“A minute later and she saw his scarlet form disappear amid ferny thicket….here a stream of tears. She felt like one who has sinned a great sin…he had kissed her.”
This seems a bit strange for Bathsheba, who craves attention and admiration. Her mind is still split for Troy. When she enters her home, her conflicting feelings for Troy show themselves again. The few meetings with Troy have been enough for him to use his charm on Bathsheba, as well as his manipulative attitude. This appears to have worked on Bathsheba, who now feels a slight desire for Troy, yet she does not want to show it.
“Everybody knows how much I hate him-Yes….hate him’ ‘He’s not a wild scamp! How dare you to my face. I have no right to hate him, nor you, nor anybody.”
However Bathsheba is eventually is overcome by Troy’s charm and his manipulation, and marries him. This is where Bathsheba’s personality and character changes substantially from what it was like at the beginning of the relationship. When Troy asks for money from Bathsheba, her reactions are ones of suspicion of Troy. She originally does not let Troy have the Twenty pounds, but Troy declares their romance is dead
“All romances end at marriage” and Bathsheba accuses him of still loving the woman whose
hair he had.
“You won’t burn that curl. You like the woman who owns that pretty hair-yes. It is pretty-more beautiful than my miserable black mane!” This argument hurt Bathsheba deeply and she felt that her pride had been broken “She was conquered; but she would never own it as long as she lived. Her pride was indeed brought low by despairing discoveries of the speculation of marriage.” She feels that the love from Troy maybe dead, but she refuses to accept that, and continues to show affection to Troy even if she receives none, which is why she eventually gives Troy the money.
When Bathsheba learns of Fanny Robin’s sudden death, she converses with Liddy about the matter and Bathsheba exhibits unusual behaviour, maybe because of the relationship with Troy.
“Have you heard anything strange of Fanny?’ The words had no sooner escaped her than an expression of utter able regret crossed her face, and she burst into tears. ‘No-not a word!’ said Liddy, looking at the weeping woman with astonishment… ‘I can hardly say way I have taken so to crying lately: I never used to cry. Goodnight.”
It seems that the long connection between Troy and Fanny has become too much for Bathsheba, whose jealousy was beginning to show. Bathsheba now feels very lonely, her marriage now meaning nothing; she feels the loneliest she had in her whole life.
The next time Troy and Bathsheba meet is by Fanny Robin’s coffin, when Troy realises that the body is Fanny’s, it is an utter shock for him. And at the sight of Troy gentle kissing Fanny, Bathsheba goes into a jealous filled and lunatic state. She feels she has been deserted by Troy, their marital bonds are broken. Her next reaction is a desperate plea to be noticed and loved by her husband.
“Don’t-don’t kiss them! O, Frank, I can’t bear it-I can’t! I love you better than she did: kiss me too, Frank-kiss me! You will Frank kiss me too!”
But this only for a split second makes Troy notice her calmly. After he recovers from his staring gaze at Bathsheba, he begins to insult not just Bathsheba herself, but her independence and their love and marriage.
“You are nothing to me-nothing…A ceremony before a priest doesn’t make a marriage. I am not morally yours.”
Bathsheba had been broken by the horror and torment of Troy’s words. She is so overcome with grief and despair that she turns and flees.
She flees to hide under a tree, here when she is found by Liddy. Her view on life is shown to have changed since she had the argument with Troy, concerning the twenty pounds. She now is not very keen on marriage, or at least warns Liddy of the dangers of Marriage-this has come over her because of the marriage with Troy-.
“Liddy, if ever you marry- God forbid that you ever should-you’ll find yourself in a fearful situation; but mind this, don’t flinch-stand your ground, and be cut to pieces.”
This piece of advice is delivered in a bitter tone in Bathsheba. The bitterness she feels comes from the incident with Troy over Fanny’s coffin.
