So You Say I Have a Chance

A belief in determinism engenders a lack of chance in life. Things happen for a reason to determinists. There are no coincidences or random occurrences. We just finished reading Hardy’s poem, “Hap,” which personifies the idea of Chance. The character rails against god (line 1) and Fate (Casualty, line 11) who are making his life miserable. Find some examples of “chance” or happenstance that occur in Far From the Madding Crowd. Post them here for all to see.

Celebration of rural life

Critic Richard Carpenter says, "Far From the Madding Crowd developes...the vividly realized setting of field and farm without the grim majesty of Egdon Heath (in Return of the Native)." Choose a descriptive passage of "field and farm" from the first 75 pages and post it to this blog as a comment. Then comment on each others posts.

Be sure to check the posts from Return of the Native as their setting differs from yours greatly. This should give you a well-rounded sense of Hardy's treatment of setting.

Grey's Elegy

The title of this novel does not come directly from the text. There is no "Madding" family, or crowd. The main characters are not trying to get "Far" from anything. The title actually comes from Grey's Elegy's Written in a Country Church-Yard. Some of you may remember this poem from Dr. Crowley's class. To refresh your memory, or enlighten yourself, read the poem at this link (http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Poetry/Elegy.htm).

This poem is called "meditative" for the narrator meditates on the destinies of the dead buried in the graveyard. The closing stanzas are said to be Grey's own fear about his destiny as a writer.

Why would Hardy choose such a title for this novel? What connections could he be making between what you have just begun to read, and Grey's meditative poem?