The Mayor of

Casterbridge
Study Guide by Course Hero

TENSE
What's Inside The Mayor of Casterbridge is narrated in the past tense.

ABOUT THE TITLE

j Book Basics ................................................................................................. 1 The title The Mayor of Casterbridge refers to the tale's
protagonist, Michael Henchard, who becomes mayor of the
d In Context ..................................................................................................... 1 fictional town of Casterbridge—a setting centrally important to
the plot and described in painstaking detail. The novel's full
a Author Biography ..................................................................................... 3
original title, The Life and Death of the Mayor of Casterbridge: A
h Characters .................................................................................................. 4 Story of a Man of Character, reveals Henchard's fate and
indicates he has a strong and perhaps unconventional
k Plot Summary ............................................................................................. 7 personality.

c Chapter Summaries ............................................................................... 11

g Quotes ........................................................................................................ 30
d In Context
l Symbols ..................................................................................................... 33

m Themes ...................................................................................................... 34
Victorian Treatment of Women
e Suggested Reading .............................................................................. 35
The reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901) marked the high point
of British power and prosperity. The Industrial Revolution
(1760–1840), which replaced human labor with machine power
j Book Basics in many industries, was at its height. Largely thanks to the
power and reach of the British navy, the nation's colonizing
AUTHOR efforts spanned the globe. According to a popular adage, the
Thomas Hardy British Empire held "dominions, on which the sun never sets."

YEAR PUBLISHED British global supremacy in the second half of the 19th century
1886 had numerous implications on the home front as well. A rigid
social code became even more established in a culture where
GENRE class divisions had long been ingrained. Families were strongly
Tragedy patriarchal, with women and children relegated to silence and
obedience. Institutions such as the monarchy, the nobility, the
PERSPECTIVE AND NARRATOR
military, and the church were rarely questioned. Responsibility
The Mayor of Casterbridge is narrated through a sympathetic
and respectability were supreme virtues. There were
third-person omniscient point of view. The narrator knows the
occasional political reforms, however, and science did
characters thoroughly and is understanding of their
progress, as with English naturalist Charles Darwin's landmark
weaknesses or mistakes.
work On the Origin of Species (1859).
The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide
Hardy challenged virtually all the social norms of his era,
especially the sanctity of marriage, the rigidity of class
distinctions, and the Victorian treatment of women.
In the Victorian era women were commonly stereotyped as
physically weaker but also morally superior to men. The sexes
were typically entrenched in separate spheres. The women's
sphere was the home, and the men's was the workplace—a
factory, a shop, or an office. This separation meant husbands
and wives could pass the entire day, from breakfast till dinner,
without meeting.
Women's education made some advances during this period,
and in the latter part of the century the elite universities of
Oxford and Cambridge began to admit women. As a woman,
though, one had to toe a fine line between self-improving
"accomplishments" and appearing to be a "bluestocking"—the
term describing women who were overly intellectual. It was
also important not to angle too openly for a husband.
In The Mayor of Casterbridge Hardy presents three major
female characters. They offer an interesting study in contrasts.
Lucetta Templeman is the most stubborn in her quest for
independence and prestige, while Susan Henchard and
Elizabeth-Jane Newson are more equable. Only Elizabeth-Jane
ends up achieving happiness.
Placement among Literary
Movements
Realism
The literary movement known as realism played an important
role in Hardy's fiction. Participation in the realist movement
signified a writer's or artist's readiness to present life as it was
actually lived by a broad spectrum of society. Serious fiction
was not confined to the upper classes, nor was it limited to an
idealized portrait of human beings and their behavior.
In The Mayor of Casterbridge Hardy's realism is evident in his
portrayals of Michael Henchard and Lucetta Templeman. Both
are many-sided characters whose traits and actions reveal
numerous conflicts. They strike the reader as real people, with
both virtues and flaws. Another aspect of Hardy's realism is his
detailed description of local places in and around
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In Context 2
Casterbridge.
Modernism
In modernist works, novelists and poets, as well as composers
and artists, displayed a conscious break with traditional styles
and forms. Modernist writers were experimental to a
significant degree, and some of them reflected the influence of
newly developed theories of social and individual behavior,
such as the theories of German philosopher Karl Marx and
Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud.
In The Mayor of Casterbridge Hardy takes an unconventional
stance toward marriage, as well as a pessimistic outlook on
human destiny and behavior. For example, it is doubtful any
19th-century British novelist before Hardy would have termed
life as a "general drama of pain."
Hardy's Wessex
With Far From the Madding Crowd (1874), Hardy made an
important decision regarding his literary canon. He created a
setting that was both real and fictional. For the rest of his
career as a novelist, he set his stories in the region of Wessex,
a fictionalized landscape closely resembling his native county
of Dorset. This literary device afforded him significant
advantages:
He could infuse his novels and short stories with appealing
local color through traditional folkways and dialect.
He could critique social prejudice and injustice without
unduly offending real-life culprits.
He could appeal to familiar character types and landscapes
while bathing them in a somewhat unfamiliar and alluring
light.
The title of Hardy's novel suggests the town of Casterbridge,
located in Wessex County, will share the spotlight, and the
author obliges by offering a broad variety of descriptions of
streets, inns, nearby roads, and landmarks such as the Ring, an
ancient Roman amphitheater.
After Hardy, major novelists who adopted such a strategy for
setting included the American writer William Faulkner
(1897–1962), who set many of his novels in fictional
Yoknapatawpha County in Mississippi, and the Indian novelist
R.K. Narayan (1906–2001), whose works unfolded in fictional
The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide
Malgudi, a small town in South India.
a Author Biography
Early Life
Thomas Hardy was born in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset, in
southwestern England, on June 2, 1840. He was the first child
of Jemima and Thomas Sr., arriving five months after his
parents' marriage. His mother, a domestic servant, and his
father, a stonemason, were working-class country people.
However, Hardy's intelligent and ambitious mother wanted a
better life for her son, so she sent him to the best school
available, in the nearby town of Dorchester. Hardy's family
could not afford a university education, but after he graduated
at 16, his mother arranged for him to be apprenticed to an
architect so he could transition into the professional class.
Hardy's working-class origins caused him anxiety, but his early
immersion into the rhythms of nature, oral culture, and folk
traditions had a profound effect on his second and third
careers as novelist and poet.
Early Career
After leaving school Hardy became an apprentice to local
architect John Hicks. In 1862 he moved to London, where he
was employed as a draftsman in the office of a leading
ecclesiastical architect, working on gothic churches and
rectory houses and participating in the culture of the great
metropolis of London. Hardy spent his spare time teaching
himself about poetry, experimenting with verse forms, and
studying Greek. For a time, he had ambitions of obtaining a
university education and becoming an Anglican priest, but he
realized in 1866 the notion was "farfetched," as he told his
sister Mary. Ill health drove him back to the country in 1867,
and he was rehired by Hicks. He then fell in love with his 16-
year-old cousin, Tryphena Sparks, an apprentice teacher who
later became headmistress at a girls' school in Plymouth. The
relationship eventually faded as they spent less time together.
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Author Biography 3
Early Prose Works and
Marriage
Hardy considered himself primarily a poet, not a novelist,
throughout his career. He wrote poetry in the 1860s but could
not get any of his work published, so he turned to novel writing
in 1867. The Poor Man and the Lady, his first attempt in the
medium, was rejected because it was too critical of the status
quo—Hardy called it a "striking socialistic novel." His second
attempt, Desperate Remedies, was meant to be commercial
and sensationalistic; it was published in 1871. Hardy slowly
began to build his reputation, publishing Under the Greenwood
Tree in 1872.
He was still working as an architect in 1870 when he met his
wife, Emma Lavinia Gifford. Emma was the daughter of a
lawyer, which put her socially above Hardy, an architectural
skilled laborer. He had to wait four years to marry her because
her family did not approve of her marriage to someone of a
lower class. They married in September 1874. Initially a happy
couple, they remained childless and eventually became
estranged. Toward the end of her life, Emma became a devout
Evangelical, a troublesome issue in the marriage as Hardy
moved toward skepticism and atheism.
Literary Success
Hardy became a full-time writer in 1872, when he serialized his
next novel, A Pair of Blue Eyes. The next work, Far from the
Madding Crowd (1874), introduced Wessex, the semifictional
region based on the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom of
Wessex—full of real cities and places—where his mature
novels would be set. From then on, Hardy became more and
more successful as a fiction writer, publishing 10 novels and 50
short stories from 1876 to 1895. His later and most famous
novels come from this period: The Return of the Native (1878),
The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), The Woodlanders (1887),
Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895).
As a novelist Hardy was forced to tone down his work to avoid
offending readers with his frank depictions of sexual
relationships and criticism of Victorian hypocrisy. His serialized
novels were less explicit than the published volumes, and he
allowed his editors, in some instances, to pare away what the
public might find objectionable in the published volumes.
The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide
Although Tess of the d'Urbervilles did receive some good
reviews, it was widely criticized for its perceived sexual
immorality. But if some critics were repelled by Tess of the
d'Urbervilles with its pessimistic determinism (belief in the
absence of free will) and overtly sexual subject matter, most
critics were outraged by Jude the Obscure. The latter novel
was darker, more shocking, and overtly condemnatory of both
class structure and conventional morality.
Later Years
Beginning in 1885 Hardy lived in Max Gate, a house he
designed and built by his father and brother. His wife Emma
died in November 1912 after a long period of estrangement
between the couple. Hardy was much affected and tended to
idealize their early relationship in subsequent poetry, to the
mortification of his second wife, Florence Dugdale. After the
reception of Jude the Obscure, which was materially
successful but much maligned by the critics, Hardy abandoned
fiction and wrote only poetry.
Hardy married Dugdale, his secretary—nearly 40 years his
junior—14 months after his first wife's death. She had worked
for Hardy for nearly 10 years and was his nominal
biographer—although Hardy in reality wrote most of his
biography. In all, Hardy produced eight volumes of poetry and
some 900 poems over more than 30 years. He was fortunate
to gain recognition as a great writer and early modernist in his
lifetime and was courted by the next generation of writers,
including English poet Robert Graves and English novelist
Virginia Woolf. He received honorary doctorates from
Cambridge and Oxford as well as other literary honors. He died
on January 11, 1928. In a macabre turn of events worthy of
Hardy's fiction, his heart was buried with his first wife, Emma,
among the family graves. The rest of his remains were
cremated and interred next to English novelist Charles Dickens
in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey—an appropriate
resting place for one of the most widely read Victorian writers.
h Characters
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Characters 4
Michael Henchard
Henchard begins the novel with a smashing blow at social
convention, putting his wife and child up for auction. He then
swears a solemn vow not to touch alcohol for 21 years. By dint
of self-control and hard work, he becomes wealthy and
influential. But he then suffers reverses—financial, social, and
personal—that leave him a lonely wanderer who dies in a poor
cottage. Is Henchard a tragic hero? Hardy suggests he is.
Henchard is acutely aware of his character flaws, but in the
end he cannot overcome them.
Susan Henchard
Susan is portrayed as meek and pliable. To a remarkable
degree she submits to Henchard's dominating nature.
However, Hardy hints Susan is capable of some initiative. For
example, she writes notes in an effort to unite her daughter,
Elizabeth-Jane, with Donald Farfrae.
Elizabeth-Jane Newson
Elizabeth-Jane is the most balanced and morally principled of
the novel's major characters. Respectability and propriety are
her watchwords. She contrasts strongly with Michael
Henchard and Lucetta Templeman, who both have impulsive
natures.
Donald Farfrae
Farfrae has many of the traits Henchard sorely lacks:
practicality and discretion, to name a couple. In a series of
situational ironies, Farfrae displaces Henchard on nearly every
front: in marriage, in wealth, and as mayor of Casterbridge, and
he earns Henchard's obsessive jealousy.
Lucetta Templeman
Lucetta appeals to the reader's sympathy because she refuses
to conform strictly to convention. On the other hand, she is
portrayed as somewhat petulant, self-centered, and
manipulative.
The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide Characters 5

