, they pretty much were framed as transactions, business deals, and what the one with money and means can offer the one who lacks those. Women in those days were not often independent people of their own means, so for the good or the bad of it, marriages were based largely on "Is this man going to give me security and stability and not let me end up in the workhouse?"
Even if a couple felt they were in love, the "Here's what I can offer you in practical terms" element was also strongly present because it was basically a matter of survival in a world that only if a woman was fortunate did she get to not need that, as Bathsheba soon did not need it. But men in those days were used to having to convince women of how they would be looked after securely. I think she had such chemistry from the get-go with Gabriel that even though he did the usual humdrum "I have this and I have that and I could get you a piano," she could probably surmise that there would be passion too, but yet she was still easy prey for the more overtly sexual pursuer, sadly.
The only reason why Troy did not do the "I can offer this, I can get you that" speech is that he was a cad and wasn't necessarily thinking of marriage at all, period. Passion was the only thing on his mind, he doesn't care at that point of how to convey that he could also give her a good life, because he was probably thinking this was another love-and-leave situation anyway.