"Disputation Between Malevolent fatalism and Nature’s Agency: An Ecocentric Study in Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd"

Abstract : This paper re-evaluates the predominant discourses that , Hardy narrativizes man and woman thrown into a hostile world and the malevolent staging of coincidences and fatalism renders them helpless against the inescapable forces. The general perception is that , the characters must battle against the dangerous and often overpowering laws of nature and its creatures, even while the characters themselves become subject to conflicts among each other that mirror the difficulties of the hostile natural world. But an Ecocentric Study in Far From the Madding Crowd offers us a enlightening perspective, the nature emerges as the ultimate authority over the characters, dictating their life. An Ecocentric approach places intrinsic value in all life forms of nature and overcomes the narrow compartmentalization of anthropocentric and androcentric discourses. Nature, in the Far From the Madding Crowd, has agency to influence the characters and interfere in their course of life. Hardy’s portrayal of the agential capacity of Nature envisage how the intricately it controls the actions and destiny of the characters, and knits humans together with nature in an alliance of emotional and physical concord. Hardy’s narrative illustrates the essential interconnectedness among the beings of human society and nature. Keywords: Fatalism, Ecocentric, Anthropocentric, Androcentric, Agency .