Character Map

Susan Henchard
Meek woman; sold at auction

Mother
Spouses

Michael Henchard Elizabeth-Jane

Lucetta Templeman
Impulsive, angry grain Newson
Impulsive young woman Stepfather
merchant; town mayor Sensible, affectionate woman

Friends
turned rivals Second
Spouses
wife

Donald Farfrae
Practical, resourceful
newcomer

Main Character

Other Major Character

Minor Character

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The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide
Full Character List
Character Description
Michael Henchard, the novel's
protagonist, is impulsive, domineering,
and stern. Although he achieves great
Michael
financial success and social status,
Henchard
he repeatedly acts as his own worst
enemy, destroying all that matters to
him.
Susan Henchard is Michael
Susan Henchard's wife. Eighteen years after
Henchard he sells her at auction, Susan tracks
Henchard down, and they remarry.
Elizabeth-​Jane is Susan Henchard's
daughter. For some time Michael
Elizabeth-​Jane
Henchard believes he is Elizabeth-
Newson
Jane's father, but her real father is
the sea captain Richard Newson.
Donald Farfrae is Henchard's
opposite in many ways. Hailing from
Scotland, he is at first an outsider in
Donald Farfrae
Casterbridge, but his hard work,
friendly nature, and discretion win him
social approval and influence.
Lucetta (Le Sueur) Templeman, in
many ways the opposite of Elizabeth-
Jane, is strikingly similar to Henchard,
Lucetta
with whom she had an affair. Like him,
Templeman
she is impulsive and outspoken, and
like him she dies a dramatic and
unhappy death.
Mrs. Bath is a newcomer to
Casterbridge who has married a local
Mrs. Bath
physician. She is portrayed as
something of a gossip.
Like Mrs. Bath, Mrs. Blowbody is a
Mrs. Blowbody
local gossip.
Boldwood is a "reserved young man"
Boldwood who is present at Michael Henchard's
bankruptcy proceedings.
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Characters 6
Buzzford is a local grain dealer in
Casterbridge. He is involved in
Buzzford
planning the skimmity-​ride that
destroys Lucetta.
Charl, a poor local man, is a close
companion of Joe and helps lead the
Charl
skimmity-​ride to shame Henchard and
Lucetta.
Christopher Coney is an important
Christopher local character who periodically
Coney comments on the action in Wessex
dialect.
Mother Cuxsom is part of a group of
local characters including
Mother Cuxsom Christopher Coney and Solomon
Longways. She helps to plan the
skimmity-​ride.
James Everdene is a farmer from
James Weatherbury who believes Henchard
Everdene should be allowed to keep his gold
watch in the bankruptcy proceedings.
Mr. Fall is a local weather prophet
Mr. Fall consulted by the superstitious
Henchard.
Mrs. Goodenough is the lady in
charge of the furmity tent at Weydon-
Mrs. Priors fair. Halfway through the novel,
Goodenough she makes a spectacular
reappearance, disclosing Henchard's
shameful past.
Mr. Grower is one of Henchard's
creditors. He also serves as a witness
Mr. Grower
at the wedding of Donald Farfrae and
Lucetta.
Joe is a local character who is a
Joe
comrade of Charl.
Joshua Jopp is a local foreman, or
manager, who has a malicious,
Joshua Jopp vindictive relationship with Henchard.
Jopp is one of the chief instigators of
the skimmity-​ride.
The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide Plot Summary 7

After a gap of 18 years, Henchard's wife, Susan, and her

Lawyer Joyce is the town clerk of
Lawyer Joyce Casterbridge. He warns Farfrae that
Henchard now hates him.
Solomon Longways is a local who is
Solomon
part of a group with Christopher
Longways
Coney and Mother Cuxsom.
daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, track Henchard down. Through hard
work and iron self-discipline, he has become wealthy and
socially influential as the mayor of Casterbridge, the principal
town in the region of Wessex. Susan agrees to remarry him.
Henchard also befriends Donald Farfrae, a young newcomer
from Scotland, who helps Henchard to prosper in business.

Nance Mockridge is a local character
Nance who advocates the skimmity-​ride. She
Mockridge is portrayed as saucy, envious, and
disrespectful.
Soon, however, Henchard and Farfrae part ways, becoming
bitter rivals. Susan becomes ill, and shortly before her death
she writes a letter to Henchard, telling him Elizabeth-Jane is
not really his daughter. Her father is the sea captain Richard

Richard Newson is the sea captain
who "buys" Susan Henchard and her
infant child in Chapter 1 of the novel.
Richard Newson
He reappears toward the end of the
story. He is portrayed as genial and
appealing.
Mrs. Stannidge is the landlady at the
Mrs. Stannidge
Three Mariners Inn.
Constable Constable Stubberd is a local police
Stubberd officer.
Alderman Tubber is a local official
Alderman who nettles Henchard about the
Tubber failure of Henchard's planned holiday
entertainment.
Alderman Vatt is a local official who
Alderman Vatt sounds out Farfrae on the issue of his
selection as mayor.
Abel Whittle is a humble employee in
Henchard's business associate whom
Abel Whittle Henchard bullies and humiliates.
Henchard dies in Whittle's poor,
simple cottage.
Newson, the man who bought Susan at auction. Henchard is
powerfully disillusioned and comes to treat Elizabeth-Jane with
cold indifference.
A new character now enters the picture: Lucetta Templeman.
Lucetta and Henchard were romantically linked in the past.
Henchard presses this claim, but Lucetta is captivated instead
by young Donald Farfrae. Her shift of affections enrages
Henchard, and he becomes obsessed with ruining Farfrae to
get his revenge.
Henchard miscalculates, however, and suffers huge losses in
the grain business, while Farfrae prospers. Henchard is finally
forced to declare bankruptcy. He also becomes a social
outcast when everyone learns he sold Susan at auction.
Meanwhile, local envy and gossip lead to Lucetta's downfall as
well. Both she and Henchard are publicly humiliated in a
"skimmity-ride," a raucous procession organized to bring
disgrace on people suspected of adultery or other sexual
laxity. Lucetta is so unnerved she becomes fatally ill.
After Lucetta's death, Farfrae and Elizabeth-Jane are married.
This is the last straw for Henchard, now an impoverished,
embittered wanderer. He dies a lonely death in a poor cottage.

k Plot Summary
Michael Henchard, the novel's protagonist, is a young, hot-
tempered hay-trusser (someone who composes hay into
bundles or bales, also called trusses). While intoxicated at a
village fair, he impulsively sells his wife and infant child at
auction for the sum of five guineas. Waking up the next day, he
experiences extreme remorse and makes a solemn vow not to
touch alcohol for the next 21 years.

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The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide Plot Summary 8

Plot Diagram

Climax

7
Falling Action
6
Rising Action
5 8

4
9
3
Resolution
2
1

Introduction

7. After the town mocks Lucetta and Henchard, Lucetta dies.

Introduction

1. Michael Henchard sells his wife and child at a fair.

Falling Action

8. Elizabeth-Jane's father appears; she and Farfrae marry.

Rising Action

2. Henchard's wife comes to Casterbridge and remarries him.

Resolution
3. Henchard hires and then quarrels with Donald Farfrae.
9. Henchard dies a miserable death in a poor cottage.
4. Henchard's old flame, Lucetta, marries Farfrae.

5. The furmity-woman reveals Henchard's shameful past.

6. Lucetta's love letters to Henchard become publicly known.

Climax

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The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide Plot Summary 9

Timeline of Events

Around 1830

Michael Henchard impulsively sells his wife, Susan, and

infant daughter at a country fair.

18 years later

Susan Henchard and her daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, come

to Casterbridge, where Henchard is now a wealthy
mayor.

Soon after

Henchard hires Donald Farfrae as his business manager.

Some months later

Henchard and Farfrae quarrel and split up.

Soon after

Susan, remarried to Henchard, falls ill and dies;

Henchard learns he's not Elizabeth-Jane's father.

Soon after

Lucetta Templeman, an old flame of Henchard's, moves

to Casterbridge.

Soon after

In court the furmity-woman reveals Henchard's shameful

past.

Harvest time

Lucetta and Farfrae are secretly married.

Soon after

Henchard's oath of abstinence expires and he resumes

drinking.

Soon after

Malicious townsfolk stage a skimmity-ride to disgrace

Henchard and Lucetta for their affair.

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The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide Plot Summary 10

Soon after

Richard Newson, Elizabeth-Jane's real father, appears in

Casterbridge.

About a year later

Henchard, impoverished and homeless, dies a lonely

death in Abel Whittle's shabby cottage.