When they return to the house and look through the collection of books stowed away in the attic. Bathsheba at first wants to read ‘dismal’ books, which are sad and depressing, when Liddy suggests a book. However, Bathsheba changes her indecisive mind and instead wants to read books which are happy, and where everybody lives happily ever after, much unlike Bathsheba’s recent marriage. Perhaps she did this because she didn’t want to read dismal books as they continued to put her in the same mood as she was already in, and that choosing positive books would help take her mind off the negativity of what had just recently happened.
Troy however is in Casterbridge to buy a tombstone for Fanny’s grave. It shows he still cares about Fanny Robin, and has no remorse for the actions and words he put to Bathsheba. Yet he is deeply saddened by the death of Fanny
“Troy was so unlike himself now in look, word and deed, that the want of likeness was perceptible even to his own consciousness...He waywardly wished for something, and he sat about to obtain it like a child in a nursery.”
Troy was not used to buying items from merchants or shop-keepers, yet he still tried for Fanny’s sake (guilt). Troy creates a tomb and a small memorial by Fanny’s grave. However after the desecration of the grave by the rain, Oak and Bathsheba find Fanny’s grave in a state of desolation. But Bathsheba’s actions are ones which show that she had forgiven Fanny for the trouble that she had caused Bathsheba. She tidies up the tombstone, replants the flowers that have been washed out of their soil. These actions are full of kindness from Bathsheba, and she appeared to have regained some of her independency and dignity, for she is cleaning the grave of her husband’s ex-fiancé.
A few days after, Bathsheba receives news that her husband is missing, presumed drowned.
“No, it is not true; it cannot be true!’ Then she said no more. The ice of self-command which had latterly gathered over her was broken, and the currents burst forth again, and overwhelmed her. A darkness came into her eyes, and she fell.’
Bathsheba had fainted. Clearly she still felt a close bond and dependency towards Troy even though Troy had not shown much love back.
Many months later, Troy finds Bathsheba with Boldwood at the county sheep fair.
Once Troy touches Bathsheba’s hand, he feels a new wanting for
Bathsheba. Just like he chased after Bathsheba before their marriage, now he can do so
again. Boldwood is also back in the frame; it appears to be set out just like it was the first
time Troy hounded after Bathsheba. Troy’s ‘womanising’ personality is taking control of him yet again. “Then, with the lightning action in which he was such adept, he noiselessly slipped under the bottom of the tent cloth…lifted it a little way keeping his eye to the hole…snatched the note from her fingers…smiling at the scream of astonishment which burst from her.”
On Christmas Eve, Bathsheba expresses her feelings to Liddy about the party and Boldwood. “I am foolishly agitated-I cannot tell why…Yes I shall make my appearance of course’, said Bathsheba. ‘But I am the cause of the party, and that upsets me…’”
Bathsheba feels that Boldwood is trying to persuade her to marry him, and that she still has feelings for (what she thinks) is her deceased husband. Where as Bathsheba in the beginning of the relationship would like to have a fuss made about her, in this case she wants to have the opposite of that. It seems that the marriage with Troy has caused her to become a bit more timid, and more wary of those around her.
When Troy enters the party and beckons Bathsheba to come to him, Bathsheba does not know what to do. She is in a state of shock at seeing Troy. “She had sunk down on the lowest stair, and there she sat her mouth blue and dry, and her dark eyes fixed vacantly upon him, as if she wondered whether it were not all a terrible illusion. Bathsheba appears to be fearful of Troy, her yearning for him has ceased and her recollection of past events with Troy, cause Bathsheba to not go towards him. Upon this Troy moves forward to try and grab her, only to have a gun barrel discharged upon him. And on seeing this Bathsheba leaps forward to his aid, it seems that she has left her state of shock, and entered a new one. This time she shows that she still loves Troy, and tries to help him. Troy’s manipulation at Bathsheba had stayed with her throughout the relationship and to his death.
From this relationship, we learn that Bathsheba craves attention and that she is in a lot of ways a female equivalent of Troy. She aims to get what she wants and after their relationship she still cares for her older relationship, the same as Troy did with Fanny. She wants to be in favour with Troy constantly because she depends on Troy for her ambitions. Yet she can be hurt deeply by love and romance going wrong.