Bathsheba’s Lost Hat and Metonymic Substitution: Objects in Far from the Madding Crowd

Abstract

The object is a central question in Far from the Madding Crowd: whether one thinks of the household goods heaped on the spring wagon that carries Bathsheba (including the precious mirror wrapped in paper), or of the lost object, the missing object (like Bathsheba’s hat blown away by the wind), or the surplus object — the object whose incongruous presence disrupts diegetic reality: the Valentine card bought by chance, which Bathsheba does not know what to do with, the watch offered by Troy to Bathsheba, the engagement ring that Boldwood thrusts on Bathsheba, and the extraordinary collection of articles he keeps locked in a closet. The object is also, of course, the object of desire, the woman whom three men seek to appropriate. The object may be part of a series in which each element may be substituted for another, or it may be irreplaceable. It then becomes the Thing, Das Ding, “a thing strong as death”, which is an essential element of the tragic.