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The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide
c Chapter Summaries
Author's Preface
Summary
Writing in the years 1895 to 1912, some years after The Mayor
of Casterbridge was published (in 1886), Thomas Hardy
comments on several aspects of the novel. He notes younger
readers may have no vivid memories of economic conditions in
the 1830s and 40s, when the story is set. In particular,
uncertain harvests and heavy speculation characterized the
home corn trade, which was a key part of the British economy.
Trade in wheat, rye, and barley was long subject to intense
regulation. Imports were taxed, and exports were penalized.
These regulations, known as the Corn Laws, were relaxed and
ultimately suspended in favor of free trade during the mid-to-
late 1840s.
In the preface Hardy also mentions the sale of a wife by her
husband, which constitutes the novel's dramatic opening, as a
historical event. In addition, he mentions some editorial
changes prompted by the appearance of the novel in an
American edition.
Finally, Hardy comments on the dialogue he devised for Donald
Farfrae, one of the novel's most important characters. In the
story, Farfrae is said to hail from Scotland. Some of Hardy's
critics, however, noted the dialect expressions Hardy employs
are not authentically Scottish. Along with some counter-
testimony, Hardy offers an ingenious justification. Farfrae's
language, he declares, was not intended to reproduce Scottish
pronunciation with complete accuracy, but only to illustrate
how his accent and dialect would have appeared to
"southerners," namely people who lived farther south in
England.
Analysis
Hardy's preface is noteworthy because of its emphasis on the
novel's historical background. This emphasis does not imply
the writer was totally wedded to historical fact; rather, it
indicates he built his fiction on a generally authentic social and
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Chapter Summaries 11
economic scaffolding. The Corn Laws and their repeal were
major economic facts of life during the period of the novel's
action. They would have dominated people's existence in an
agricultural center like the town of Casterbridge. Both
Henchard and Farfrae make their living and operate
businesses in this sector of agriculture, and Henchard's rise
and fall as well as Farfrae's are closely linked with the
fluctuations Hardy notes.
The preface is also notable because it conveys the author's
scrupulous attention to detail. No aspect of language or
incident, no minor inconsistency between editions, seems to
escape Hardy's attention. The preface, despite its relative
brevity, gives a picture of Hardy as a "writer's writer."
Chapters 1–2
Summary
Chapter 1
The setting for the novel's opening scene is southwestern
England in the 1820s. On an afternoon in late summer, a young
hay-trusser—someone who composes hay into bundles or
bales, also called trusses—approaches the town of Weydon-
Priors, accompanied by his wife and their infant daughter. From
their silence and body language, it is easy to surmise the
spouses are estranged to some degree.
Weydon-Priors is celebrating Fair Day. The young family enters
a tent in which an older woman dispenses furmity, a type of
local porridge. The hay-trusser consumes increasing amounts
of this drink, laced with rum, and grows argumentative. The
spiel of an auctioneer selling old horses outside suggests a
plan to the hay-trusser: he will put his wife on the block for
sale. Their two years of marriage have brought him nothing but
trouble, he declares.
At first the locals chortle at what they assume is a joke, but
soon they realize the young husband, named Michael, is not
jesting. As tension mounts between the husband and his wife, a
buyer steps forward, offering five guineas for both wife and
child. Before she leaves, the young wife flings her wedding ring
in the husband's face. The tent clears out, and the young
husband drifts into a drunken slumber.
The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide
Chapter 2
The next morning the young man, whose full name is Michael
Henchard, awakens in a haze of dim memories. Slowly he
pieces together the previous afternoon's events. Full of
contrition and shame, he makes his way to a church and
swears a solemn oath not to touch strong liquor for the next 21
years—one year for each year of his current age. Then he
begins a months-long search for his wife and child.
Analysis
In 1886, when Hardy first published The Mayor of Casterbridge,
the novel's opening chapter must have struck readers as
revolutionary. Hardy's treatment of the theme of marriage was
highly unconventional throughout most of his career as a
novelist. The portraits of marriage in The Return of the Native,
Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and Jude the Obscure, for example,
grow steadily more dark and pessimistic. Chapter 1 of The
Mayor of Casterbridge encapsulates Hardy's view of marriage
as a far-from-blissful union. This view was in stark contrast to
Victorian orthodoxy.
In these opening chapters Hardy establishes his protagonist's
character traits, which will alter very little throughout the novel.
Michael Henchard is impulsive, headstrong, and combative. His
inebriation is his downfall; by the same token, his shame and
repentance are also outsized. Hardy's subtitle for the novel
was "A Story of a Man of Character." It is doubtful if anyone
meeting Henchard would soon forget him. This supposition is
later borne out in Chapter 28 when, many years later, the
furmity-woman steps forward to disclose Henchard's past
actions, bringing an abrupt end to his burnished reputation in
Casterbridge.
Scholars have found a historical basis for both Henchard's
wife-selling and his solemn oath of abstinence from liquor.
Hardy seems to have gleaned these details from the Dorset
County Chronicle (1826–1829).
Chapters 3–4
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Chapter Summaries 12
Summary
Chapter 3
This chapter takes up the story after a gap of 18 years. In a
mirror image of the conclusion of Chapter 2, when Michael
Henchard was searching for his wife and child, Susan
Henchard and her daughter Elizabeth-Jane are now searching
for the man who sold them off to a stranger. Their path leads
them to Weydon-Priors, where they encounter the furmity-
woman. Susan has not disclosed the whole truth of their past
to Elizabeth-Jane. In Susan's partial account, Henchard is not
Elizabeth-Jane's father; he is a "connection by marriage."
Elizabeth-Jane believes her father is the sailor Richard
Newson, the man who bought them at auction 18 years earlier,
and Susan hasn't denied it.
The furmity-woman, Mrs. Goodenough, directs Susan and
Elizabeth-Jane to Casterbridge, the region's major town and
farming center. Although many years have passed since she
encountered Michael Henchard, she remembers he was
headed there. Susan resolves to go there and seek her former
husband.
Chapter 4
After a considerable journey, Susan and Elizabeth-Jane arrive
in Casterbridge. In a mini-flashback, readers learn Richard
Newson, Elizabeth-Jane's supposed father, has been reported
as lost at sea and is now presumed dead. For reasons of pride,
Susan has kept Elizabeth-Jane in a "half-informed state."
Analysis
In Chapter 3 Hardy initiates what will turn out to be one of the
novel's major strands: the theme of deception. This theme,
which will involve nearly all the characters, will range from
outright mendacity to partial truth to suppression of the whole
truth, and Hardy will create many variations on it. For the
moment, deception involves Susan's deliberate concealment of
Michael Henchard's true identity and of his relationship to her
and to Elizabeth-Jane.
Two of Hardy's most important literary techniques in the novel
are allusion and irony. Allusions are references to historical or
The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide
mythological events, passages in literature, places, or people a
writer expects his or her audience to recognize. An example
occurs early in Chapter 4: "It had seemed, indeed, folly to think
of making Elizabeth-Jane wise." Hardy's reference is to a semi-
proverbial passage in a well-known poem by Thomas Gray:
"where ignorance is bliss/'Tis folly to be wise" ("Ode on a
Distant Prospect of Eton College," 1747).
In The Mayor of Casterbridge, as in all his novels, Hardy also
makes extensive use of irony, which may be defined as a
pointed contrast between what seems to be true and what is
true, or between what one expects to happen and what does
happen. In Chapter 3, for example, Susan's dialogue with
Elizabeth-Jane concerning Henchard employs dramatic irony:
readers are aware of something of which one or more
characters remain ignorant. In this case, readers know of
Henchard's relationship to Susan and Elizabeth-Jane, but
Elizabeth-Jane does not.
Chapters 5–6
Summary
Chapter 5
Susan and Elizabeth-Jane make their way to the King's Arms,
the chief hotel in Casterbridge, where a great public dinner is in
progress. The center of attention is Michael Henchard, who is
now the mayor of the town. Henchard, a picture of prosperity
and influence, has a loud, boisterous laugh. Amazed at the
sight of him, and the changes "Time the magician" has wrought,
Susan experiences a wave of anxiety. Elizabeth-Jane, on the
other hand, is brightly optimistic about the prospect of
protection and aid from such a powerful figure as Henchard.
From the dialogue of some of the locals, readers learn
Henchard has remained true to his vow to abstain from liquor.
The locals also tell Elizabeth-Jane that Henchard has achieved
his prominent position through hard work and a focus on
building his career. At the end of Chapter 5, however, a note of
conflict arises when Henchard's irascible temper is provoked
by complaints about the sale of inferior grain.
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Chapter Summaries 13
Chapter 6
A stranger appears at the festivities. Hailing from Scotland, he
happens to overhear Henchard's retort concerning the sale of
bad grain. He immediately writes a note and asks for it to be
delivered to the mayor. He then departs in the direction of a
more modestly priced hotel, the Three Mariners Inn.
Concerned about expense, Susan and Elizabeth-Jane repair to
the same destination to find lodging for the night. Intrigued by
the note from Farfrae, Henchard also finds his way to the
Three Mariners.
Analysis
The centerpiece of Chapter 5 is the description of Michael
Henchard as he appears 18 years after he auctioned off his
wife and daughter. He is now a prosperous and influential
figure, a "pillar of the town," in the phrase of the local resident
Solomon Longways. The locals single out hard work and
determination as two of his chief character traits. He has, in
fact, abided by his solemn oath not to touch liquor for 21 years.
But Hardy subjects this rosy picture to some crosscurrents.
For example, Susan and Elizabeth-Jane have quite different
reactions to Henchard—not surprising, given Henchard's harsh
treatment of his wife when Elizabeth-Jane was only an infant.
The narrator also speculates on the nature and effects of
Henchard's loud laugh, portending a temperament "which
would have no pity for weakness." The narrator uses the terms
"fitful" and "aggressive" and questions whether Henchard has
any goodness in his nature.
These hints accord with Henchard's irritated reaction when
complaints are voiced about the sale of inferior grain. The
narrator refers to "temper under the bland surface" and
explicitly refers to Henchard's sale of his wife "nearly a score
of years before." Despite all the changes in his outer
circumstances, one can reasonably infer Henchard's nature
remains impulsive and potentially fiery at its core.
In Chapter 6 Donald Farfrae, the stranger from Scotland,
makes his first appearance. Throughout the novel Farfrae will
be portrayed as a character foil to Henchard. The two men's
similarities and differences will dominate much of the tale's
dramatic action. Significantly, as with Henchard earlier, Hardy
delays identifying Farfrae until the middle of Chapter 7, as if
implying the character and his actions will be the source of
The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide
considerable suspense in the story.
Chapters 7–8
Summary
Chapter 7
This chapter features the first meeting of Michael Henchard
and Donald Farfrae. In an interesting twist, the room layout at
the Three Mariners allows Susan and Elizabeth-Jane to
overhear the two men's conversation. Farfrae tells Henchard
he is happy to give the mayor suggestions about a method for
remedying the problems with the grain quality. Henchard
effusively offers Farfrae a job, but the Scotchman replies he is
determined to travel and see the world. Henchard persists,
however, and he candidly refers to his youthful errors and his
former overindulgence in strong drink.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth-Jane helps to pay for her and Susan's
accommodation at the Three Mariners by assisting the
landlady and staff in waiting on clients.
Chapter 8
Chapter 8 centers on various characters' reactions to Farfrae.
Elizabeth-Jane, who is fond of music, is especially impressed
by the young Scotchman's singing voice. The locals encourage
Farfrae's singing of ballads, and he gives a rendition of Robert
Burns's famous song "Auld Lang Syne." An encounter between
Elizabeth-Jane and Farfrae strongly foreshadows a deeper
relationship later in the novel. Meanwhile, Henchard closes the
chapter by registering extreme regret about Farfrae traveling
to America, declaring to himself he would have offered Farfrae
a third of the business to remain in Casterbridge.
Analysis
These chapters continue the juxtaposition of Michael
Henchard and Donald Farfrae. Whereas Henchard is impulsive,
dogged, and occasionally gloomy, Farfrae has a light touch. His
youthful enthusiasm, his courtesy, and his distant origins all
have the effect of captivating the locals, and Elizabeth-Jane
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Chapter Summaries 14
finds him especially appealing.
The contrast between the two personalities is crystallized
toward the end of Chapter 7, when Henchard asks what he
should pay Farfrae for disclosing the method to improve the
