Far from the Madding Crowd story guide

PROLOGUE  |  ACT I  |  ACT II  |  ACT III  |  EPILOGUE

Having secretly married, Troy and Bathsheba wake from their first night at the Everdene farm. Boldwood, not knowing Troy and Bathsheba are married, tries to buy Troy off; when he realizes that Bathsheba is lost to him he threatens to kill first Troy then himself. Finally, unable to do either, he leaves, humiliated.

Bathsheba's employees celebrate the bringing in of the harvest and her marriage to Sergeant Troy. Gabriel senses an approaching storm and pleads with Troy and the farmhands to help him cover the hayricks, but the farmhands are all drunk. Gabriel and Bathsheba manage to cover the hayricks themselves just as the storm breaks and Fanny Robin, heavily pregnant with Troy's child, stumbles into the farmyard. Next morning Fanny and her child lie dead. Troy, filled with remorse, leaves the farm and Weatherbury.