Review

//A Book Review of// The Mayor of Casterbridge A Novel by Thomas Hardy Review by Katy Newton 



 German philosopher Novalis once said "Character is fate." This meaningful quote is used in English poet and author Thomas Hardy 's tragic story of //The Mayor of Casterbridge (The Life and Death of a Man of Character)//. It is mentioned when describing how the two title characters, Michael Henchard and Donald Farfrae, are foils of each other. Though written in 1886, both characters can arguably be compared to many current politicians. It is not unfair to say that a good amount of politicians, both past and present, have made their fair share of mistakes. Some try to cover them up and leave them in the past while others openly admit to their wrongdoings in order to move on to the future. Many would also argue that government is surrounded by secrecy and lies are used in order to make the general public happy as opposed to giving them the ugly truth. Both of these encompass the challenges faced by one of the main characters of the novel.

The story begins with Michael Henchard, a hay-trusser by day and heavy drinker by night. His family consists of his wife named Susan, though one would never tell it by their indifferent interactions with each other, and his innocent daughter Elizabeth-Jane. One day, the family heads to a fair in the Upper Wessex village Weydon-Priors. A seemingly average day at the fair quickly turns into a night that will destine the rest of his life for him. After engulfing rum-laced furmity, Henchard comes up with the outlandish idea to auction off his wife and daughter for money. They eventually get sold to a sailor by the name of Newsome for five guineas. Thus begins the start of Henchard's lifelong streak of unfortunate events.

Henchard later moves to the town of Casterbridge, where he becomes mayor many years later. His life seems to be in such a positive state that one would never guess his dark family history. Readers may find themselves wondering what can possibly happen next. Hardy quickly fixes this by bringing back Susan and Elizabeth-Jane. A hurricane of secrets surrounds the family as the novel progresses. Susan eventually passes away, leaving Elizabeth-Jane, a character on the verge of being the protagonist, alone and confused. A light at the end of the tunnel eventually arrives for Elizabeth-Jane in the form of mild-mannered Donald Farfrae. What appears as a beacon to Elizabeth-Jane serves as a foil for Henchard and continues to be a competitor for Henchard as Farfrae challenges everything he has fought for. When Henchard falls from greatness, Farfrae is patiently standing in the wings, ready to occupy whatever seat Henchard has left open in his life. Farfrae takes advantage of this as he gains the town's respect and eventually becomes the new mayor of Casterbridge. Henchard cannot escape falling back into his pattern of bad decisions and family deceit. In the end, it is both of the men's character that allows one to remain in good position and the other to suffer the consequences of his poor decision-making.

Hardy's two extreme character forces collide in the novel; showing just how much character impacts one's fate. Henchard, once a man with the highest standing in the town of Casterbridge, falls because of his misunderstood character. Buried inside of him were genuinely good intentions, yet Hardy shows that even the best of intentions cannot make up for badly thought-out, split decisions. Opposite of this is Farfrae, who expertly calculates his next step in order to attain success. He, unlike Henchard, makes sure that his kind-heartedness and good intentions are well-known throughout the town. This proves to be a winning combination for him when he achieves respect, power, and love, the last of which being what Hardy shows Henchard most starved of. Henchard may have acquired love from his daughter, and returned that love to the best of his ability, but what he continually lacks is love of himself, as this prevents him from being comfortable enough to admit his mistakes and speak the truth to others he cares about. Both men become mayor of Casterbridge, and both decide their eventual fate based on their character choices.

Happiness is not abound in this ultimately tragic tale of deception and fate. If the reader is looking for a feel-good book to take with them to the beach, they should avoid this dry tale of Hardy's. Though powerful in it's lessons, the novel lacks optimism throughout and has seldom happy moments. When there does happen to be a spark of happiness for one character, it is simply that, a spark that soon dies. Hardy allows the reader to see that one character may be on cloud nine, but then quickly shifts to another character's point-of-view and different situation to show that not everyone is completely content. This causes the narrative pace to be jumpy at times, which can both help and hinder the comprehension of the story-line. Many strings are left untied when reading page-by-page. New problems are announced and then not resolved until a somewhat annoying amount of chapters later. However, Hardy does manage to keep the reader turning the pages by filling the story to the brim, almost over-the-top, with twists and turns. This comes despite his slow-paced writing style similar to other writers of the time, such as Charles Dickens and //Heart of Darkness// author Joseph Conrad. Many argue that Hardy takes a century and a half of paragraphs to say what could easily be summarized in one thorough, clear sentence. If the reader can look past this one constant flaw in Hardy's writing, they can learn to feel emotion for the story and continue reading. They may not find it as easy to relate to the characters, as the main round characters are very firm in their stances and do not leave much to share in common with readers at times. The gem of this work comes in Hardy's clever and imaginative situation of Henchard selling his wife. A rarity in other pieces of literature, this specific mistake allows the reader to clearly see where Henchard's doomed fate stems from. While Henchard's fate is decided at the novel's ending, Farfrae and Elizabeth-Jane's story is sloppily thrown together with the strings very loosely tied to end it. The reader is left feeling, yet again, is this it? Indeed, this time, it is it, and the reader is left to analyze what Hardy's true message was of the novel. If anything, one lesson that will continually be easily deciphered lies in the obvious: be careful what you drink at the next county fair.