quality of Henchard's grain. "Nothing at all, nothing at all,"
replies Farfrae. "I don't value it at all." It is difficult to imagine
Henchard voicing the same sentiments.
Chapters 9–10
Summary
Chapter 9
Donald Farfrae's departure from Casterbridge is imminent.
Henchard proposes they take a walk together before saying
farewell. Meanwhile, Susan decides to send Elizabeth-Jane to
Henchard to tell him his relative, a sailor's widow, has arrived in
Casterbridge. Susan's motives are twofold. Henchard has been
described as a lonely widower, and he has expressed shame
for his previous behavior. Susan instructs Elizabeth-Jane to tell
Henchard, if he is interested in meeting with the widow, to
write Susan a note, telling how and when a reunion may be
arranged.
Elizabeth-Jane's stroll up the street to Henchard's residence in
Casterbridge affords an opportunity for a description of
market day in the town. Much communication among the
townsfolk occurs through gestures, rather than words. When
Elizabeth-Jane arrives at her destination, she comes upon
Farfrae rather than Henchard. In a brief flashback, readers
learn how Farfrae came to be busy at Henchard's office. On
the walk with Henchard just before he planned to depart,
Farfrae had finally yielded to Henchard's pleading and
accepted the mayor's third job offer. Shaking hands on the
deal, Henchard has offered his house as lodging for his new
friend, as least until suitable alternative accommodation can be
found.
Chapter 10
This brief chapter features two especially important plot
developments. The first dramatizes the disaffection of Joshua
The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide
Jopp, a candidate for the post of Henchard's manager.
Henchard brusquely dismisses Jopp, telling him the post of
manager is no longer available. Jopp is bitterly disappointed.
The second important turn in the plot involves Henchard's
response to Susan's request. When Elizabeth-Jane tells
Henchard the details—as she knows them—Henchard
expresses great interest. He writes a note to Susan, asking her
to meet him that evening. With the message, he encloses a
five-pound note, together with five shillings. When she receives
the message, Susan resolves to meet Henchard him alone.
Analysis
In Chapter 9 Hardy's attention to the realistic description of
market day in Casterbridge is unmistakable. It is notable the
name of the town—a thinly disguised version of Hardy's
Dorchester—figures in the novel's title. As Hardy indicates in
his preface, the setting is a highly significant aspect of his tale.
Another notable feature of Chapter 9 is the mini-flashback
recounting Henchard's persistent courting of Farfrae. As a
"man of strong impulses," it seems Henchard will not take "no"
for an answer from the young Scotchman. As Henchard puts it,
"I am the most distant fellow in the world when I don't care for
a man. ... But when a man takes my fancy he takes it strong."
Although the auguries seem favorable for these two
characters' relationship, the unrestrained, impulsive side of
Henchard's personality may suggest an ambiguous forecast.
In Chapter 10 Henchard's reply to Susan is accompanied by a
payment of five guineas (a guinea equals one pound plus one
shilling, or 21 shillings). The amount exactly corresponds with
the payment Henchard received from Richard Newson in
Chapter 1 for the sale of Henchard's wife and infant daughter.
The symbolic implication is inescapable: Henchard is "buying
back" his family. Although this may seem emotionally
appropriate, an ambiguity lurks over Henchard's action. The
payment suggests he believes cruelty may be redeemed
simply and easily by a commercial transaction.
Chapters 11–12
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Chapter Summaries 15
Summary
Chapter 11
This chapter begins with a brief history of the Ring at
Casterbridge, which is the local name for an ancient Roman
amphitheater. This impressive ruin is the site for Henchard's
meeting with Susan. Its history is forbidding, since in former
times it was the location of the town gallows. Henchard has
chosen the spot because it is remote from observation.
Henchard begins the meeting by reassuring Susan he does not
drink any more. When he asks Susan why she has not sought
him out before now, she says she felt a marital obligation to
Newson, the man who bought and paid for her. Henchard tells
her the two of them must join forces to keep Elizabeth-Jane in
the dark about the truth of her history, and Susan meekly
agrees. He suggests they conduct a courtship for public show
and then remarry. When he asks Susan if she forgives him, she
evades his question.
Chapter 12
Arriving home after his meeting with Susan, Henchard finds the
assiduous Farfrae still at work, tending to the grain business
accounts. Henchard again calls himself a "lonely man" and
embarks on another confessional account of his past, but this
time he offers Farfrae a fuller narrative. He reveals he used to
be a drinking man and says he became involved with a woman
on one of his business trips to the island of Jersey—one of the
Channel Isles, located off England's southwest coast. This
woman was careless of appearances, and her reputation
suffered because of her relationship with Henchard.
Now Susan has come to Casterbridge. To which woman does
Henchard owe his primary loyalty? He asks Farfrae's advice.
With characteristic good sense, Farfrae counsels him to write
to the woman in Jersey, Lucetta, and tell her she cannot be his
wife because Susan has arrived in Casterbridge. Henchard
entreats Farfrae to draft the letter. He then asks Farfrae to
advise him on another matter: should he tell Elizabeth-Jane the
whole truth about the past? Farfrae thinks Henchard should
run the risk, but Henchard rejects this advice, saying he doesn't
want Elizabeth-Jane to lose respect for him or for Susan.
The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide
Analysis
These chapters contribute substantially to the psychologically
complex portrayal of the novel's protagonist, Michael
Henchard. At the end of Chapter 10 Henchard had enclosed
the sum of five guineas in his note to Susan inviting her to meet
him. On the surface, he dispatched the money to aid a poor
widow left in reduced circumstances by the presumed death of
her husband, the sea captain Richard Newson. The gift's
precise amount, however, suggests a commercial action: a
"repurchase" of Susan for the exact sum Henchard received
for her sale 18 years before.
Now, in Chapter 11, Susan and Henchard hold their reunion in a
dark, forbidding setting: the ruins of a Roman amphitheater,
which used to serve, in more recent times, as the execution
ground of Casterbridge. The sinister atmospheric suggestions
are unmistakable. Although Henchard candidly admits to Susan
he is no longer a drinking man, the theme of deception is
prominent in the chapter. Henchard needs to repair the
damage in his life without sacrificing either Elizabeth-Jane's
respect or the community's admiration. Thus, he persuades
Susan to agree to a plan of staged courtship and remarriage,
and he opposes revealing the truth to Elizabeth-Jane. Susan,
meek as always, replies, "I am in your hands, Michael." Readers
may recall Henchard earlier blamed Susan's meekness and
"idiotic simplicity" for his decision to auction her off. Now
Susan is not so meek as to forgive Michael explicitly. She
evades answering his question about forgiveness.
Chapter 12 delves further into what makes Henchard tick. His
loneliness impels him to spill out his life story to Farfrae—this
time more fully than in Chapter 7, when he first offered Farfrae
the job of manager. Why, though, does Henchard ask for
Farfrae's advice, when he has already formed a detailed plan
for a reconciliation with Susan and a remarriage?
This question has no clear answer. The most probable
explanation seems to involve Henchard's loneliness and
insecurity. Especially in his relationships with women, it is as if
he needs some sort of external ratification or approval. He tells
Farfrae "philandering with womankind has neither been my vice
nor my virtue." This statement, however, sidesteps the issue of
honest and fair treatment. Henchard's contrition and
consideration are so shaky he must ask Farfrae to write the
letter to Lucetta. Furthermore, on no account will he consent
to tell Elizabeth-Jane what he thinks to be the truth about her
paternity. This psychological tangle is perhaps summed up
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Chapter Summaries 16
when Henchard tells Farfrae, toward the end of Chapter 12,
"The mayor of Casterbridge is not so thriving in his mind as it
seems he might be from the state of his pocket."
Throughout these chapters Hardy suggests Henchard's
reclaiming of Susan and his treatment of Lucetta are
essentially "management" problems, not authentic issues of
human relations or intimacy. This perspective explains
Henchard's quest for advice from Farfrae, his manager. It also
explains Henchard's curious remarks at the end of Chapter 12:
"Can it be that it will go off so easily? ... Now, then, to make
amends to Susan!"
Chapters 13–14
Summary
Chapter 13
This chapter focuses on Henchard and Susan's remarriage, as
well as on the townspeople's gossip about the event. The
locals featured include Christopher Coney, Nance Mockridge,
Solomon Longways, and Mrs. Cuxsom. By and large, the
townspeople are puzzled: why would an important personage
such as Henchard marry someone as unprepossessing as
Susan?
Chapter 14
The newly constituted Henchard family settle into life in
Casterbridge. Susan and Elizabeth-Jane move from a small
cottage to Henchard's grand residence, and Elizabeth-Jane
undergoes a great change, as she transitions from a life of
need to one of comfort. Henchard grows very fond of her. He
wonders, though, about her fair features: as an infant,
Elizabeth-Jane seemed as if she would have darker hair when
she grew older.
Henchard tells Susan he is eager for Elizabeth-Jane to go by
the surname "Henchard" rather than "Newson." Elizabeth-Jane,
though, seems unenthusiastic about this suggestion, and the
matter is dropped.
Elizabeth-Jane notices Henchard and Farfrae are inseparable
The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide
companions. She also pays some attention to Farfrae's
attractive appearance and manners. The two have what seems
like a chance encounter at Henchard's granary; the meeting is
somewhat awkward—but also somewhat intriguing—for both of
them.
Analysis
The account of Henchard and Susan's remarriage in Chapter
13 is more notable for the townspeople's remarks than for the
ceremony itself. Their comments are lightly sarcastic and are
expressed in Wessex dialect. The locals' interest in marital
affairs and their propensity for gossip may foreshadow the
malicious skimmity-ride in Chapter 39, in which public opinion
becomes a lethal weapon assaulting, and then annihilating,
Lucetta's reputation.
There are two other important instances of foreshadowing in
Chapter 14, both bearing on Elizabeth-Jane's true paternity. As
will be revealed in Chapter 19, Henchard's real daughter died in
infancy, and the present Elizabeth-Jane was actually fathered
by Richard Newson. The dialogue concerning her hair color
and surname serves as foreshadowing for the revelations to
come.
Chapters 15–16
Summary
Chapter 15
The first part of this chapter records the growing attraction
between Elizabeth-Jane and Donald Farfrae. Elizabeth-Jane is
privately astonished by her new status as "the town beauty."
In the second part of the chapter, Henchard sternly
admonishes one of his employees, Abel Whittle, to do a better
job of arriving for work on time in the morning. An inveterate
oversleeper, Whittle is late the very next day. Enraged,
Henchard issues a stern threat, but his admonitions are in vain,
for Whittle is missing on the following morning. Henchard
marches to the man's house, roughly awakens him, and then
humiliates him by forcing him to travel to work in his
underwear.
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Chapter Summaries 17
Donald Farfrae intervenes, strongly challenging Henchard and
threatening to quit if the public disgrace of Whittle continues.
Henchard sullenly backs down. From this point on, his
reputation suffers, while ever greater numbers of people
admire and rely on Farfrae. The two men ostensibly patch up
their spat, but privately Henchard begins to regret confiding so
many secrets to the younger man.
Chapter 16
Henchard's reserve toward Farfrae increases. In this chapter
tension again arises between the two men. Farfrae makes
plans to stage a public entertainment during a town holiday.
Henchard does the same, determined to make his preparations
on a grander scale, staging a "mammoth tea" for everyone free
of charge. But a rainstorm on the appointed day dooms
Henchard's plans to failure because the venue he has selected
is too exposed to the inclement weather. Farfrae's
entertainment, by contrast, succeeds admirably. Embarrassed
by the success of a man who is now his rival and who has
captured public admiration, Henchard hints Farfrae's time as
his manager is drawing to a close.
Analysis
These two chapters are united by a common thread. Both
dramatize a growing rift between Henchard and Farfrae.
Henchard's tyrannical nature verges on brutality in his
treatment of poor Abel Whittle, whose subordination is
stressed in the title he uses to address the mayor: "your
worshipful." Farfrae intervenes in the name of common
decency, and his reputation immediately grows more positive,
while Henchard's dips downward.
Likewise, in Chapter 16, Henchard's plans for a holiday
entertainment turn sour, while Farfrae's plans succeed. The
two former friends are now portrayed as rivals—mostly from
Henchard's perspective. The gall of Henchard's
disappointment is even more bitter when he is forced to watch
Farfrae dancing with Elizabeth-Jane and when he is pompously
lectured by several townsfolk about his choice of venue.
Typically, Henchard falls victim to what the narrator calls his
"jealous temper," and he hints darkly at Farfrae's dismissal.
Also typically, Henchard is full of regret the next morning
because it now seems very likely he will lose the Scotchman's
services.
The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide Chapter Summaries 18

