Summary
Shortly after he proposes, Gabriel learns that Bathsheba has moved away to the town of Weatherbury. One night, Gabriel awakens to the sound of the sheep bells, indicating that the herd is running quickly. He gets up and finds that the 200 sheep who were still pregnant have been driven off the edge of a cliff by his young and overeager sheepdog. This loss is a financial catastrophe for Gabriel, and he has to sell everything he owns in order to pay off his remaining debts.
The story resumes in February, in the town of Casterbridge, where a gathering is taking place for men looking for work to meet with prospective employers. Gabriel is there, eager to find work as either a bailiff or shepherd, but no one seems to want to hire him. He learns that another hiring fair is taking place the following day at Shottsford and decides to walk there, a journey which will take him through the town of Weatherbury. Along the way, he becomes tired and climbs into a wagon parked by the road in order to rest, only to awaken and find that the wagon is in motion. After he discreetly slips out of the wagon, Gabriel notices that some crops of straw are on fire at a nearby farm and that the fire is threatening to spread.
Gabriel joins in to help the farmworkers control the fire, taking charge of the situation and providing effective leadership. Two women, one of whom owns the farm, observe Gabriel’s hard work and send a message to him thanking him. Hoping to take advantage of this gratitude, Gabriel goes to ask if the farmer would like to hire him as a shepherd, only to realize that the owner of the farm is Bathsheba, who has inherited it from her uncle. The other farmworkers encourage her to hire Gabriel, and she agrees.
As Gabriel makes his way towards accommodations for the night, he encounters a young woman walking alone. She gives him directions, and then asks that he not tell anyone he has seen her. Concerned, Gabriel gives her a small sum of money and then continues on his way. He arrives at the pub where the other farmworkers have gathered and is greeted warmly since some of the older men used to know his father and grandfather. After Gabriel has left for his room, one of the farmworkers comes hurrying in to break the news that the man working as the bailiff at Bathsheba’s farm has been caught stealing and was fired from his job. What’s more, Fanny Robbins, a young servant, cannot be found, and given that she has seemed depressed recently, her disappearance is alarming to Bathsheba. Several of the farmworkers go back to the farmhouse to speak with Bathsheba. She instructs them to look for Fanny the next day, including asking the soldiers at Casterbridge, since there are rumors that one of them was wooing Fanny.
The next morning, Bathsheba and her servant Liddy are busy with household chores when they are surprised by the arrival of Mr. Boldwood, a prosperous farmer. Bathsheba declines to see him, since she is not dressed appropriately and Boldwood explains to the servant that he has come to ask whether any information had surfaced about Fanny’s disappearance. After Boldwood departs, the other female servants explain that he is well-respected but also the subject of speculation since he has never shown any interest in getting married.
After she has gotten ready, Bathsheba meets with the farmworkers to distribute their wages. She announces that she is not going to hire a new bailiff and instead plans to manage the farm herself. She also asks whether anyone has learned any news about Fanny and is informed that the regiment of soldiers previously stationed at Casterbridge has moved on to the town of Melchester, and it is assumed that Fanny has gone there as well, following her sweetheart. Bathsheba’s hands-on approach is furthered signaled when she goes to the corn market to display the products of her farm, and negotiate prices with potential buyers. At the market, she is the subject of much male attention, but is surprised to notice one handsome man who does not seem intrigued by her at all. After questioning Liddy, she learns that this man is the same Farmer Boldwood who had previously called upon her.
On the day before Valentine’s, Liddy and Bathsheba are idly passing time and the conversation again turns to Boldwood, who had not taken any notice of Bathsheba during church services. Bathsheba mentions a valentine she is going to send to a young boy who works on the farm, and Liddy playfully suggests sending it to Boldwood instead. Bathsheba is intrigued by the idea, since she is slightly annoyed that Boldwood has shown no interest in her. They use the equivalent of a coin toss to determine the plan, and then send the anonymous valentine to Boldwood.
Meanwhile, in Melchester, Fanny throws a stone at the windows of the soldier’s barracks to get the attention of her lover, Sergeant Frank Troy. Troy is surprised to see her, but Fanny is anxious to hear details about when their planned marriage will take place. Frank assures her that he does plan to marry her, but that the logistical details will cause a delay. He promises to come and visit Fanny in her new lodgings as soon as possible.
Analysis
Whereas Gabriel begins the novel at a hopeful moment with bright prospects for the future, his fortune is abruptly reversed with the loss of his flock. The loss is all the more glaring because Gabriel is such a careful and conscientious man; despite all of his efforts, everything can still be swept away. Hardy had a profound respect for nature, and the way in which nature can be both bountiful and destructive. At a moment literally ripe with promise, when the ewes are pregnant and therefore on the verge of doubling Gabriel’s flock, the scene becomes one of death and grotesque destruction rather than birth and regeneration.
Perhaps because Gabriel is a man attuned to the cycles of nature and the inevitable balance between growth and loss, or perhaps because he has previous experience as a humble laborer, he accepts his loss stoically. When he is at the hiring fair, Gabriel is open to accepting work as either a bailiff or a shepherd, even though the two roles were significantly different in social status and pay. The difficulty Gabriel finds in locating work reflects one of the consequences of his attempt at social mobility. He seems underqualified to work as a bailiff on one hand, but now overqualified to go back to being a shepherd since he has experience of working his own farm. However, Gabriel’s innate integrity and desire to do the right thing helps to set him on the path to restoring his career. He has no obligation to help with putting out the fire, but he naturally shows leadership and good judgement, and is rewarded by quickly earning the trust of the other workers. The fact that the other men take warmly to Gabriel because of the way he behaves during the fire, and because he has family ties to the area, shows how reputations were established in a pre-industrial era.
While Gabriel is quickly accepted into the Everdene farm and the surrounding community, Bathsheba faces more serious challenges. It was somewhat unconventional for a woman to own a substantial property at this time, and still more unusual for her to actively manage it herself. A farm like Bathsheba’s involved a substantial and time-consuming amount of effort to be run successfully, and, as quickly becomes evident, requires courage, keen intelligence, and business savvy. Bathsheba shows the same independent spirit that distinguished her when she was helping her aunt, even though the public attention she attracts clearly makes her somewhat uncomfortable.
While Bathsheba’s new authority and status gives her new freedoms, it also seems to make her reckless. She doesn’t have any companions or advisors, and seems to depend on a friendship with Liddy to keep her from boredom. Bathsheba's decision to send the valentine to Boldwood is related to the new autonomy and power she wields once taking on the traditionally masculine role of farmer and manager. As Karin Koehler writes, "She feels compelled to challenge Boldwood's emphatically masculine sense of self, and, prompted by Liddy's suggestion, intuits that her aim will be accomplished most effectively by a deliberate, aggressive subversion of sexual and gender norms" (401). The two impulsive young women egg each other on, leading to the decision to send the valentine to Boldwood. While the prank would be somewhat expected from a maidservant like Liddy, as a landowner and business person, Bathsheba should act with more discretion and foresight. Particularly as a woman, her good reputation is paramount, and she risks jeopardizing it for a childish, lighthearted prank.
Although on a very different scale, Bathsheba’s impulsive action is paralleled by the risky choices Fanny makes as she follows her heart. As a working-class young woman who doesn’t seem to have any family members, she is in a perilous position and can easily be manipulated by an unscrupulous man. Soldiers like Troy had a reputation for womanizing, facilitated by the fact that when the troops moved on, it was easy to discard any women they had pursued affairs with. Troy’s vague and ambiguous statements about plans for his marriage hint that he may not in fact be committed to legitimizing his relationship with Fanny.
