You can't underestimate the role of pride in Far from the Madding Crowd, or in any Victorian novel, for that matter. Characters in Hardy novels are constantly looking for ways to satisfy their pride without appearing proud at all. It's all a very intricate social game, where everyone is trying to get the better of one another in the subtlest of ways.
At times, though, it makes you want to see someone beaten down by the world until they learn to be humble. And luckily for you, that's something that Hardy loves to provide for his readers. Hardy's characters' favorite meal is humble pie.
Questions About Pride
- Do you think Bathsheba ever truly gets over her sense of pride in this novel? Why or why not?
- Does the novel portray Bathsheba's pride as a good thing or a bad thing? Can it be both?
- One of the first things Gabriel Oak notices about Bathsheba is that she's proud. But in what ways is Gabriel just as proud? Use evidence from the text to support your answer.
- In what way is Sergeant Troy's pride different from Oak's? How does Hardy use this difference to make us sympathize more with Oak? Use evidence from the text to support your answer.
Chew on This
In Far from the Madding Crowd, we learn that at the end of the day, pride will only set you up for horrible, horrible defeat. The best thing is to just be modest.
In Far from the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy suggests that pride can be really beneficial as long as you take pride in the right kinds of things.