Hardy’s vision is unrelentingly bleak, tragic, powerful, compelling, and masterfully executed. A Hardy-esque fate has him in its grasp and it won’t relinquish him. But he disappoints and lets himself down at every turn. We watch him struggle to be a better man. And, yet, somehow, he generates sympathy for him. In Henchard, Hardy has created a complex, nuanced character riddled with flaws, one who is gruff and unlikeable. His plot is carefully constructed with twists and turns, unexpected appearances, and failed attempts at expiation. He immerses the reader in rural Wessex and populates it with a motley crew of locals speaking in a dialect and diction barely intelligible to a modern reader. Hardy is masterful in establishing setting. The only characters permitted to have some modicum of a happy ending are those who are relatively blameless. Burdened with past mistakes, both characters die untimely deaths. There is no redemption for her or Henchard. Lucetta tries to bury her secret past and lead a respectable life with a man she loves. He is his own worst enemy and fails to see the good in others until it is too late.Īnother character haunted by past transgressions is Lucetta. His attempts to be good are thwarted at every turn. He no sooner regrets a past action when he has plunged himself headlong into another morass. Henchard constantly tries to be a better man, but he comes up short mainly due to his arrogance, pride, and quick temper. What follows is a series of challenging events, love triangles, unfortunate circumstances, secrets, past transgressions, regrets, and mistaken identities. This is Hardy, and his Henchard will not be let off so easily. He re-marries his wife to give their relationship the cloak of respectability. When his wife shows up with her now fully grown daughter, Henchard tries to make amends. As penance for his actions, he abstains from drink for two decades, works hard, succeeds in business, and eventually becomes the respectable mayor of Casterbridge. Full of remorse when he realizes what he’s done, he spends the next few years searching for them.
The novel opens with an infamous scene in which Michael Henchard, in a drunken stupor, sells his wife and young daughter to the highest bidder. happiness was but the occasional episode in a general drama of pain.” These words sum up the tenor of the novel. Thomas Hardy concludes The Mayor of Casterbridge with the following words: “.
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