Hardy often alludes to the Bible through the names he chooses for his characters:
By making enquiries he found that the girl’s name was Bathsheba Everdene, and that the cow would go dry in about seven days.
Early on in the novel, Bathsheba challenges Gabriel to “find out” her name. After asking around, he learns both her name and the state of her farm (“the cow would go dry”). Bathsheba was a character in the Old Testament, a woman whom King David one day spied bathing on a rooftop. The two had a subsequent affair, which ended in a pregnancy. In order to marry her, David orchestrated the death of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriel. As punishment for these acts, God struck down their first child; their second child was the biblical King Solomon.
Like her biblical counterpart, Bathsheba Everdene is the unwitting object of male desire, a beautiful woman men spy on and fight to possess. Like King David, Boldwood murders the legal husband of the woman he is in love with (Troy). However, unlike the legend, Bathsheba is not forced to remain with her husband’s murderer. Hardy offers his Bathsheba the chance at a life outside of the control of unscrupulous men, as Boldwood’s actions and subsequent arrest frees her of both him and her husband. This allusion codes Bathsheba as a woman struggling with the consequences and implications of male attention. The contrast between her choices and narrative arc, and that of the biblical Bathsheba, speak to Hardy’s progressive values and Everdene’s personal drive for freedom and independence.
After Gabriel meets Bathsheba again, she has become the head farmer on her uncle’s estate. She has undergone a transformation in terms of attitude and maturity, as reflected in this allusion:
The bailiff was pointed out to Gabriel who, checking the palpitation within his breast discovering that this Ashtoreth of strange report was only a modification of Venus the well-known and admired, retired with him to talk over the necessary preliminaries of hiring.
Ashtoreth was a Canaanite goddess of sex and fertility, and she is mentioned in the Bible as a goddess worshiped by some of King Solomon’s foreign wives. This goddess was widely worshiped across the Middle East, North Africa, and even some parts of the Mediterranean. In a biblical context, Ashtoreth was often discussed as a negative or corrupting influence on Israel.
Bathsheba is notably more cool-headed, less demure, and more commanding than Gabriel has previously seen her. Before, she chased after him on a hilltop. Now, he must approach her, as she sits atop a horse and deigns to give him employment. Gabriel is taken with her, and he has to stop a moment to check in with himself.
The mention of Ashtoreth here suggests Gabriel’s intense physical attraction to an older, more mature Bathsheba. Venus has rosier connotations as a goddess-figure: she was the goddess of beauty for the Romans and was often characterized as vain, superficial, mischievous, or flighty.
Ashtoreth, on the contrary, represents a lesser-known goddess in Hardy’s England—a colder, exoticized form of the love goddess. This makes Ashtoreth a more fitting reference in light of Bathsheba’s change in personality (which Gabriel has not yet fully gauged). The allusion also aligns with her more adult presentation (she appears covered in a black veil rather than barefaced like she was before).
In this scene, the narrator describes Boldwood as a “Daniel” in Bathsheba’s kingdom, making a biblical allusion:
Boldwood’s had begun to be a troublesome image—a species of Daniel in her kingdom who persisted in kneeling eastward when reason and common sense said that he might just as well follow suit with the rest, and afford her the official glance of admiration which cost nothing at all.
The biblical figure Daniel was noted for his refusal to conform to certain religious decrees in his era, including one that forbade praying in the direction of Jerusalem. Here, Bathsheba sees Boldwood, who is cold to her beauty, as her personal “Daniel," or someone who refuses to conform to the near universal admiration of her beauty.
Bathsheba’s pride and ego are on full display here. “Reason and common sense” demand that Boldwood adore her as everyone else does, she thinks. Crucially, this allusion makes clear what Bathsheba’s motivation is when she sends Boldwood the valentine. She is not merely teasing—she is getting back at him in a small way for withholding his attention. Consider how attention grabbing the valentine itself is, with its bold stamp and lack of signature. This allusion thus reveals Bathsheba's vanity, making it clear that she wants to be liked by people she doesn't even care all that much about.
Far From the Madding Crowd teems with classical references. One example lies in the chapter after Boldwood murders Troy. After his death, Bathsheba takes the body of her husband home from Boldwood’s house. When the local vicar, a doctor, and Gabriel arrive, her expression is striking:
Liddy knocked; [...] the key turned in the lock, and she opened it. Her looks were calm and nearly rigid, like a slightly animated bust of Melpomene.
“Oh—Mr. Granthead—you have come at last,” she murmured from her lips merely, and threw back the door. “[...] Well, all is done, and anybody in the world may see him now.” She then passed by them, crossed the landing, and entered another room.
Melpomene was one of the twelve Muses, the Greek goddesses of the arts. Like all of the Muses, Melpomene was the child of Zeus and the goddess of memory, Mnemosyne. Melpomene was the goddess of tragedy and was often depicted holding a tragic mask and a sword. She was also known as the mother of the Sirens (the mysterious half-woman, half-bird creatures that lured sailors to their deaths).
Here, the description of Bathsheba’s appearance as resembling a “bust of Melpomene” suggests someone turned stoic and stony-faced by tragedy. Her seemingly indifferent tone (“anybody in the world may see him now”), calm demeanor, and decision to leave the room while they examine the body all support the image of Bathsheba as removed and distant from the proceedings. The allusion to Melpomene signals to the audience that this distance is a byproduct of grief. The allusion also heightens the drama and import of the moment by comparing Bathsheba’s unhappiness with the mythical sorrow of Melpomene.