Chapters 17–18 Analysis

Summary
Chapter 17
This chapter recounts the complete break between Henchard
and Farfrae, who had previously been "inseparable." Farfrae
bids Elizabeth-Jane farewell, and she is melancholy about his
departure. However, Farfrae does not actually leave
Casterbridge. Instead, he buys the business of another corn
and hay merchant, thus becoming a competitor of Henchard,
although on a smaller scale. Furious at the young man's new
status as a commercial rival, and stung by Farfrae's
unwillingness to continue as his manager, Henchard declares
him unwelcome ("an enemy in our house"), forbids Elizabeth-
Jane to see him, and tells Farfrae in a note to cease his
attentions to her.
For his part Farfrae refuses to intrude on Henchard's business
or his customer base. His ethical character is very different
from Henchard's sulkiness and jealousy.
Chapter 18
Chapter 17 presents another case study in the novel's
exploration of Henchard's explosive and paradoxical
personality. Referring to "the mayor's headstrong faculties,"
the narrator comments pointedly about Henchard: "Loving a
man or hating him, his diplomacy was as wrong-headed as a
buffalo's." Farfrae's character, remarks the narrator, was "just
the reverse of Henchard's." In an allusion to the literary
character Faust, made famous in Christopher Marlowe's play
Doctor Faustus (first performed in 1592) and Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe's verse drama Faust (1808–32), Hardy stresses
Henchard's unconventional and impulsive nature. In another
significant allusion at the end of the chapter, Hardy refers to
the Greek mythological hero Bellerophon, whose early victories
and successes were more than offset by a wretched existence
in later life, when he became a bitter and solitary wanderer.
Chapter 19 centers on two of the most important women in
Henchard's life. For the first time, readers hear directly—via a
letter—from Lucetta, Henchard's old flame on the island of
Jersey. Perhaps not coincidentally, a letter also plays a part in
the final scene involving Susan, just before her death. The
fateful contents of this missive will be revealed in Chapter 19.
In the meantime, Susan's demise becomes the occasion for a
series of comments from the locals on the inevitability and
grimness of death.

This chapter presents several important turns in the novel's

plot. As it opens, Susan is too ill to leave her room. At the same Chapters 19–20
time, a letter for Henchard arrives from Jersey. The letter is
from his old companion Lucetta, who tells him she is on her
way to Bristol to see a wealthy relative and will stop off in Summary
Casterbridge on her return journey. She asks him to return to
her all the letters she wrote to him at the time of their romance.

Susan becomes weaker. She writes Henchard a letter and

Chapter 19
seals it, indicating it must not be opened until Elizabeth-Jane's
Susan neglected to properly seal her letter to Henchard, and
wedding day. Before she dies, Susan tells Elizabeth-Jane she
seeing no reason to delay, he opens the letter and learns
wrote the notes prompting the awkward meeting with Farfrae
Elizabeth-Jane's true father is Richard Newson. This revelation
at the granary because she wanted Elizabeth-Jane to marry
causes Henchard to suffer from a bout of extreme gloom and
him. The chapter closes with Susan's death and the
depression.
superstitious and pessimistic comments of the local
townspeople.

