Plot

Chapter 1-
Gabriel Oak is a farmer who just bought a farm and has 200 sheep. While he is out walking he crosses paths with a girl in a wagon that is full of all sorts of miscelaneous items. She takes out a mirror and stares at herself. They cross paths again when she is complaining about paying a toll, observing her troubles, Gabriel steps up and pays it for her.

Chapter 2-
The girl is seen again while she is milking a cow at a farm that is near Gabriels. He spies on the girl and finds out that she is living with her aunt.

Chapter 3-
The girl looses her hat a nd Gabriel goes to look for it. Gabriel falls asleep in his hut with a fire lit, and almost dies from smoke inhalation. The girl shows up and saves him. He still does not know her name.

Chapter 4-
He finds out that the girls name is Bathsheba Everdene. Gabriel asks her to marry him, Bathshebas aunt says no. Bathsheba and Gabriel have conversations about them getting married, so Gabriel asks Bathsheba to marry him again. This time Bathsheba says no. She tells him that she does not love him.

Chapters 5- 10
Bathsheba leaves town. Gabriel's hearding dog heards his sheep over a cliff and all the sheep die. Gabriel kills the dog. He now has no way to make money. He feels relief that Bathsheba did not marry him, because now he would have no way to provide for her. Two months pass. Gabriel goes to a job fair and has no luck finding a job. He makes some money by playing music. He winds up in a wagon headed for Weatherbury. Which is where Bathsheba is now living. Oncec he arrives there he sees a fire and puts it out. The lady from the farm where the fire was gives him a job to pay him back for his services.The Lady of the farm ends up being Bathsheba. Gabriel goes to see the baliff. On the way there he runs into a poor girl and offers to give her money. She tells him to forget he ever saw her. Gabriel talks with the other farmers at the the malt house. Bathsheba fires her baliff. Her servant also runs away.

Chapters 11-19
Fanny goes to town to seek out Troy to ask him when he is planning on marrying her. She talks to him through a window and he tells her that they will be married soon. Meanwhile, Bathsheeba sees William Boldwood, her neighbor and takes notice of him. Her maid Liddy tells her that he is a bachelor. They come up with the idea to send him an anomynous valentines card. Boldwood takes the card literally and asks Bathsheeba to marry him. She tellls him that the card was only sent as a joke, but he now has his attention on her and he is not going to give up that easily. Back to Fanny and Troys marriage, they agree to meet at a church and get married. There is a big mix-up however, Fanny and Troy end up at different churches. By the time Fanny frinds Troy at another church, he is so frustrated that he goes back on his word and refuses to marry her now.

Chapters 20-34
The situation between Bathsheeba and Boldwood grows to a more serious level. He now has even stronger feelings for her. She seeks advice from Gabriel, he tells her that she should marry Boldwood. She gets very angry with his advice and ends up firing him. She soon finds out however, that the farm cannot operate well without Gabriel. The sheep breakout, get sick and Bathsheeba ends up begging Gabriel to come back. Boldwood on the other hand is still after Bathsheeba to marry him. He tells her to think about his proposal and give him a response once he gets back from a trip. Bathsheeba ends up running into Troy. He flirts with her and soon she finds him helping out on her farm. They end up alone and he, wanting to show off, does a sort of sword show for her. He ends up stealing a kiss from her. Once again Gabriel gives his true advice about Bathsheebas love interest, this time he says that Troy is not trustworthy. Bathsheeba tells Boldwood that she loves Troy when he returns from his trip. After doing this, she goes to meet Troy on his vacation. When Troy and Boldwwod finally meet face to face, Boldwood tries to pay off Troy to marry Fanny. Troy tells him that he and Bathsheeba have already consimated their relationship, Boldwood then offers troy money to marry Bathsheeba so that he will make an honest woman of her. He ends up taking the money, even though they were already married.

Chapters 35-40
Troy uses Bathsheebas money to buy his way out of the army. He then proceeds to basically take over everything on the farm. In celebration of the harvest, he gives the workers hard liquor. Gabriel sense that a storm is going to come, he tries to get the workers to help, but it is too late, they are already too drunk and passed out ot help. The only person he can find to help him save the harvest is Bathsheeba. Boldwood allowed his harvest to be ruined by the storm. Bathsheeba and Troy end up running into Fanny. Troy does not introduce Fanny and Bathsheeba to eachother. She looks horrible, so Troy feels badly and gives her all the money he has with him, and tells her to meet him the next day so that he can give her more.

Chapters 41-47
Troy asks Bathsheeba for money, but he does not tell her that it is for Fanny. They argue about this, and he leaves. After he leaves, Liddy comes in and tells Bathsheeba that Fanny has died. Bathsheeba sends a worker to get her body. The coffin in which Fanny and the baby have been placed in says Fanny and Child on it. Gabriel runs into the worker sent to get the coffin at the malthouse. he sees what is written on the coffin and decides to erase the " and child" part in order to spare Bathsheeba the pain. Bathsheeba eventually figures out that something is not adding up right, so she opens the coffin and finds out about the child. Troy comes clean to her at that point and confesses that Fanny was the love of his life. Bathsheeba locks herself in her room. Troy leaves town after he buys an expensive tombstone for Fanny and his baby. Troy ends up swimming, a current pulls him out to sea, and a boat rescues him.

Chapters 48-51
Rumours start up that Troy has drowned. Gabriel ends up becoming the baliff of both Bathseeba and Boldwoods farms. Bathsheeba decides that she will not consider marrying Boldwood until after seven years has passed since that is when he will officially be considered dea by the state. Boldwood is still looking forward to that day. Later that summer, Troy comes to town with a carnival that he has been traveling with, and he sees Bathsheeba. He hides from her. Boldwood convinces Bathsheeba to give him her answer to his marriage proposal by Christmas.

Chapters 52-57
Boldwood throws an elaborate Christmas Eve party. He is very excited to hear whether or not Bathsheeba will agree to marry him in six years or not. He tries to bribe her with a beautiful diamond ring. To everyones shock, Troy enters the party and asks Bathsheeba to leave with him. Boldwood shoots Troy and then tries to kill himself but the workers stop him before he can. Boldwood is originally sent to jail and sentenced to death. However, his death sentence is later revoked when it is challenged with a plea of insanity. They claim that he mentally not well. While Bathsheeba is at Troys grave where she had him burried, next to Fanny and their child. Gabriel meets up with her. They have not spoken to eachother in months. Gabriel tells her that he did not want her to have to listen to unecessary rumours that would have started had he stayed at her sid through all of this. He talks about how people would start rumours that he had intentions of marrying her. She in return talks about how she would like the idea of their getting married. It all ends with Bathsheeba and Gabriel getting married.