ABSTRACT
All of the Hardy heroines I have discussed so far oppose the notion that marriage should be the expressed goal of their sexuality. Two decades before Sue Bridehead’s advent, Bathsheba, the most vociferous of Hardy’s early heroines, not only protests vehemently against becoming some man’s property in marriage, but also, at Oak’s suggestion that she should give herself to a man for reasons other than love, she displays a purity of conscience that he clearly does not own. Confronting his coercive measures to have her wed Boldwood because she has captivated his heart, Bathsheba responds indignantly:
I hate the act of marriage under such circumstances, and the class of woman I should seem to belong to by doing it! (FFMC, p.420)
Oak, unlike Bathsheba, is evidently completely unaware of the profanity lurking in his suggestion that a woman should give her body to a man because she has cost him!