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The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide
Chapter 20
Upset over the news about Elizabeth-Jane, Henchard lashes
out with a series of sharp, petty criticisms of her behavior,
finding fault with her handwriting and for her use of dialect.
When Nance Mockridge, a working-class local, saucily says
Elizabeth-Jane once waited on clients at the Three Mariners
Inn, Henchard becomes irritated. He is worried such talk will
damage his local reputation.
To improve her education Elizabeth-Jane embarks on the
study of Latin. She is inspired in her effort by the ancient
Roman roots of Casterbridge.
Henchard now reconsiders his decision to forbid any contact
between Elizabeth-Jane and Farfrae. He writes to his former
manager to this effect, withdrawing his objection.
On a visit to the churchyard where Susan is buried, Elizabeth-
Jane encounters a strange lady. In the course of a courteous
and kindly dialogue, the stranger—who soon will be revealed as
Lucetta—invites Elizabeth-Jane to visit her, and perhaps to
remain as a housekeeper and companion, at her new
Casterbridge residence, High-Place Hall.
Analysis
Chapter 19 serves as a showcase for dramatic irony, one of
Hardy's favorite literary techniques. Among the many examples
of this device is Henchard's opening declaration to Elizabeth-
Jane that he, not Newson, is her real father—a statement soon
to be contradicted by the contents of Susan's letter. This irony
is reinforced when Elizabeth-Jane, to please Henchard,
formally changes her surname to his and makes a public
announcement of the change in the local newspaper.
Just before Henchard reads Susan's fateful letter, the narrator
delivers another highly significant comment on Henchard's
psychology: "He was the kind of man to whom some human
object for pouring out his heat upon—were it emotive or were it
choleric—was almost a necessity." In other words, Henchard is,
in today's parlance, passive-aggressive or even bipolar—an
individual of strong, conflicting impulses, with unpredictable
and stress-inducing mood swings.
When he learns Elizabeth-Jane is Richard Newson's child,
Henchard is stunned. He looks at Susan's letter "as if it were a
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Chapter Summaries 19
window pane through which he saw for miles." The letter
suddenly clarifies many things: for example, Susan's reluctance
to acquiesce to a change in Elizabeth-Jane's surname, and
Elizabeth-Jane's surprisingly fair features. At the chapter's
conclusion, dramatic irony reigns once more, as Elizabeth-Jane
cheerfully declares her joy and satisfaction at knowing
Henchard is her real father. The narrator offers a pessimistic
allusion to the Biblical phrase "dust and ashes"—a phrase
connoting worthlessness (see Genesis 18:27 and Job 30:19).
In Chapter 20 Henchard's disillusionment results in his "open
chiding" of Elizabeth-Jane, as he reproaches her for all kinds of
petty faults, including her use of local dialect and her
unsatisfactory handwriting. Henchard's disillusionment and
embarrassment at the latest turn of events are magnified by
the challenging disrespect of Nance Mockridge, who reminds
the mayor that Elizabeth-Jane once acted in a working-class
capacity. In a poignant reaction to Henchard's reproaches,
Elizabeth-Jane makes a strenuous effort to further her
education. Meanwhile, the estranged Henchard—perhaps in an
effort to distance himself from Elizabeth-Jane still
further—changes his mind about her contact with Farfrae.
At the end of the chapter, with Lucetta's first appearance,
readers are compelled to speculate on her role in the rest of
the novel. Clearly she will play a major part in the plot, as
forecast by her past connection with Henchard and her
installation at a grand residence in town.
Chapters 21–22
Summary
Chapter 21
This chapter offers Elizabeth-Jane's impressions of High-Place
Hall, the imposing mansion where the stranger, Lucetta, has
taken up residence in Casterbridge. The place has stood
vacant for several years because some of its rooms overlook
the market. Elizabeth-Jane decides to accept Lucetta's
invitation to move there, and she asks Henchard for his
approval. Indifference has now replaced irritability in
Henchard's attitude toward Elizabeth-Jane. Seemingly happy
to have her off his hands, Henchard acquiesces and even
The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide
offers her an allowance.
Typically for Henchard, though, he has a wave of regret and
second thoughts. When the time for the move has arrived, he
begs Elizabeth-Jane to stay with him, but his entreaty comes
10 minutes too late. Meanwhile, Lucetta has told Elizabeth-
Jane her name is Miss Templeman.
Chapter 22
This chapter begins with a flashback revealing that Miss
Templeman and Lucetta (or Lucette) Le Sueur are the same
person. Lucetta writes Henchard to tell him her invitation to
Elizabeth-Jane to live as her companion at High-Place Hall was
intended to make it easier and more convenient for Henchard
to visit there without provoking local gossip. Upon learning this,
Henchard cheers up.
After Elizabeth-Jane arrives at High-Place Hall with her
possessions, she and Lucetta chat, with Lucetta disclosing
some—but not all—of her background on the island of Jersey.
The following morning the two women sit together watching
the market. Elizabeth-Jane spots Farfrae, but she does not
comment on him to Lucetta. Instead she identifies some of the
locals for the newcomer.
Lucetta grows disappointed as the days pass without a visit
from Henchard. She feels there now should be no impediment
to their marriage, especially considering the fortune she has
recently inherited from her wealthy relative in Bristol.
Elizabeth-Jane tells her new friend that Henchard is probably
avoiding the house because he has taken a dislike to her. This
comment unnerves Lucetta, since it means her carefully
prepared plans have been made in vain. Lucetta decides
Elizabeth-Jane will have to be sent outside the house on some
trumped-up errands so the way can be cleared for a visit from
Henchard. Lucetta promptly follows through on this plan,
writing Henchard yet another note to tell him the coast is clear.
A visitor arrives and Lucetta eagerly greets him; it turns out to
be Farfrae rather than Henchard.
Analysis
In an apparently minor vignette early in Chapter 21, Hardy
wrings an effective variation on the theme of deception when
he has Henchard and Elizabeth-Jane almost meet in the
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Chapter Summaries 20
darkness near High-Place Hall. Neither character recognizes
the other—perhaps an emblem of the persistent
misunderstanding and misconceptions between them. As the
narrator comments, "Henchard passed in as ignorant of her
presence as she was ignorant of his identity."
In Chapter 21 Hardy also draws attention to Henchard's mood
swings, which have already been noted above. For example,
Henchard's "absolute indifference" to Elizabeth-Jane "had
taken the place of irritability." He seems "relieved to get her off
his hands." Once again, as with the payment of five guineas to
Susan, an "arrangement" appears the expedient way to
Henchard to solve his emotional problems or conflicts. Toward
the end of the chapter, his mood changes yet again, as he
comes to regret his acquiescence to Elizabeth-Jane's move to
High-Place Hall. As is typical with Henchard, his regret is
belated and ineffectual.
Chapter 22 includes three letters from Lucetta to Henchard.
Along with other facets of her characterization, it is strongly
implied that Lucetta possesses a voluble and somewhat
mercurial personality. Readers will recall her original contact
with Henchard—also in a letter—was to request the return of
potentially compromising letters she had written him when they
lived on the island of Jersey.
In the scene describing Lucetta and Elizabeth-Jane's
observation of the marketplace in Chapter 22, Hardy
foreshadows the two women's rivalry for Farfrae's affections.
Elizabeth-Jane is careful to conceal any interest she feels in
Farfrae's presence at the market.
Chapter 22 is also notable for the semi-comic irony with which
Lucetta's carefully laid plan for Henchard's visits to High-Place
Hall is upset. Lucetta had assumed Elizabeth-Jane's presence
there would facilitate Henchard's visits. Now, however, she
learns Henchard is estranged from his stepdaughter. Lucetta's
solution is to send Elizabeth-Jane on trumped-up errands and
to apprise Henchard of the situation in yet another letter.
Chapter 22 concludes on a suspenseful note as Farfrae, not
Henchard, appears at High-Place Hall. The explanation will
come in the next chapter.
The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide
Chapters 23–24
Summary
Chapter 23
It turns out Farfrae is acting on the note Henchard recently
wrote him, declaring Henchard would not object if Farfrae
visited Elizabeth-Jane. When Farfrae called at Elizabeth-Jane's
house, he learned she was now staying at Miss Templeman's.
Lucetta and Farfrae chat, getting to know each other. Among
other things, Farfrae learns Lucetta is lonely and rich. Lucetta
is clearly attracted by Farfrae's youth and good looks. The pair
look out the window at the market, just as Lucetta and
Elizabeth-Jane did before. They see a hiring negotiation in
progress—a business deal that will require two young lovers to
part. Farfrae steps outdoors to intervene, kindly arranging
matters so the pair can stay together. Lucetta is greatly
touched by his action, and it is clear a romance is beginning
between them. But Farfrae must leave to keep a business
appointment.
Minutes later a servant announces Henchard's arrival. Now,
however, Lucetta's affections have changed, and she puts the
mayor off, saying she has a headache. Suddenly Lucetta
conceives of a new role for Elizabeth-Jane: as a "watch-dog"
to keep her stepfather from visiting!
Chapter 24
Life goes on for Lucetta and Elizabeth-Jane, with the two
women focusing their attention on the weekly market day.
Lucetta considers the relative merits of two new dresses she
has received in a package from London. From the windows
overlooking the marketplace, they catch sight of a new
agricultural implement, a horse-drill. Suspecting Farfrae has
brought the machine to Casterbridge, the women venture
outside, where they encounter Henchard. Elizabeth-Jane—who
still does not know of her stepfather's prior relationship with
Lucetta—introduces her to Henchard as Miss Templeman.
They discuss the horse-drill briefly, with Henchard expressing
pessimism about the machine's prospects. As Henchard
departs, Elizabeth-Jane hears him murmur something to
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Chapter Summaries 21
Lucetta: "You refused to see me!"
Farfrae is heard humming a Scottish song, "The Lass of
Gowrie," as he inspects the new horse-drill. He predicts it will
revolutionize sowing in the area, and he remarks it is now very
common in the east and north of England.
Later that day Lucetta says Henchard seemed very distant
toward Elizabeth-Jane. The two companions fall into a
discussion of the past, with Lucetta recounting some of her
own doings in semi-fictionalized form. Elizabeth-Jane remains
tactful and polite, although she is not deceived by Lucetta's
tale.
Analysis
In Chapter 23 the narrator explains Farfrae's sudden
appearance at High-Place Hall. Farfrae has arrived to visit
Elizabeth-Jane in accordance with Henchard's withdrawal of
any objection. But like many of Hardy's plot developments, the
role of coincidence and chance is significant in this turn of
events. The first encounter between Lucetta and Farfrae will
soon lead to a whirlwind romance and, ultimately, to their
marriage.
The romance between Lucetta and Farfrae is paralleled, as
well as advanced, by a seemingly minor scene the two
characters observe at the hiring-fair in the marketplace where
a negotiation threatens to split two young lovers. The kindly
Farfrae steps out of High-Place Hall to intervene, and his
assistance ensures the young couple can stay together.
Lucetta is impressed—and smitten.
Lucetta abandons her interest in Henchard and shifts her
affections to Farfrae. The narrator sums up this change: "Her
heart longed for some ark into which it could fly and be at rest."
The ark connotes a place of protection and safety, notably
associated with the Biblical story of Noah and the flood in
Genesis, Chapters 8 and 9.
In Chapter 24 Hardy bestows much attention on the horse-drill,
an innovative agricultural implement Farfrae is introducing to
Casterbridge. The machine, which by this time had become
popular in other parts of England, serves as a realistic
component of the novel's setting. But it is also symbolic of the
intergenerational conflict between Henchard and Farfrae. This
dimension becomes clear when Henchard goes out of his way
to belittle the device, while Farfrae claims it will revolutionize
The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide
sowing in the Casterbridge region.
In The Mayor of Casterbridge, partial or incomplete recounting
of past events, often accompanied by outright deception, is
common. In Chapter 24 Lucetta supplies her own "fictional
tale" when she tells Elizabeth-Jane a partly true and partly
fictionalized version of her life story. The parallels with Michael
Henchard are striking; indeed, Hardy draws attention to them
at the beginning of Chapter 26, when he has Henchard
recapitulate the tale he had told long ago to Farfrae about his
past. The differences between these tales are perhaps as
important as the similarities, for Lucetta's tale does not fool
Elizabeth-Jane, while Henchard's story, contrived more
ingeniously, finds credence with Farfrae.
Chapters 25–26
Summary
Chapter 25
Donald Farfrae attends now almost entirely to Lucetta, with
Elizabeth-Jane having to take a back seat. As for Henchard, he
has by no means disposed of his "smoldering sentiments"
toward Lucetta, and he ventures to call on her again. Lucetta
greets him with "cool friendship." Henchard gets straight to the
point, requesting her to decide on a date for their marriage.
Lucetta replies evasively, and she refuses to commit herself
even when Henchard pointedly refers to her enemies in Jersey.
The two part on distinctly frosty terms. Meanwhile, Elizabeth-
Jane copes with Farfrae's new relationship with Lucetta,
viewing the turn of events with equanimity.
Chapter 26
In a chance meeting on the edge of Casterbridge, Henchard
and Farfrae chat about the story Henchard had recounted to
him beforehand about a woman who suffered because of her
intimacy with him. Henchard says he has now offered to marry
her, but she won't have him. Farfrae replies that Henchard
owes her nothing further. It is clear Farfrae does not realize
Henchard is referring to Lucetta.
Henchard suspects he has a rival for Lucetta's affections, and
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Chapter Summaries 22
he tests his theory by calling on her and asking whether she
knows Farfrae. Soon afterward Farfrae himself appears, and
Lucetta's behavior increases Henchard's suspicions. In
Elizabeth-Jane's opinion, Lucetta and the two men are acting
in a ridiculous fashion.
Henchard then takes steps to seek revenge on his rival in
romance. He reengages Joshua Jopp, the man originally
displaced by Farfrae, as his manager, telling him the business
must now be run with the objective of ruining Farfrae. The two
men discuss their strategy at length, commenting on Farfrae's
seemingly wondrous ability to play the grain markets
successfully. Elizabeth-Jane tells Henchard that he is making a
mistake by hiring Jopp, but Henchard sharply rebuffs her.
Because the weather is so unpredictable, grain prices are
extremely volatile, and farmers in the region are exposed to
serious risk. Henchard, who is superstitious, consults a local
weather prophet named Mr. Fall, who predicts a poor harvest
because of bad weather. As a result, Henchard buys up a large
quantity of grain, gambling he will make a windfall when prices
rise. But the forecaster is mistaken: the weather turns out to be
favorable. Henchard suffers a huge loss and goes into debt.
Rumor has it the formerly wealthy grain merchant has
mortgaged many of his properties to the bank. In a fit of
temper Henchard discharges Jopp, who vows his boss will
regret his action.
Analysis
The parallels between Henchard and Lucetta's temperaments
are further explored in these chapters. In Chapter 25, for
example, when Henchard presses Lucetta on the matter of
marriage, she responds evasively. But after Henchard departs
she impulsively gives vent to her true feelings. "I will love him!"
she exclaims, referring to Farfrae, and adds, "I'll love where I
choose!" Like Henchard, Lucetta is lonely and eager to bestow
her affection; also like Henchard, she is self-willed and
headstrong. In contrast to both characters, Elizabeth-Jane is
portrayed as patient and balanced; note the emphasis on her
"approach to equanimity" at the conclusion of Chapter 25.
Rivalry between Henchard and Farfrae is the keynote of
Chapter 26. Henchard begins by testing his theory Farfrae is
courting Lucetta. Having satisfied himself this is probably true,
he sets out to ruin his rival. Unfortunately, this leads him to
renew his acquaintance with Joshua Jopp and engage him as a
The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide
manager. Here Hardy delivers a heavy dose of foreshadowing.
Jopp is said to reside in Mixen Lane, a tawdry neighborhood of
Casterbridge where dung and refuse dominate the scene. The
narrator also darkly declares, "That characters deteriorate in
time of need possibly did not occur to Henchard." When
Elizabeth-Jane learns her stepfather has hired Jopp, she warns
him he is making a mistake, but he rejects her advice.
Henchard says Jopp must lead a business operation to "grind
[Farfrae] into the ground." Revenge is Henchard's overarching
motivation. But when Henchard and Jopp's machinations fail
because of unpredictable weather and Henchard dismisses
the foreman, Jopp in turn vows revenge. As readers will learn
later in the story, Jopp achieves his malignant objective.
Why does Hardy devote so much attention in Chapter 26 to
Mr. Fall, the "weather-prophet"? For one thing, weather's fickle
unpredictability has a profound effect on agriculture—and thus
on the economy—in the region. Also significant is Henchard's
characteristically superstitious nature, which will be referred to
again early in Chapter 27. Suffice it to say, Henchard's plans
for revenge on Farfrae are stymied not only by chance but also
by the failings in his own nature.
Chapters 27–28
Summary
Chapter 27
This chapter continues and extends the saga of the rivalry
between Henchard and Farfrae, in both business and romance.
The weather turns fickle just before the harvest, and Farfrae
reaps a huge advantage because he has bought grain at low
prices. The superstitious Henchard speculates on whether his
bad fortune is the product of witchcraft wielded by an enemy.
The rivalry between Henchard and Farfrae extends to disputes
among their employees. A conflict breaks out at the scene of a
wagon accident. The two wagon drivers attempt to settle
scores in a fistfight, and there is a public commotion. Lucetta
and Elizabeth-Jane side with Farfrae, claiming Henchard's
driver was most in the wrong. Constable Stubberd appears,
informing Henchard a case is coming up at the town hall, and
Henchard, as a justice of the peace, must hear it.
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Chapter Summaries 23
Henchard overhears Farfrae speaking romantic words to
Lucetta, and she encourages his affection. Soon afterward, in a
showdown with Lucetta, Henchard warns he will reveal the
secrets of her past life unless she marries him. Elizabeth-Jane
is summoned as a witness to Lucetta's promise to wed
Henchard. When Elizabeth-Jane expresses surprise, Henchard
cynically remarks his marriage to Lucetta will leave Farfrae
free for Elizabeth-Jane, if she still wants him. Now it is
Lucetta's turn to express astonishment. Elizabeth-Jane
exclaims Lucetta has kept secrets from her. How is it, for
example, Lucetta calls her stepfather Michael? Lucetta evades
this question, merely noting Elizabeth-Jane may have kept
secrets too.
Chapter 28
The action shifts to focus on the court case Henchard, as a
town magistrate, presides over on the following day. The
defendant is an elderly woman accused of disorderly conduct.
She turns out to be none other than Mrs. Goodenough, the
furmity-woman who first appeared in Chapter 1. The woman
discloses Henchard's secret, causing a commotion in the town.
Lucetta is shocked, especially considering she just promised to
marry Henchard. Saying she needs a rest by the seaside, she
departs on a journey to Port-Bredy. Later on, when Henchard
attempts to visit, Elizabeth-Jane tells him Lucetta has returned
from her journey but is now out for a walk.
Analysis
The role of chance and coincidence, as well as the act of
gambling, assume prominence in both these chapters, but in
quite different ways. In Chapter 27 Farfrae profits from the
fickle weather, but Henchard suffers extreme losses, and his
business is imperiled. In Chapter 28 the furmity-woman's
reappearance may strain belief, but readers must regard it in
the context of one of the novel's principal thematic strands:
"the persistence of the unforeseen," as mentioned in the
book's final sentence. In The Mayor of Casterbridge Hardy
repeatedly points up the often-unanticipated consequences of
people's actions.
In Chapter 27 Henchard's superstitious speculations about
being a target of witchcraft have a close parallel in an earlier
Hardy novel, The Return of the Native (1878), in which Susan
Nunsuch creates and then burns a wax image of Eustacia Vye
The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide
shortly before Eustacia meets her tragic death by drowning.
Henchard continues to be characterized as unpredictable and
paradoxical. In Chapter 27 he appears to great disadvantage
when he threatens to blackmail Lucetta. In Chapter 28,
however, he surprisingly admits to the furmity-woman's
accusation, even at the cost of his public reputation in
Casterbridge. Although he does not realize it at the time, the
effects on his relationship with Lucetta will be just as drastic.
Chapters 29–30
Summary
Chapter 29
Walking on the road outside the town, Lucetta and Elizabeth-
Jane run into danger when they are threatened by a large bull,
which has somehow wandered free of supervision. They take
refuge in a barn, where the bull pursues them. Henchard
rescues the women in the nick of time.
On the walk back to Casterbridge, Lucetta suddenly
remembers she left her muff in the barn, and Elizabeth-Jane
offers to retrieve it. While doing so she encounters Farfrae,
who gives her a lift in his vehicle. Elizabeth-Jane tells him about
Henchard saving her and Lucetta from the bull. Back in town
Farfrae sets Elizabeth-Jane down and then proceeds to his
own house, where furniture movers are busy. Apparently
Farfrae is moving to a different residence.
Meanwhile, as he escorts Lucetta home, Henchard tells her he
is sorry for extracting from her a marriage promise. He will be
content, he says, if they wait several years to be married.
Lucetta asks if she can do anything to thank him for saving her
from the bull; she is specifically referring to finances. Henchard
says he does not want her money but that she might aid him by
persuading his chief creditor, Mr. Grower, to grant a two-week
reprieve for Henchard's loan repayment. Lucetta is evasive at
first, but then she breaks down, admitting she and Farfrae
were married in Port-Bredy, with Grower as a witness.
Henchard is both astonished and enraged, once again
threatening Lucetta with blackmail. As the two go their
separate ways, church bells and band music ring out to
celebrate Lucetta's wedding.
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Chapter Summaries 24
Chapter 30
This chapter focuses on the fallout of Lucetta's bombshell
announcement about her marriage to Farfrae. The chapter
mainly features Lucetta and Elizabeth-Jane. Lucetta tries to
break the news tactfully, referring to the old fictional story she
had told Elizabeth-Jane shortly after they first met. Elizabeth-
Jane counsels her friend to behave honestly and to remain
single. A misunderstanding ensues: Elizabeth-Jane mistakenly
assumes Lucetta has married Henchard, but Lucetta corrects
this impression, admitting she has married Farfrae. Lucetta
wants Elizabeth-Jane to remain at High-Place Hall, but
Elizabeth-Jane decides to leave immediately.
Analysis
Chapter 29 is among the most action-packed sections of the
novel. Two episodes predominate: the bull's threat to Lucetta
and Elizabeth-Jane, from which they are saved by Henchard,
and Lucetta's admission to Henchard about her secret
marriage to Farfrae. Both episodes show Hardy at his best in a
melodramatic, or a highly emotional and suspenseful, vein.
Chapter 30 emphasizes Elizabeth-Jane's honesty and
straightforwardness, which stand in sharp contrast to the other
characters' penchant for deception.
Chapters 31–32
Summary
Chapter 31
This chapter focuses on Henchard's rapidly sinking fortunes.
He is forced to declare bankruptcy. Confronting the situation
with typically defiant pride, he refuses to hold back any of his
possessions, even offering his gold watch to the bankruptcy
officials. When they decline to accept it, Henchard sells the
timepiece to the watchmaker and then hands the money to
one of his creditors who has fallen on hard times.
Meanwhile, Farfrae continues to displace Henchard on every
front. He buys Henchard's business, Henchard moves into
The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide Chapter Summaries 25

