Unconventional Potrayal Of Androgynous Characters: A Sudy Of Andogyny In Hardy's For From The Madding Crowd

Abstract

In Far from the Madding Crowd, the major characters offer idea of androgyny that Woolf exalts in a Room of One' Own(1929). This paper argues that Hardy does not rely on stereotypical gender differences and critiques the pitfall of gender and sexual condition in Far from the Madding Crowd. Bathsheba Ever dene and Gabriel Oak are androgynous characters and they subvert conventional gender roles. Hardy depicts an idea of androgyny throughout the acts of the major characters. Through dismantling the gender roles, the major characters assist to show strength of feminine as well as masculine qualities and a call for harmony in society. The present research tries to look at the novel in the light of Hardy’s employment of unconventional portrait of man and woman, primarily Bathsheba and Gabriel, both as whole human being who seek balance as well as freedom.It relates to Hardy’s quest for wholeness. Both Gabriel and Bathsheba represent gender roles which are changing. They depart from traditional gender roles through dismantling gender roles. It also presents societal change slowly and gradually.Male and female represent two side of organic unity as two sexes in a single mind. There is no wholly masculine man, no purely feminine woman. In this way, Hardy destabilizes Victorian notions of ‘fixed gendered identity’ which is expressed according to the biological appearance of male and female and ‘superiority of masculinity’ that is male dominated society,through the portrayal of androgynous characters.