Far From the Madding Crowd Religion Quotes

It might seem strange that the narrator compares Gabriel Oak's watching Bathsheba with Satan first seeing the Garden of Eden, but this is probably more to establish Bathsheba as Eve than it is to establish Gabriel as Satan. After all, Gabriel is named after an super-good archangel who is pretty much as far from Satanic as possible.

Poor Cain Ball has an unfortunate name, since Cain is one of the biggest villains in all of the Bible. In the story of Cain and Abel, Cain killed Abel for being the better, more moral brother. But Cain Ball's mother got the story mixed up and thought Abel was the killer and Cain the innocent one. People in Weatherbury tend to know the Bible in general… but they are a bit fuzzy on the particulars.

When establishing that Pennyways is a cheat, Joseph Poorgrass compares him to Judas Iscariot, the man who betrayed Jesus and got the guy crucified. But poor Poorgrass, not knowing his Bible specifics, calls Judas "Joey" instead. And yes, there might be a few Joseph's in the Bible; but there are definitely no Joeys.

Once again, Hardy uses the Bible to describe Gabriel's relationship with Bathsheba. This time, though, it's Gabriel who's compared to the Biblical hero. After Bathsheba fires him for being too honest in his opinion of Sergeant Troy, Gabriel turns and walks away with total dignity, since he'd rather lose his job than shield Bathsheba from the truth. In this sense, then, he's like the Biblical hero Moses walking away from his cruel master, the Pharaoh.

After Sergeant Troy kisses her for the first time, Bathsheba starts crying because she's so overwhelmed with what's happening. She has spent so many years acting proud and dignified; but this handsome young man has totally broken down her defenses with all his charm. Now she can only feel like she's done something totally wrong, since she's overwhelmed with confused passion and guilt.

When Farmer Boldwood can no longer stand his love for Bathsheba, he totally breaks down in front of Gabriel Oak and tells him that since he has lost Bathsheba, he has also lost faith in God's mercy. It's not like he doesn't think God exists. He just thinks God has no mercy on good men like himself.

When he reflects on some of the bad things he's done in his life, Joseph Poorgrass decides that, when all is said and done, he knows there'll be some time after death when he'll have to account for himself. And in this sense, he feels like he should straighten up and act better, because he doesn't want to waste his one shot at a good afterlife.

After seeing Gabriel praying through his bedroom window, Bathsheba feels like praying isn't such a bad idea. She has many of her own troubles to worry about, like the apparent death of her husband and the series of aggressive proposals from Farmer Boldwood. If praying is good enough for a nice man like Gabriel, reasons Bathsheba, it's good enough for her.

Even an immoral guy like Sergeant Troy believes in heaven. This is England in the 1870s, guys. If you weren't Christian, you weren't anything. This scene (where Troy is talking to his dead ex-lover and dead child, so sad) is pretty much the one moment we see Troy act like a flesh-and-blood human instead of a callous robot.

Gabriel is such a good guy that when he's not busy working (which is almost always), he's down at the church singing bass in the choir. What a boy scout, eh? The guy is so wholesome that he's (almost) boring.