Joshua Jopp's cottage, and Elizabeth-Jane's efforts to visit her gloomy, embittered moodiness in Chapter 32 offers a good
stepfather fail. example of the two characters' relationship as foils. In addition,
the dialogue between Henchard and Solomon Longways about
the imminent expiration of Henchard's oath offers a good
Chapter 32 example of foreshadowing.

Henchard stands by an old bridge on the edge of town, from

which some people have leaped to their deaths. Joshua Jopp
informs him Farfrae has bought Henchard's old house, into
Chapters 33–34
which he and Lucetta have moved. In an encounter between
Henchard and Farfrae, the latter generously invites Henchard
to stay in some of the rooms at the house. He also offers to Summary
return to Henchard any favorite pieces of furniture.

Henchard falls ill with a cold, and Elizabeth-Jane succeeds in Chapter 33

visiting him. Deciding to remain in Casterbridge, he signs on as
a day-laborer in the business he used to own. Rumor has it
Farfrae may become the town's new mayor. In a conversation
with Solomon Longways, Henchard says in 12 days he will be
released from his oath not to touch alcohol.
Henchard chooses the Three Mariners Inn as the venue for
resuming his consumption of alcohol. He bullies the locals
assembled there into singing a choral version of Psalm 109, the
theme of which is bitter revenge on enemies.

Henchard's violent bluster leads Elizabeth-Jane to fear her

Analysis stepfather will try to injure Farfrae. In a brief encounter

Henchard treats Lucetta with withering sarcasm. Finally,

At the beginning of Chapter 31, Hardy's psychological insight in Elizabeth-Jane decides to warn Farfrae about Henchard

the account of Henchard's fallen reputation is notable. The because of her stepfather's drinking.

Casterbridge gossip, ignited by the furmity-woman's disclosure

about Henchard's past, is unrestrained. The townsfolk discount
Henchard's "amends" in later life, and time is paradoxically
Chapter 34
foreshortened, as Henchard's shameful act in his youth wears
When Elizabeth-Jane acts on her resolution to caution Farfrae,
"the aspect of a recent crime."
he is puzzled, saying he and Henchard are friends once more.
In a conversation with Lawyer Joyce, the town clerk, Farfrae
The incident of the gold watch reveals Henchard as
broaches the topic of setting Henchard up in business at a
appealingly honest as well as stubbornly defiant in the
small shop. Joyce cautions him, saying Henchard regards
bankruptcy proceedings. This episode is strikingly consistent
Farfrae with hatred. Farfrae decides to drop the idea for the
with Hardy's characterization of the protagonist as a person of
moment. A rumor causes Henchard to misinterpret the
numerous conflicting traits—in short, a fully "rounded"
situation, and his enmity toward Farfrae grows as a result.
character whose considerable flaws coexist with substantial
virtues.
Alderman Vatt sounds Farfrae out on the subject of being
chosen as the new mayor. Meanwhile, in a chance meeting
Characters in Hardy's fiction have a way of reappearing
with Henchard, Lucetta renews her request for the letters she
unexpectedly after a long absence. The furmity-woman is one
wrote him long ago. In an ominous conversation with
example. Another is Abel Whittle, the employee whom
Farfrae—who is now married to Lucetta—Henchard opens
Henchard humiliated back in Chapter 15. Whittle's final
some of the letters, quoting various extracts.
appearance in the story will be at the conclusion in Chapter 45.
Still another example is Richard Newson in the later chapters
of the novel.

The juxtaposition of Farfrae's generosity with Henchard's

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The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide
Analysis
These chapters are heavily laced with dramatic irony. In
Chapter 33 the use of Psalm 109 at the Three Mariners Inn is
intended not for religious purposes, but rather to reveal
Henchard's obsession with revenge on Farfrae. In Chapter 34
Henchard's misinterpretation of Farfrae's decision about the
little seed-shop serves as another example of irony. Finally,
Henchard's conversation with Farfrae and his quotations from
Lucetta's letters raise the possibility that Henchard will reveal
all the details of Lucetta's past to her current husband.
Henchard, however, is said to shrink from such "oral poison."
Chapters 35–36
Summary
Chapter 35
The action in this chapter directly picks up from the preceding
one. Lucetta overhears Henchard's reading of extracts from
the letters she wrote him long ago, and she is terrified
Henchard will tell all to Farfrae. In desperation Lucetta now
writes to Henchard, begging him to have pity on her and to
meet her at the Ring just before sunset.
Henchard keeps the appointment, promising Lucetta she shall
have the letters and her secret will be safe.
Chapter 36
The principal interaction in this chapter is between Lucetta and
Joshua Jopp. At the beginning of the chapter, Jopp asks
Lucetta to put in a good word for him to Farfrae regarding a
job application. He says he lived in Jersey for several years and
knew her by sight. She coldly rejects his request, prompting his
resentment.
Henchard gathers Lucetta's letters in a package and entrusts
the parcel to Jopp for delivery. Henchard neglects, however, to
seal the package properly. On his way Jopp encounters Nance
Mockridge and Mother Cuxsom. They all adjourn to an inn
named Peter's Finger in the neighborhood of Mixen Lane, a
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Chapter Summaries 26
Casterbridge street with an unwholesome reputation.
Once at the inn, Jopp reveals the contents of the love letters,
and Nance Mockridge suggests the letters furnish a suitable
occasion for a skimmity-ride. Jopp gathers up the letters and
delivers them to Lucetta, who receives the package with great
relief and burns the correspondence.
Analysis
These chapters present two significant echoes of prior events
in the novel. The first is the setting of the Ring in Chapter 35
for Henchard's meeting with Lucetta. This is the sinister place
where Henchard had his first reunion with Susan in Chapter 11.
Both meetings turn out to have unpredictable and unfortunate
results. The second echo arises when Henchard carelessly
neglects to seal the package of letters properly. This recalls
Susan's error when she fails to properly seal her letter
revealing Newson is Elizabeth-Jane's real father.
The contents of Lucetta's letters set the stage for the novel's
climax: the skimmity-ride. This is the point of strongest
emotional intensity and the pivotal turning point in the plot.
Lucetta receives Henchard's package with such relief at the
end of Chapter 36, but Jopp's malignity, unbeknownst to her,
has already done its work.
Chapters 37–38
Summary
Chapter 37
Casterbridge is all agog because a member of the royal family
is scheduled to visit. At a meeting of the town council,
Henchard appears, shabbily dressed, and boldly requests
approval for participation in the official ceremonies. Donald
Farfrae, now the mayor, firmly rejects Henchard's request. His
pride injured, Henchard goes about saying he will ignore the
council's decision and welcome the royal visitor anyway.
True to his word, Henchard attempts to intercept the royal
carriage on the day of the visit. Farfrae roughly drags him away
and tells him to be off. The townsfolk gossip about the incident.
The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide Chapter Summaries 27

They also exchange opinions on the upcoming skimmity-ride,
with Solomon Longways, in particular, urging the plans for it be
abandoned, since Farfrae is a decent man and Lucetta has
behaved correctly during her time in Casterbridge. Joshua
Jopp, however, maliciously encourages the scheme, urging it
be carried out that very evening.
suspense has been building about the skimmity-ride. The
conclusion of Chapter 37 indicates it may well occur that very
evening. But Hardy does not proceed to the event directly,
preferring to heighten the suspense further by dramatizing the
confrontation between Farfrae and Henchard.

Chapters 39–40
Chapter 38
Lucetta is thrilled by the royal visit, but Henchard is outraged at
his public humiliation by Farfrae and vows revenge. He reflects Summary
he is physically stronger than Farfrae. The two men confront
each other in a fight in a hayloft, and Henchard has tied one
arm behind his back to make the odds fairer. Henchard wins Chapter 39
the fight and is in a position to pitch Farfrae down a drop of 30
This chapter focuses on the skimmity-ride (also called the
feet—perhaps to his death. At the last moment, however, he
skimmington). As is suggested at the end of Chapter 37, some
spares his opponent, sinking onto some sacks in a fit of
of Farfrae's employees send him a note indicating his presence
remorse. As the chapter concludes Henchard wanders through
is required in Weatherbury. They want to spare him the
the streets and outskirts of Casterbridge. He hears a confusing
embarrassment of witnessing the skimmity-ride, but there is no
clangor from the town but does not pay much attention to it.
such consideration for Lucetta.

The ride is described in considerable detail. Two stuffed

Analysis figures, or images of Henchard and Lucetta, are tied to a
donkey back to back, their elbows bound together. Lucetta
Scholars believe there is a historical basis for the visit of the
and Elizabeth-Jane witness the procession from Lucetta's
"royal personage." In 1849 Prince Albert, the husband of Queen
windows. The parade includes a raucous, drunken crowd.
Victoria, passed through Dorchester, the real-life model for
Lucetta is at first horrified; then she becomes hysterical.
Casterbridge. In the novel the episode serves to extend the
Elizabeth-Jane's efforts to block the view by closing the
theme of pride, as Henchard desperately tries to reclaim some
shutters prove futile, and Lucetta frantically predicts Farfrae
of his lost prestige and then suffers the humiliation of being
will see the procession.
dragged off by the collar, like a vagabond.
Lucetta drops to the floor, suffering an epileptic seizure, and a
The physical clash between Farfrae and Henchard in Chapter
doctor is summoned. He pronounces her condition serious and
37 foreshadows their fight in Chapter 38. As is usual for
says someone must send for Farfrae. Meanwhile, the town
Henchard, the fight involves a paradoxical mingling of
authorities bestir themselves to investigate the skimmity-ride,
disparate elements. Henchard is brimming with bitter enmity,
but they find no proof of any misdoing and abandon the effort.
for example, but he still ties one arm behind his back when he
faces Farfrae. This action, in turn, could be interpreted either
as motivated by Henchard's pride or by a wish to insult Farfrae Chapter 40
yet further. Henchard's love/hate emotions about Farfrae are
clear at the moment when Farfrae urges Henchard to do his Henchard makes futile efforts to help find Farfrae; he claims
worst, exclaiming Henchard has long wished to see him dead. Farfrae has gone to Weatherbury, not Budmouth, but no one
Henchard bitterly denies this charge and releases his believes him. When Henchard finally finds Farfrae and says he
opponent. is urgently needed in Casterbridge, Farfrae mistrusts
Henchard's motives, suspecting a ruse.
Hardy's placement of the fight in Chapter 38 is noteworthy
from the perspective of plot construction. For some time now Henchard returns to Casterbridge, where Elizabeth-Jane tells

