Desire, Repulsion and Acceptance in Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd

This article explores the Gothic elements in Far From the Madding Crowd and how these elements are mingled with the realistic ones. Such blending of Gothic romanticism with late nineteenth century realism, in Hardy major novels, amplifies the thematic and dramatic effects with which the writer was concerned. It is thus apparent that Hardy’s fiction contains a great deal of material that originates in Gothic romance, but Hardy’s bewildering use of gothic imagery in his non-gothic novel is also very interesting.