When he finds he erring, as in her having played a coquettish trick upon Boldwood and in her developing intimacy with sergeant Troy, he does not hesitate to warn her and to rebuke her even though she pay feel annoyed with him. By service and devotion, he makes himself indispensable to her so that ultimately she recognises his worth and value as a human being and marries him.
“ the most beautiful ever I saw, or may I fall dead this instant!”
Although Bathsheba quickly falls in love with Troy, Hardy presents this infatuation, based on sexual attraction, as superficial and unstable. Sergeant Troy has a wonderful power of flattering women, even in the most extravagant terms in order to charm and win them. It is chiefly by his exaggerated compliments that he produces a favourable effect upon the mind of Bathsheba. He says that she is the type of woman with whom hundred men would fall in love. But the climax to this flattery of Bathsheba is reached in his thrusting his gold watch upon her as a gift.
Apart from his skill of flattering women, he is a dashing young soldier, an accomplished swordsman. Indeed his sword-play has as much part in captivating the heart of Bathsheba as his flattery. His handsome appearance, his smartness, his dash, his art of conversation and of flattery combines to make him a lady-killer. No woman can resist him. Though Gabriel hints at Troy’s immoral character, Bathsheba makes the deaf’s ear and later marries him out of “jealousy and distraction.” Once married, she is no longer the spirited, scornful and proud individual she used to be. His desire satisfied, Troy loses interest in her. He treats her carelessly proving his own words, ‘All romances end at marriage’.
Bathsheba sends the valentine to Boldwood, in jest, without thinking, but her act results in extraordinary consequences. She has no sense of the force of passion locked in him. The latter, little by little, becomes a selfish lover but in the sense in which Troy is selfish. Boldwood is widely different from Troy because the latter is fickle and inconstant, while Boldwood’s love is a constant passion. In constancy, he resembles Gabriel Oak but he is different from Gabriel in so far as Gabriel’s love is selfless while Boldwood is selfish in his love.
Boldwood’s attitude towards Bathsheba is possessive. He will not rest till she becomes his or at least promises to become his. His love is much more than that of Gabriel Oak. Love with Boldwood is a malady of soul, a madness. He is obsessed by thoughts of Bathsheba. His passion for her becomes a mania with him. While Gabriel Oak endures his disappointment like a man, to Boldwood, the pain of disappointment is unbearable. For him, love becomes a mental torment, an agony.
In fact, his unfulfilled passion drives him crazy. When he learns that Bathsheba has married Troy, he loses all peace of mind and all interest in his work. His neglected ricks are destroyed by the storm just as his own life style is ravaged by the violence of his love. It is not fitting in this story that a character so damagingly extreme and unbalanced should marry the heroine: she belongs to the faithful shepherd.
Hardy’s portrayal of love is contrastive. Gabriel is a patient, generous and devoted lover while a selfish and unscrupulous passion is shown by Troy and Boldwood. At the end, it’s true love that triumphs; thus a happy marriage.
