Character guide

Bathsheba Everdene

major

Also known as Bathsheba, Farmer Everdene, Miss Everdene, Mistress Everdene, Bathsheba Boldwood

Bathsheba arrives in Weatherbury with more beauty and self-possession than her neighbors expect from a woman, and the agent's doubts about her youth and sex only sharpen her resolve to manage the Upper Farm herself. Her vanity and hunger for admiration pull against a genuine capacity for feeling, so she sends a reckless valentine and then finds herself entangled with men she cannot easily dismiss. Her choices drive the novel's central collisions between love, pride, and the price of being noticed.

Gabriel Oak

major

Also known as Gabriel, Oak, Farmer Oak, Shepherd Oak, Mr. Oak, Gabe

Gabriel begins as a small farmer with a watch that runs too fast or not at all, and he loses his flock and his prospects in a single stroke, falling to the position of bailiff on Bathsheba's land. He loves her without demanding return, warns her against Troy with a bluntness that costs him her favor, and endures being dismissed rather than abandon her. His practical loyalty becomes the moral anchor the story keeps returning to.

William Boldwood

major

Also known as Mr. Boldwood, Boldwood, Farmer Boldwood

Boldwood is the most substantial landowner in Weatherbury, a man so self-contained that his neighbors treat his feelings as a closed book, until a joke valentine from Bathsheba cracks him open. His love turns possessive and absolute, and he has no skill for courtship, only a battering-ram persistence that makes him both pitiable and dangerous. His fixation becomes the engine of the novel's darkest turns.

Frank Troy

major

Also known as Sergeant Troy, Troy, Francis Troy, Mr. Troy

Troy arrives in Weatherbury as an educated soldier whose charm and swordplay dazzle a town hungry for spectacle, and he pursues Bathsheba with a confidence that Gabriel Oak immediately distrusts. He carries a prior entanglement with Fanny Robin that he treats as disposable, and his recklessness with women's affections is matched only by his recklessness with his own future. He is the storm the novel's careful world is unprepared for.

Fanny Robin

supporting

Also known as Fanny, Fan, Little Fanny Robin, Fanny Robin Oak

Fanny is a former servant at the Everdene farm, soft-spoken and unlucky, who loved Sergeant Troy before Bathsheba ever met him and was left to bear the consequences alone. Her poverty and her silence make her nearly invisible to the parish, yet her story presses on Bathsheba's conscience and on the reader's sense of what Troy truly is. Her fate is the quiet tragedy against which the novel's grander passions are measured.

Liddy Smallbury

supporting

Also known as Liddy, Lydia Smallbury, Lydia

Liddy has been with Bathsheba through her troubles and remains the one person in the household to whom the mistress speaks freely, whether about marriage, Troy, or the rumors drifting through Weatherbury. She is shrewd in her simplicity and occasionally used as an unwitting source by Boldwood, who finds her far less pliable than he hopes. Her steady presence gives Bathsheba a rare outlet for honesty and gives the novel much of its warmth.

Jan Coggan

supporting

Also known as Mr. Jan Coggan, Mr. Coggan, Coggan

Coggan works the land at Weatherbury and lends his voice to the parish choir, moving easily among the men who gather at the maltster's for gossip and cider. When Sergeant Troy tosses a coin meant for Gabriel, Coggan catches it without shame and counsels his friend to keep a friendly face while nursing private distrust — a survival instinct born of knowing who holds power. His earthy realism and loyalty give the farmhands' world its texture, and his running commentary keeps the reader grounded in the community's shifting loyalties.

Joseph Poorgrass

supporting

Also known as Joseph, Poorgrass, neighbour Poorgrass

Poorgrass is the farm's resident worrier, a man so constitutionally bashful that even recounting his blushes brings him a mild, self-satisfied glow. His timidity and fondness for a drop of drink make him the butt of gentle teasing among the maltster's circle, yet he clings to a pious fatalism that lets him count himself fortunate. His comic misery and hesitant speech embody the rural fatalism Hardy observes with both affection and irony, and his misadventures in the fields and on errands add a note of pathos to the laborers' world.

Henery Fray

supporting

Also known as Henery, Fray

Fray works among the Weatherbury laborers but carries himself with a sense of injured merit, quick to complain that others are favored over him. His grumbling and readiness to voice what others only mutter make him a source of friction in the barn and the maltster's kitchen, where his opinions are heard but rarely heeded. He represents the petty jealousies and restless ambition that simmer beneath the surface of rural community life, and his discontent sharpens the reader's sense of the hierarchies that govern even the humblest characters.

Laban Tall

supporting

Also known as Laban, Tall

Laban works the fields at Weatherbury but his real trials begin at home, where his wife Susan's sharp tongue and domineering ways leave him little peace. When Gabriel and Coggan need to send a discreet message, they must navigate Mrs. Tall first, and Laban's absence from his own doorstep speaks volumes about the household order. His henpecked lot provides Hardy with some of the novel's driest comedy, while also underscoring the narrow, watchful world in which even a laborer's private life is common property.

Mark Clark

minor

Also known as Clark, Mr. Clark, Mr. Mark Clark

One of Bathsheba's farm workers, often seen in group scenes.

Benjy Pennyways

minor

Also known as Pennyways

Dishonest former bailiff of Bathsheba's farm, dismissed for theft.

Billy Smallbury

minor

Also known as Billy, William Smallbury, Smallbury

Elderly farmhand and father of Liddy, part of the Weatherbury community.

Matthew Moon

minor

Also known as Matthew, Moon

Aged farm laborer with a philosophical bent.

Cainy Ball

minor

Also known as Cainy, Cain Ball, Young Cain Ball

Young farm boy who works as a shepherd's assistant.

Maryann Money

minor

Also known as Maryann

Female servant at Bathsheba's farm, helps with household chores.

Sam Samway

minor

Also known as Samway

Farmhand who helps with sheep shearing and other tasks.

Susan Tall

minor

Also known as Susan, Mrs. Tall, Mrs. Susan Tall

Laban Tall's domineering wife, known for her sharp tongue.

George

minor

Also known as old George

An elderly farm worker mentioned in passing.

Mrs. Hurst

minor

A neighbor woman who appears at the sheep-washing.

Jacob Smallbury

minor

Also known as Jacob, Smallbury

Relative of Billy Smallbury, another farm worker.

Bob Coggan

minor

Also known as young Bob Coggan, Bob, Robin

Young relative of Jan Coggan, works on the farm.

Andrew Randle

minor

Also known as Andrew, Randle

A farm laborer who appears in group scenes.

Tom King

minor

Also known as Tom

A soldier and friend of Troy, briefly mentioned.

Mr. Aldritch

minor

A farmer who bids at the sheep fair.

Charlotte

minor

Also known as poor Charlotte

A servant girl at the farm, briefly mentioned.

Teddy Coggan

minor

Also known as little Teddy Coggan

Jan Coggan's young son.

Mr. Barker

minor

Also known as a young Mr. Barker

A young man who courts Bathsheba before the story begins.

John Everdene

minor

Also known as Mister Everdene, the late Mr. John Everdene

Bathsheba's deceased uncle who left her the farm.

Host Trencher

minor

Innkeeper at the Weatherbury inn.

Parson Thirdly

minor

Also known as Pa'son Thirdly

The local vicar who performs marriages and burials.