This depiction of Melchester Moor is full of visual and tactile imagery that reflects the difficulty and ambiguity of Fanny’s situation:
[....] for the first time in the season [the moor’s] irregularities were forms without features; suggestive of anything, proclaiming nothing, and without more character than that of being the limit of something else—the under surface of a firmament of snow. From this chaotic sky—full of crowding flakes the heath and moor momentarily received additional clothing, only to appear momentarily more naked thereby [...]. If anything could be darker than the sky it was the wall, if anything could be darker than the wall it was the river beneath.
The moor is described as buried totally under the snow, a frigidly cold landscape caught under the “firmament” of snow and ice. The sky is described in striking visual terms as extraordinarily “dark,” a darkness that is so black that it's nearly as dark as the river flowing beneath it. The moor is white and then black, covered in snow in one moment, “naked” the next.
Fanny is standing alone outside of the officers’ barracks, trying to get Troy’s attention (as he has promised her they will marry and has thus encouraged her to follow him). Troy’s stance on the situation is initially non-committal before Fanny herself guilts him into an uneasy agreement to marry. Fanny’s status as a “fallen” woman means that this marriage is a necessary step for her to gain social acceptance, and she is vehement about moving forward.
The landscape mirrors Fanny’s situation in uncomfortable ways. Like Troy’s words, it is “suggestive of anything” (and thus promises nothing). Fanny’s vulnerability is echoed in the moors and heath that are at one moment covered with snow, the next left naked to the open air. Troy’s mind could change just as quickly, leaving her unprotected in the face of social condemnation. The moor is dark, then light, echoing Troy’s ambivalence and the instability of Fanny’s situation. The spiritual darkness of her circumstances is echoed in the shades of black surrounding her.
Bathsheba meets Troy in a hollow among several ferns. Hardy’s description of the hollow amid the ferns is rife with imagery resonant with the romantic tension of the scene:
The hill opposite Bathsheba’s dwelling extended, a mile off, into an uncultivated tract of land, dotted at this season with tall thickets of brake fern, plump and succulent from recent rapid growth, and radiant in hues of clear and untainted green.
At eight o’clock this midsummer evening, whilst the bristling ball of gold in the west still swept the tips of the ferns with its long, luxuriant rays, a soft brushing-by of garments might have been heard among them, and Bathsheba appeared in their midst, their soft, feathery arms caressing her up to her shoulders.
The grass is “plump” and “radiant,” glowing with health. The sun is a “bristling ball of gold” whose touch is gentle and sweeping across the ferns. The hollow is silent, such that the “soft-brushing by” of Bathsheba’s dress among the ferns is audible. The “soft, feathery arms” of the ferns caress her shoulders.
This scene could have been written in a frightening, foreboding way, echoing the danger that Bathsheba will meet in Troy. Instead, the imagery is bright, attractive, and sensual. The thicket seems quiet, inviting, and secluded, absent of anyone other than Bathsheba waiting on Troy.
Hardy uses imagery as a tool of perspective in this scene. The narration in the book always remains in the third person, but it often follows the emotions and perspective of a particular character. Here, the reader is given a glimpse into Bathsheba’s feelings this evening, of how her anticipation of meeting the attractive and mysterious Troy has colored her experience of nature itself. Her excitement, youth, and inexperience are clear in the freshness, warmth, and sensuality of the landscape.
