Far From the Madding Crowd
Thomas Hardy
Allusions
Chapter I
Gabriel (1): this name has many associations. In Christian mythology it is Gabriel who announces to
Zacharias the future birth of John the Baptist, and to Mary, at the Annunciation, her conception of Jesus
(Luke 1). The trumpeter of the Last Judgment, Gabriel also means ‘power of God,’ and in Paradise Lost,
Milton makes him chief of the angelic guards placed or Paradise. Although critical focus has stressed the
‘angelic,’ Hardy’s allusions to Milton in this novel are frequently subversive or ironic: Gabriel Oak’s selfappointed role as Bathsheba’s moral judge is, for example, severely compromised by his espial (an act of
noticing; discovery) role in which Hardy aligns him with Milton’s Satan. In Jewish mythology, Gabriel is the
angel of death and prince of fire and thunder; in the Old Testament he is said to have explained visions to
Daniel (Daniel 8-9); in Islam he reveals the Koran to Muhammad.
Doctor Samuel Johnson (1-2): in Boswell’s Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785), Dr. Johnson wears ‘a
very wide brown cloth great coat with pockets which might have almost held the two volumes of his folio
dictionary.’ And in his Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Boswell describes Johnson’s morning dress as
‘uncouth,’ and his ‘brown suit of cloaths looked very rusty’ (entry for 24 May 1763).
Saint…Judas Iscariot (5): aesthetic convention and Christian ideology dictate that beauty is equated with
goodness and ugliness with evil: the portrayal of St. John as a devoted disciple of Jesus is, therefore,
‘beautiful,’ and that of Judas Iscariot, as the betrayer of Jesus, ‘ugly.’
Chapter II
Saint Thomas (6): patron saint of masons and architects. St. Thomas’s day is 21 December, when the
poor got ‘Thomasing’ for gifts of food, etc., from the farmers
Ark (8): Genesis 8:4: ‘And the Ark rested…upon the mountains of Ararat.’ Hardy’s allusion is lightly
parodic. Oak’s ‘Ark’ rests not upon a mountain range but ‘on two small wheels which raised its floor about
a foot from the ground.’
Milton’s Satan first saw Paradise (11): in book 4, lines 179-96, of Milton’s Paradise Lost, Satan perches
in the Tree of Life ‘like a Cormorant’ to look down on Paradise below.
Lucina (12): Roman goddess of childbirth.
Chapter III
Maiden’s Blush…Provence…Crimson Tuscany (16): names of roses ranging in hue from pink to
deepest red.
Samson (18): in Judges 16-20 Samson awakens from sleeping in Delilah’s lap and says, ‘I will go
out as at other times before, and shake myself.’ He then discovers his hair has been shorn and his
strength gone. In true subversive fashion Hardy not only reverses the Samson legend but also the
role of the shearer: it is Oak who ultimately strips the beloved ‘strength’ by persistently cutting
down her self-assurance, self-esteem, emotional energy and power.
Chapter IV
Full of sound and fury/Signifying nothing ( ):
Bathsheba ( ):
Ecclesiastes ( ):
Chapter V
Turner ( ):
Hylas on the Mysian shore (
Napoleon at St. Helena ( ):
Chapter VI
):
“Jocky to the Fair” ( ):
Arcadian ( ):
Pitch-halfpenny ( ):
Chapter VII
Ashtoreth ( ):
Loving his neighbour as himself ( ):
Chapter VIII
Elymas-the-sorcerer ( ):
Saint-Simonian notions ( ):
jerry-go-nimble show ( ):
committing the seventh ( ):
Let Your Light so Shine ( ):
Dame Durden ( ):
Minerva ( ):
Chapter VIII continued
new’s bell (61): ringing in the ears supposedly signifying ill-tidings. Hardy’s rustics communicate their
fears and anxieties vividly and expressively through a common language of superstitions and omens.
magpie all alone (61): in folk tradition a magpie (a crow with a long tail and black-and-white plumage)
heralds a change in fortunes. According to one ancient chant: ‘One’s sorrow, two mirth/Three’s a
wedding, four’s a birth,’ etc.
library (63): Oak’s library contains mainly standard works widely read in the nineteenth century. Self-help
books, such as The Young Man’s Best Companion, by George Fisher, would contain both housekeeping advice
(wine-making, laundering) and health care as well as, say, the rudiments of book-keeping and carpentry.
The Farrier’s Sure Guide and The Veterinary Surgeon follow the same principle, but applied to husbandry;
Walkingame’s Arithmetic (1751) and Joan Ash’s Dictionary (1775) would offer a guide to numbers and words
respectively; John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667) was an extremely popular epic poem based on the creation
story in Genesis; John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (1678-84) provides an allegory of Christian pathways to
salvation; and Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719) is a novel (purportedly the first English novel) about
shipwreck and survival on an uninhabited island.
Chapter IX
Terburg (Gerard Terburgh or Terborch) or a Gerard Douw ( ):
pelican in the wilderness ( ):
Philistines ( ):
Chpapter X
thinking ‘twas Abel killed Cain ( ):
sins of the parents…upon the children ( ):
Jove…Olympus ( ):
thief in the night ( ):
Chapter X
Sergeant Troy (77):
Chapter XII
little Jove (81): according to Greek Mythology the Titans made war against Jove (otherwise
Jupiter/Zeus), and tried to dethrone him. Analogously, the triumphant Bathsheba holds her own in this
challenging male stronghold, and she ‘walks as a queen among these gods.’
Chapter XIII
Bible and Key (84): here the idea is to think of possible marriage partners and then to insert a large key
into the Bible at the book of Ruth, tie the book shut with the handle of the key protruding, and then wait for
the Bible to turn when the verse is spoken. Then it depends upon to whom the book swings and of whom
the recipient I thinking at the time, for the future marriage partner to be foretold. The verse to be uttered
from the book of Ruth is generally held to be 1:16: ‘whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I
will lodge, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.’
Daniel ( ): 6:10-16,
Far From the Madding Crowd
Thomas Hardy
Allusions continued
Chapter XX
Elizabeth…Mary Stuart (117): the distinction is one of head and heart. Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603)
is held to be astute, shrewd, strongminded; Queen Mary Stuart (1542-1587) excitable, courageous,
passionate.
Eros (117): in Greek mythology, boy-god of love.
Ixion’s punishment (117): in Greek mythology King Ixion is punished for his arrogance in trying to
imitate the fire (thunder) of heaven by being chained to a revolving wheel of fire. Prison inmates in the
nineteenth century were forced to endure pointless hard labor by turning the handle of a crank machine to
pull ladles through sand (treadmills were often referred to as ‘Ixion’s wheel’), which could be leavened by
the turn of a screw (‘screw’—the nickname for prison warders). Hence Hardy’s reference to ‘the history of
gaols.’
Danby sunset (120): the landscape painter James Francis Danby (1816-75) was noted for the brilliant
colors of his sunsets.
As Moses left the presence of Pharaoh (121): an allusion to Exodus 10:28-9: ‘And Pharaoh said unto
him, Get thee from me…see my face no more; for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die. And Moses
said, Thou hast spoken well, I will see thy face again no more.’ As the story goes, Moses’ complacency
arises from the fact that he has God on his side.
From chapters XXI – LVI choose one chapter and find at least two allusions.
Explain or define the allusions. Then, knowing the historical information, explain
how this information helps you come to a deeper understanding of the sections
and/or why Hardy chose to use them.
Your analysis will be due upon the day the chapter should be read by.