The convoluted relationships that characterize much of the novel are an example of a madding crowd, not distance from it. Also, Hardy describes how industrialization and urbanization are changing rural life at a pace at which they may be beginning to converge. The madding crowd is infiltrating the peaceful pastoral landscapes, while the people of the fields are finding it harder and harder to find employment practicing their traditional ways of life. Farming is becoming a business rather than as a way to sustain the local community. Money and wealth acquisition are becoming important to people who were farmers content with healthy crop seasons. Names like Poorgrass, Pennyways, and Maryann Money are farcical ways of describing the role of wealth on all strata of society, impacting social class status. Hardy also seems to suggest that issues related to money, work, and romance are common to all of humanity.

Even if Gabriel and the other farmers don't live in a "cool sequester'd vale of life," their experiences are global in perspective. Issues common to all of humanity including passion, love, and romance, are as disrupting in village life as they are in the city center. Rural life is at once madding and peaceful.

Moreover, Hardy's novel is not just about life as a farmer. The title is as much about...

The book is a tragic-comedy-romance that draws on Shakespearean themes of unrequited love, deception, and mistaken identity. These themes, common to all strata of humanity, are the symbolic "madding crowd." Thus, title Far From the Madding Crowd can also be viewed as a symbolic one.
Ultimately, Hardy's title is well-chosen. Characters like Gabriel Oak exemplify the ideal of rural living: he is honest, upright, and loyal to his friends. His character is so far, so detached, from what most people know of humanity that Gabriel comes across as being nearly angelic. As the one character who is truly far from the madding crowd, Gabriel Oak exemplifies the bit of idealism that Hardy embeds into the novel.

The title of Hardy's book could pertain only to Gabriel and still remain a relevant one. In fact, the title also appeals to the part of all readers that longs for Gabriel's ideal and for the innocence of a nostalgic past. Being far from the madding crowd implies a sense of peace and trust in fellow human beings. As Hardy suggests, it is difficult to achieve peace even in the middle of the countryside. The title of the novel therefore suggests that it may be impossible to achieve peace, given that it may never have existed in the first place.