Very few relationships are simple and in novels, they are usually quite complicated. Although Troy claims to love Bathsheba, he truly loves Fanny Robin, who he abandoned when she went to the wrong church for their wedding. When coming back from the races one day, Troy sees Fanny begging on the roadside and, after telling Bathsheba to continue up he path, they talk. This gives the readers a chance to see that she is the one for him and he cares more for her, than his wife, Bathsheba. When Fanny and her child are found and Troy kisses the dead woman, poor Bathsheba is left confused and possibly frightened. Troy tells her that she does not own him and he can kiss any woman he likes. Nothing ever seems to go right for Fanny, so the readers are left feeling sorry for her. The major blow is, of course, when her fiancée leaves her and she has given up her job at Bathsheba’s farm, her part in the twisted love triangle becomes more apparent and more detailed, as she is pushed further into it all.
The relationship does not last and Boldwood’s obsession for Bathsheba grows and he shoots Troy to get him out of his (and her) life for good. This shows the true pain of love, as Bathsheba truly loved Troy and cannot bear to be parted from him once again. He had faked his own death before and that was traumatising enough, so him being killed before her very eyes was too much for her to bear. Readers are left feeling very sorry for her, and, although life gets better after this incident, she is never the same as the scene has been imprinted onto her mind, never to be removed.
Boldwood is another man who was obsessed with Bathsheba and her beauty. He wants to meet her but she refuses, her vanity not allowing herself to be seen in a dirty state – “I can’t see him in this state. Whatever shall I do?” When Boldwood shows that he is not subtle in showing feelings and begins over-complimenting Miss Everdene at the sheep washing and telling her how he wants to tell her that he wants to tell her he loves her over and over again. We see instantly how smitten he his with Bathsheba and perhaps see already that he will do whatever he can to marry her.
Bathsheba is upset when Boldwood ignores her in church. Although she says to Liddy, who points out that he never once looked at her, “Why should he, I never asked him to.” This is her way of covering up the fact that she is really upset. She is intending to send a Valentines Day card to Teddy Coggan, but after tossing the bible she decides to send it to Boldwood instead. She feels it to be a simple, harmless joke and he will not know whom it is from. Boldwood however, takes the whole thing too far and takes it very seriously indeed, paying particular interest to the wax stamp on the envelope, which bears the immortal legend, “Marry Me”. Bathsheba is not aware of all the trouble this harmless bit of fun will do in her future but as with real life, the consequences are often thought of when it is too late.
The sheep washing shows how Boldwood never gives up hope. Even later in the novel, when Bathsheba has turned him down several times, he asks for her hand in marriage on Christmas Day, so they can marry five years after the ‘death’ of Troy, which would make it legal. He is positive that she will say that she will marry him and she, not wanting to hurt his feelings, feels obliged to agree. After the shooting however, it all comes out just how desperate he is. The murder is enough to show but he also has a ring, which he has had since the first time he asked her to marry him. Many presents are also found addressed to “Bathsheba Boldwood” and it is clear from them that Boldwood was a troubled man, slightly insane because of his love of Bathsheba.
At the Corn Exchange, Boldwood, who was itching to ask Bathsheba if he would consider marrying him, discovers that he cannot ask her yet. She receives news that Troy has drowned and she is instantaneously gloomy. Boldwood knows straight away that now is not the right time. He does however realise now that he is free to ask her at any point, because Troy is gone. “His face flushed with the suppressed excitement of an unutterable thought,” which means that he is plotting to finally get the woman of his dreams.
Troy’s entrance has an overwhelming effect on Boldwood at the engagement party. Hardy reminds the reader of Boldwood’s prior loss of Bathsheba, when he describes Tory as being, “the impersonator of heaven’s persistency towards him, who had once upon broken in upon bliss, scourged him and snatched his delight away.” The usage of those strong, and rather violent words such as, “broken,” “scourged,” and “snatched” further highlights Boldwood’s painful suffering and foreshadows the violent actions to come.
Boldwood is shocked, as is everyone else, about the sudden reappearance of Troy. Everyone thought that he was dead, so no one can quite believe it. Troy then tries to get Bathsheba to come home with him. Bathsheba doesn’t move and Troy tries to pull her up, which is when Boldwood loses it. In a flurry of movement, screaming a smoke, Boldwood shoots Troy, who falls on the floor – dead. Everyone is greatly shocked. Hardy then describes how Boldwood crossed over to Bathsheba, kissed her hand and, “put on his hat, opened the door, and went into the darkness, nobody thinking of preventing him.” No one probably stops him because it is such a sudden shock. This shows how insane Boldwood has become.
In this novel, Hardy details often on the pain of love, and demonstrates to everyone the fact that love is not simple, and is a complex rollercoaster of emotions and there is more often than not more than two people involved. The two men are very different, but similar in some ways. Both are, obviously, bowled over by Bathsheba’s beauty and they are both highly respected gentlemen. They both display their emotions in very different ways however. Sergeant Troy can keep his feelings well under wrap, not really letting on to many people how he truly feels. Boldwood however, cannot contain his emotions as well as Troy, so therefore, goes insane because of his love, or even lust, of Bathsheba, which appears much stronger than Troy’s, who really prefers Fanny. Bathsheba is more inclined to be with Troy because he is a young, dashing solider. She gives Boldwood the cold shoulder because he is an ageing, boring farmer, who cannot add the spice to life that she requires.
By Michael J. Ritchie
