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FOOTNOTE: "Far From the Madding Crowd" - I am in two minds about the ending to this monumental love quadrangle. Once again, Hardy is rather naughty. On the one hand, it is a happy ending, at least for Gabriel and Bathsheba - at last a comfortable life together of shared endeavour and company. BUT, the final scene shows us Troy's gift standing in the living-room, playing on the soldier blowing his trumpet and suggesting that she will always hold a candle for him in her heart - and perhaps a brighter one than for Gabriel. However, Bathsheba DID NOT LOOK at the soldier as he blew his trumpet! Was this significant? We are left with a puzzle ..... And did we EVER see the married couple actually TOUCH each other? Even when Bathsheba chased after Gabriel and asked him to stay and he gave his little speech: "When you look up, there shall I be, and when I look up, there you will be." they did not throw their arms around each other. At the beginning of the film Bathsheba was quick to tell Gabriel that she didn't love him (as she also told Boldwood) - but even at the end of the saga she cannot bring herself to say to Gabriel: "Please don't go: I need you - I love you." And neither did Gabriel say that to her. They did love each other in their way, but it seems a love without passion - certainly without the passon she felt for Troy, or that Boldwood felt for her. I don't think Hardy liked truly happy endings - or is the message that passion is overrated? Perhaps staying power, loyalty, devotion, togetherness and warmth are longer-lasting and ultimately more satisfying? PS I haven't looked this up, but it seems that in those times a man might ask for the hand of a lady in marriage without ever having had a "date" (or in modern parlance "hung out") with her! Did they even HAVE dates in those days? Could an intelligent man such as Boldwood really have supposed that Bathsheba could commit to marriage when she hardly knew him at all? It seemed to be the same for Gabriel right at the beginning of the film, but one supposes that they did at least know each other a little. Perhaps the book makes that clear, but the film didn't. |
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