“Every dog has his day”
Far from the Madding Crowd“Every dog has his day” is a proverb Boldwood invokes to interpret a remembered moment of good fortune, making the phrase an emblem of his enduring, unrequited attachment to Bathsheba. In their moonlit conversation, its apparent cheerfulness is shadowed by the lost future he still imagines might have been theirs.
The Proverb in Context
As Bathsheba and Boldwood ride home from the fair, Boldwood asks whether she will marry again. She answers that she has not seriously considered it: her husband’s death was never conclusively proved, and she does not regard remarriage as an immediate possibility. The exchange turns to the past, when Boldwood carried her, fainting, into the King’s Arms in Casterbridge. He then recalls the proverb: “Every dog has his day: that was mine.”
Fortune Remembered, Hope Renewed
For Boldwood, the saying names the occasion when he felt that events had briefly favored him. He remembers having been something to Bathsheba before her husband was, and having belonged almost to her. Yet that recollection rests on a fragile distinction: Bathsheba tells him that she did like and respect him, but cannot say clearly what she feels now. The proverb’s promise of a turn in fortune thus coexists with the knowledge that his hoped-for happiness never became secure.
Bathsheba’s tenderness during the ride is born of pity and regret. She recognizes that Boldwood’s devotion to her remains undiminished and wishes she could make amends for her past treatment of him. Her considerate manner gives fresh force to his hope, but the conversation offers no present commitment. She says she might marry him at some future time, while refusing to treat that possibility as a decision.
Meaning and Irony
The proverb conventionally promises that everyone will enjoy a moment of success. Boldwood’s application is intensely personal: his “day” was not a lasting change in his circumstances, but a remembered instant that he continues to revisit. The phrase therefore exposes the difference between a moment that seems to promise fulfillment and a life in which that promise remains unrealized. Its ordinary optimism becomes poignant in the mouth of a man still measuring the present against a lost possibility.
