Troy’s gold watch bears the motto “Cedit Amor Rebus” – love yields to circumstances Essay Example

any man she likes, we already know she is very pretty and striking. Also, her aunt gives the impression of her being popular with the men, "Yes - bless you, she's ever so many young men. Later on, their love gets much more complicated, as does their relationship. Looking at it after he has proposed, lost his sheep, and been employed by Bathsheba, we can see that his love is much more developed.

Now that he is lower in status than her, and that he has gone through troubles, and got over them, his character has changed to be able to cope with his present position, that is the position of being in love with Bathsheba, but unable to be with her. This change in character means his love changes also; it becomes much more calm and unselfish.We can see this from the way he deals with her attitude towards him, "I don't want you - I beg you to go! ' 'That's nonsense,' said Oak calmly. " From the moment he starts to work on her farm, he has to put up with a lot from Bathsheba, she takes his attention and love for granted, and doesn't appear to need it at all. When Bathsheba marries Troy, we see Oak's love go through a second change.

He is greatly upset by this circumstance, but it just serves to make his love deeper, or so it seems, as he continues to support Bathsheba through all her troubles that Troy creates.He is always there for her, even while coping with his own feelings. This love is also very intelligent and informed; he is not making a

'perfect' picture of Bathsheba for himself. He can see her faults and weaknesses, but still his love holds out, "run the risk of deteriorating this bulk of corn to less than half its value, because of the instability of a woman? 'Never, if I can prevent it. ' Said Gabriel. " This shows us the strength of his love.

The reader can assume that this strength has come from the fact that he knows he can't get anywhere with her.This assumption comes from he gets more and more attached to her throughout the novel. If he had married her, I feel that his love for her wouldn't have developed this far, because he wouldn't feel a need to protect her. Bathsheba's love for Gabriel only develops once she realises Troy is not the right man for her, and she begins to rely on Gabriel more and more. Her love is much more hurried and confused than his is - she has to cope with two men at once - but we see this love grow truer and better informed towards the end of the novel, after Bathsheba has been through so much.

We are not specifically told that she is in love but we see her thoughts turn more often to Gabriel, and from her obvious emotions about Gabriel's imminent departure, the reader is made to assume her feelings, "She was set to thinking a great deal about Oak and of his wish to shun her". She obviously does not feel happy about this, which displays to us that the nature of her love has changed to become true love, deeper than the love she had

for Troy. This event of him telling her about his plan to leave ultimately sparks off her new and greatest love.She finally realises that he is the 'man for her', and as her character becomes so, her love becomes much more mature and settled.

" 'Marrying me! I didn't know it was that you meant,' she said, quietly. " this is a vast contrast with her love with Troy, which was shown to always be hurried, as if she was pushed and forced into decisions. Bathsheba's relationship with Troy is very different. The main cause of these differences is Troy's character, which is naturally superficial and fickle.We see this as the novel progresses.

Troy first meets Bathsheba by accident. The meeting is at night, which makes it easier for Troy to trick Bathsheba's mind, as he appears to do. Throughout their conversation, he annoys her, "I tell you you have! She exclaimed in high temper. " Bathsheba's natural fiery and independent character comes in here, but he manages to overrule it, as we see from her reaction at the end of the chapter, "to skulk away like that from a man who was only being civil and kind! From this first meeting, and the thoughts it causes her, one immediately sees the falseness of their relationship.

Bathsheba's love becomes false, although she doesn't realise it, and thinks she is indeed in love. However, this love is still superficial, she appears to only fall in love because of the way Troy acts towards her. He compliments her often, he acts in a very forward way, which she is not used to, but undoubtedly enjoys: "The circumstance

had been the gentle dip of Troy's mouth downwards upon her own.He had kissed her.

" This event is the point at which he totally wins her, the kiss along with the sword display before it, in which he is displayed to her as this dashing handsome young soldier; he is dressed up in his red and gold uniform, "Behind the luminous streams of this aurora militaris, she could see the hue of Troy's sword arm, spread in a scarlet haze". This creates a dazzling picture, and it is no wonder she is captivated by him completely. However, this does show us how physical her love is, and it is the same with him.This is brought to a climax when he proposes, as is explained to us later on when Bathsheba is talking to Oak, "when he suddenly said he had that day seen a woman more beautiful more beautiful than I, and that his constancy could not be counted on". This conveys Troy's fickle and unfaithful love for Bathsheba, it is obviously not true love, or he would have no doubt about his constancy.

We also see the true nature of Bathsheba's love, it is not true, or even simply naive, it is hurried, extremely influenced by Troy's character, and it is superficial, she marry a man just because he said that to her.The natural thing to do if a man tells you that he cannot be sure of his constancy, or even simply that he has seen a more beautiful woman than you, immediately displays that their relationship is not 'meant to be'. We can assume that her love becomes like this because

this event is so sudden and unexpected. Troy's love is later revealed to be selfish also. The reader is shown, after they are married, that he was only in it for the money.Although, at one point his love did begin to become more genuine, "and they looked into one another's faces, as far gone friendly as a man and woman can be.

" we can assume that it was still very physical, "so nobody will know of your visit to your lady's bower". Once they are married, he completely uses Bathsheba, whittles away her money, and uses his power against her, displaying his selfish love; "you have lost more than a hundred pounds in a month by this dreadful horse-racing? " She cannot stand up to him, because as husband he now controls her money and property.This new relationship between them, with him as very much having the power to control it, causes her love to fade, partly due to her naturally independent character, but always because it shows her his true personality, and true reasons for marrying her. It causes his love to fade also, because of the change in her character. He was purely superficial, attracted to her looks and to her "pluck and sauciness", but once this leaves her, he is not interested anymore. Finally, at the point in the novel where Troy discovers the death of fanny, we are made to wonder whether this really was ever love at all.

Fanny's death causes Troy to become overly cruel towards Bathsheba, and appears to be greatly sorrowed, saying to his wife, "This woman is more to me, dead as she is, than you

ever were, or are, or can be. " From this, and from his actions dealing with Fanny's death, we see that his love for her was indeed a lot deeper than that which he had with Bathsheba. However, from earlier events which I have already explored, I think that Troy was indeed in love with Bathsheba, but this event has brought to light how much he actually loved Fanny, but didn't realise it.It also obliterates all love he my have had for Bathsheba, displaying again the fickleness of his love; it is undone that quickly.

We can see that both Troy and Oak are very strong about love, but they succeed with this in different ways. While the change in circumstances and the widening of the social gap between him and Bathsheba encourage Oak's love, and he copes with the various circumstances obstructing his love, Troy does not manage to do this.Instead, he shies away from any responsibility of his involving Bathsheba, and uses all circumstances as much to his own advantage as possible, therefore not allowing his love to grow and become stronger, which ultimately results in both his relationships failing. However he does manage to be strong with love because of his trickery and cunning, he always keeps the upper hand in a relationship, even when circumstances cause his feelings to change abruptly.