Binary Oppositions And Their Reconciliations In Far From The Madding Crowd

Thomas Hardy is a distinguished British novelist and poet in late Victorian time. Far from the Madding Crowd is the first novel which gains him great popularity among readers and intense attention in literary circles and occupies significant status in his novel writing career. Hardy mentioned Wessex in this novel for the first time and became famous for his excellent depiction of patriarchal countryside in southwest England. In this sense this novel can be regarded as the first Wessex novel indeed and symbolizes that Hardy had gradually matured in his depiction craftsmanship. Besides, this novel is also Hardy's last pastoral comedy. His subsequent novels are all tragedies. Thus, this novel can be viewed as the turning point of Hardy's novel writing from comedy to tragedy. So studies on this novel are of great significance in understanding Hardy's whole literary career and also his thought about nature, country life and gender relations.During more than one century since its publication, foreign and domestic scholars have done many studies on this novel from different aspects. These studies mainly focused on the relationship between setting and theme, Hardy qualities, typical images, Hardy's notion of evolutionary meliorism, androgyny and survival, man's accordance with reality, masculinity and femininity, the forms of love, the patriarchy of class, the figure of intruders, the reasons of tragedy in the novel, archetypes from the Bible, ecological harmony, Hardy's eco-ethics, and the interrelationship between man, society and nature in the novel. Though previous researches involved androgyny, masculinity and femininity, the conflict between man and nature, and the interrelationship between man, society and nature in the novel, few researches have ever studied the novel from the perspective of binary opposition and probed into the relationship between man and nature, individual and society, male and female together. Thus, based on previous studies, in the light of the perspective of binary opposition, this thesis intends to have an investigation of the binary oppositions and their reconciliations between man and nature, individual and society, and male and female in Far from the Madding Crowd.The thesis falls into five chapters. Chapter One gives a brief introduction to Thomas Hardy and Far from the Madding Crowd, and summarizes previous studies on this novel and the significance and approach of this study. Chapter Two first gives a sketch of Plato's and RenéDescartes'dualism and then analyzes in detail the binary opposition between man and nature. Nature is indifferent to human beings'efforts and sufferings. Sometimes nature even destroys human beings'efforts and brings disasters to human beings. In front of the mighty nature, human beings are trivial, but they can still know nature and adapt themselves to nature. The continual descriptions of harmony between man and nature in the novel and of shepherd Gabriel, who finally gets a happy family and a successful career because he lives close to nature, reflect the reconciliation of the binary opposition between man and nature. Chapter Three discusses the binary opposition and its reconciliation between individual and society from the tragical or comical destiny of five main characters. Sergeant Troy, Farmer Boldwood and the maidservant Fanny are representatives of the individuals who deviate from the local society while Gabriel and Bathsheba are representatives of the individuals who adapt themselves to the local society. Their different destinies indicate that individuals can get survival and development only through adaptation to the society. Chapter Four analyzes the binary opposition between male and female from male-dominated love or marriage relationships. No matter in love or marriage, men are always stronger than women. The androgynous traits the hero and heroine display reflect the reconciliation of the binary opposition between male and female. Through the analysis of three pairs of binary oppositions and their reconciliations depicted in the novel, Chapter Five comes to the conclusion that though Hardy was influenced by the thinking mode of binary opposition, the reconciliation of these binary oppositions in the novel indicates that Hardy tried to surpass simple binary opposition, to create harmony between man and nature and between individual and society, and to put forward an androgynous character model, which had both male and female traits.