My Literary Boyfriend

Every girl has to do it: choose which literary character fits their "boyfriend" mold. The question is generally posed as "Which Jane Austen male figure is your favorite?" Mr. Darcy is generally the winner (helped likely by the BBC production starring Colin Firth). And while I like Mr. Darcy, I have generally been more fond of Captain Wentworth from Persuasion (possibly because I also love Anne Eliot).

Then I read Jane Eyre, which is quite possibly my favorite book, and learned of Mr. Rochester.

Tonight I saw the film adaptation of Far From the Madding Crowd, which then introduced me to not only the great Bathsheba Everdene, but also Farmer Oak. Yes, just like I can aspire to be like fictional TV characters (I'm looking at you, Leslie Knope), I also note which literary male characters I would most like to date.

Aside from that, though, the film really is quite great. I have read two other Thomas Hardy novels, Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure (which I admit I never finished because it was boring) and was expecting this story to be tragic as well. It is not. It does have tragic elements, but it is essentially a love story. I didn't know Hardy had it in him. My cousin actually wrote a really great review of the movie that you should read.

Bathsheba is a woman of independence who rejects a marriage proposal in the first ten minutes of the film. Not because she's unkind or haughty, but because she doesn't "need" a husband, and while she would be glad to be a bride it unfortunately is followed by being a wife. She actually has that choice and it's great.

She then has two other suitors, one of which might be a good choice and one which is clearly a very bad choice. I will admit to being blinded by a couple Captain Troy's myself. She learns from it, there's some tragedy, but in the end she realizes that she doesn't need Farmer Oak to help her position in life or to give her a piano (she bought one herself), but that she loves him and wants him in her life.

Obviously I have missed out on a lot of finer points of the story since I have only seen the film adaptation. However I plan on purchasing the book this week.