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The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide
him Lucetta's condition is life-threatening. Henchard is
suddenly struck by his stepdaughter's humane sympathy and
feels he may yet renew his fondness for her. When Henchard
returns home, Jopp tells him a sea-captain has called to see
him, but he pays this news little attention.
Lucetta, near death, speaks to Farfrae about her prior
relationship with Henchard, but how much she tells Farfrae is
uncertain. Near dawn Henchard calls at Farfrae's
house—formerly Henchard's own—and a servant tells him
Lucetta has died.
Analysis
In his description of the skimmity-ride, Hardy's language vividly
evokes the malicious, raucous, terrifying aspects of the event,
as well as mass-crowd psychology. The noise is especially
unnerving, with "the din of cleavers, tongs, tambourines ... and
rams'-horns" resounding through the streets. The procession is
described as an "uncanny revel" and a "Demoniac Sabbath." In
addition to the charged language, the highly emotional
reactions of Lucetta and Elizabeth-Jane contribute to the
suspense.
Henchard's efforts to locate Farfrae and inform him of the
situation's urgency prove futile. The loss of his reputation and
his demonstrated hostility to Farfrae result in disbelief and
distrust. Poignantly, Henchard exclaims to Farfrae, "I am a
wretched man, but my heart is true to you still!"
Hardy deploys a number of allusions in these chapters. For
example, in Chapter 39 he refers to a riotous scene in John
Milton's masque Comus (1634) in connection with the
skimmity-ride. A masque was a 16th- and 17th-century courtly
entertainment that involved music, dancing, singing, and acting.
Milton wrote Comus to celebrate the virtues of chastity. In
Chapter 40 two Biblical allusions pertain to Henchard. The first
is to Luke 15:7, emphasizing Henchard does not believe he will
be redeemed as a repentant sinner. The second reference is to
the Book of Job, implying Henchard is too willing to curse
himself (Job 42:6). Finally, at the end of Chapter 40 the name
Lucifer refers to the planet Venus, here representing the
morning star.
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Chapter Summaries 28
Chapters 41–42
Summary
Chapter 41
This chapter follows up on the foreshadowed meeting
between Henchard and the long-absent—and presumed lost-
at-sea—Richard Newson, Elizabeth-Jane's real father. Newson
explains Susan Henchard believed the auction sale was
binding, but then someone persuaded her otherwise, and she
became unhappy and restless. Newson therefore thought it
best to disappear as if he had been drowned at sea, thus
freeing Susan to resume her life with Henchard.
When Newson inquires about Elizabeth-Jane, Henchard lies to
him, saying she is dead. As usual with Henchard, he soon
regrets this "impulse of a moment," realizing if Newson returns
and learns the truth, Henchard will have forfeited her love and
respect forever.
After breakfasting with Elizabeth-Jane, Henchard wanders to
the east of Casterbridge. He is so depressed he contemplates
suicide. Then he spies an image floating in a pool—it is
Henchard's double. Meeting again with Elizabeth-Jane,
Henchard asks her to accompany him to the pool, where he
shows her the effigy. She recognizes it as the discarded effigy
from the skimmity-ride. Elizabeth-Jane, pitying Henchard's
loneliness, asks him if she may live with him, and he begs her to
forgive him for all his past roughness. As the chapter closes
Henchard speculates on the effigy as a supernatural sign
emanating from Divine Providence.
Chapter 42
In his bereavement Farfrae, ever practical, decides not to
pursue the mischief-makers responsible for the skimmity-ride.
A year passes, and Henchard and Elizabeth-Jane live together
while Henchard manages the small seed-shop authorized for
him by the town council. The shop is successful, but Henchard
continues to be haunted by the fear of losing Elizabeth-Jane.
Henchard wonders about the new books Elizabeth-Jane reads
and asks himself how she is getting them. One day he
overhears Elizabeth-Jane and Farfrae chatting innocently
The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide
during a walk. On another occasion he stands behind a wall
and witnesses Farfrae kissing Elizabeth-Jane, calling her
"dearest." Henchard contemplates what would happen if he
told Farfrae the whole truth about his stepdaughter's past, but
he then reproaches himself for the thought.
Analysis
Henchard's lie to Newson in Chapter 41 extends the major
theme of deception in the novel. Notably, Henchard regrets his
falsehood almost immediately, realizing it may have entirely
unproductive consequences. He is, as ever, a creature of
impulse.
The conclusion of Chapter 42 offers a mirror image of the end
of Chapter 41. In the earlier chapter Henchard speculates on
Divine Providence, thinking he seems to be "in Somebody's
hand." At the end of Chapter 42, however, when he reflects on
how he might wreck Farfrae's relationship with Elizabeth-Jane,
Henchard reproaches himself for entertaining "visitations of
the Devil." Earlier in the story Henchard is portrayed as
superstitious: for example, he consults Mr. Fall, the weather
prophet. As the plot nears its conclusion, however, Henchard's
exclamations are more consistent with orthodox Christian
beliefs.
Hardy sprinkles some Latin phrases in Chapter 42: Henchard's
solicitus timor in his love for Elizabeth-Jane refers to his
"anxious fear" of losing her, while the legal phrase locus standi
means a right to appear in court—literally, "a place to stand."
Earlier in the novel Hardy describes Henchard as a "leonine" or
lion-like figure, and Henchard's affection for Farfrae is termed
"tigerish." Now, however, Hardy employs the image of a "netted
lion" for his protagonist, suggesting Henchard is ensnared or
caged; see also the phrase "fangless lion" at the beginning of
Chapter 43.
Chapters 43–45
Summary
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Chapter Summaries 29
Chapter 43
Faced with prospects of a dismal future and disconcerted by
the sight of Newson on the approach to town from Budmouth,
Henchard decides to leave Casterbridge. He discusses with
Elizabeth-Jane her relationship with Farfrae. He does not
forbid her to marry him, but he says he does not wish to attend
the wedding. He leaves town secretly and alone.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth-Jane has a reunion with Newson, her real
father. Newson and Farfrae discuss the upcoming wedding.
Newson reveals Henchard told him Elizabeth-Jane was dead,
and the young woman is shocked. Good-natured Newson,
however, shrugs off Henchard's deception.
Chapter 44
In his wanderings Henchard revisits Weydon-Priors, where he
auctioned off Susan long ago. As he laments his pride and
temper, the journey serves as an act of penance. In his despair
he bemoans being alive, against his will.
In Casterbridge Elizabeth-Jane and Farfrae's wedding day
approaches. Henchard becomes suddenly determined to
attend the celebrations, and he purchases a wedding present:
a caged goldfinch. Near Casterbridge the pealing of bells
signals the marriage has taken place. Later in the day
Henchard glimpses the festive dancing and is addressed as
"Mr. Henchard" by Elizabeth-Jane. He reproaches her, but she
then reproaches him for his deception of Newson. He bids her
farewell and departs by the back door.
Chapter 45
At her house Elizabeth-Jane discovers a new birdcage with the
dead body of a goldfinch, but no one can tell her how it got
there. A month after the wedding Elizabeth-Jane grows
concerned about her stepfather, who, she assumes, is
homeless and penniless. She and Farfrae begin to search for
him. At length, after much searching, they come upon Abel
Whittle, the poor employee Henchard humiliated for tardiness
long ago. Meeting them at his decrepit cottage, Whittle reveals
he had taken Henchard in because of Henchard's kindness to
his mother when she was ill and impoverished. Henchard died
only half an hour before Elizabeth-Jane and Farfrae's arrival.
Whittle shows them a piece of paper on which Henchard wrote
The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide
his will, requesting no one mourn or even remember him.
"What bitterness lies there!" exclaims Elizabeth-Jane. The
novel concludes with some reflections on her life experience.
Analysis
Henchard's return to Weydon-Priors in Chapter 44 brings the
novel full circle. His "act of penance," however, is not sufficient
to bring him peace of mind. In his anguish and solitary
wanderings, he is reminiscent of Shakespeare's King Lear, who
dies as an outcast, mad and solitary. Hardy may have intended
Henchard's wedding present to suggest Lear's remark to his
daughter Cordelia just before their deaths: "The two of us
together will sing like birds in a cage" (Act 5, Scene 3).
That Hardy meant to cast Henchard in the mold of a
Shakespearean tragic figure is also supported by an allusion in
Chapter 45, when the narrator comments, "It was a part of his
nature to extenuate nothing." The reference is to
Shakespeare's Othello, when the hero, just before he stabs
himself, declares to his listeners, "Speak of me as I am. Nothing
extenuate" (Act 5, Scene 2).
In another significant allusion in Chapter 43, the wandering
Henchard compares himself to Cain, the Biblical figure who
murdered his brother and then became an outcast and a
vagabond (Genesis 4:1-16).
The novel concludes with a solemn, elegiac tone. Hardy makes
clear his pessimistic outlook on human life in the final
paragraphs, as he writes of "a general drama of pain" where
happiness is but "an occasional episode."
g Quotes
"When she plodded on in the
shade of the hedge, silently
thinking, she had the hard, half-
apathetic expression of one who
deems anything possible at the
hands of Time and Chance except,
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Quotes 30
perhaps, fair play."
— Narrator, Chapter 1
The narrator describes Susan Henchard at the novel's outset.
The context makes it clear she and her husband, Michael
Henchard, are unhappily married. But Hardy's description also
foreshadows the major roles time and chance will play in the
story's events.
"What an old-fashioned place it
seems to be!"
— Elizabeth-Jane Newson, Chapter 4
Elizabeth-Jane makes this remark just as she and her mother,
Susan, enter Casterbridge for the first time. Most of Hardy's
novel is set in this town, which stands in for the novelist's own
adopted town of Dorchester, the center of Dorset County.
Elizabeth-Jane's observation highlights the conservatism of
Casterbridge, and it also alludes to the town's ancient history,
which reaches back to ancient Roman times. Both dimensions
are important for Hardy's use of setting in the novel.
"There was temper under the thin
bland surface—the temper which,
artificially intensified, had banished
a wife nearly a score of years
before."
— Narrator, Chapter 5
The narrator comments on Henchard when, as mayor, he
grows visibly irritated at some townsfolk's complaint about the
inferior quality of Henchard's grain. The comment draws
attention to one of Hardy's major emphases in the novel: the
frequent inconsistency between appearance and reality.
The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide
"I feel it a great relief, Farfrae, to
tell some friend o' this! You see
now that the mayor of
Casterbridge is not so thriving in
his mind as it seems he might be
from the state of his pocket."
— Michael Henchard, Chapter 12
Henchard and Farfrae have become inseparable friends.
Henchard expansively recounts various aspects of his past and
asks Farfrae's advice. The quotation underlines Henchard's
ever-restless nature and his fruitless quest for happiness. He
has become wealthy and influential, but emotional fulfillment
eludes him.
"Not if I am manager. ... He either
goes home, or I march out of this
yard for good."
— Donald Farfrae, Chapter 15
Farfrae intervenes as Henchard metes out humiliating and
cruel treatment to a tardy employee, the poor and simple Abel
Whittle. Farfrae's actions and words are consistent with his
characterization as a decent and generous man.
"These tones showed that, though
under a long reign of self-control
he had become mayor, and
churchwarden, and what-not,
there was still the same unruly
volcanic stuff beneath the rind of
Michael Henchard as when he had
sold his wife at Weydon Fair."
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Quotes 31
— Narrator, Chapter 17
The narrator comments on another display of Henchard's
impulsive, potentially explosive temperament. This time, after
Henchard and Farfrae have quarreled and split, Henchard is
incensed to learn Farfrae has set himself up as a rival in the
grain business.
"Elizabeth-Jane is not your
Elizabeth-Jane—the child who was
in my arms when you sold me. No;
she died three months after that,
and this living one is my other
husband's."
— Susan Henchard, Chapter 19
Susan makes this pivotal revelation in a letter penned shortly
before her death. The disclosure has a powerful impact on
Michael Henchard's relationship with Elizabeth-Jane for the
rest of his life.
"These domestic exhibitions were
the small protruding needle-rocks
which suggested rather than
revealed what was underneath."
— Narrator, Chapter 20
The "domestic exhibitions" refer to the spats between
Henchard and Elizabeth-Jane, as hostility and carping replace
his previous affection for her. Once again Hardy emphasizes
the contrast between surface appearances and reality.
"I will love him! ... as for him—he's
hot-tempered and stern, and it
The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide Quotes 32

Henchard, Farfrae, and Lucetta. Impropriety is not in her

would be madness to bind myself
nature.
to him knowing that. I won't be a
slave to the past—I'll love where I
"And thus out of error enmity
choose!"
grew."
— Lucetta Templeman, Chapter 25
— Narrator, Chapter 34

In this emotional outburst, Lucetta first refers to Farfrae and

then to Henchard, with whom she was romantically involved Hardy is especially fond of portraying the unexpected effects

earlier. She accurately describes Henchard as "hot-tempered," of misunderstandings. In this case Henchard mistakenly

although Hardy portrays Lucetta as somewhat similar in this believes Farfrae has acted to prevent him from setting up his

regard. She is impulsive and changeable, and she does not own business, and he becomes enraged.

hesitate to manipulate others to get her own way.

"To him, at least, it was not a joke,

"Continually it had happened that but a retaliation."
what she had desired had not
— Narrator, Chapter 37
been granted her, and that which
had been granted her she had not The narrator refers here to Joshua Jopp and the upcoming
desired." skimmity-ride, which will have such disastrous consequences
for both Henchard and Lucetta's reputations. Jopp is a
malicious character; Henchard encounters his ill will at several
— Narrator, Chapter 25
points in the novel.

Hardy uses a pointed contrast here to sum up Elizabeth-Jane's

destiny. Like other characters, she finds herself unable to steer "God forbid such a thing! Why
her own life's direction and is rather a victim of fate and
chance. should I still be subject to these
visitations of the Devil, when I try
"Any suspicion of impropriety was so hard to keep him away!"
to Elizabeth-Jane like a red rag to — Michael Henchard, Chapter 42
a bull."
Henchard regrets feeling tempted to tell Farfrae the truth
— Narrator, Chapter 30 about Elizabeth-Jane's background. The quotation shows he is
conscious of the ill-tempered, perverse streak in his nature.

Elizabeth-Jane is portrayed in the novel as consistently patient,

considerate, balanced, and "respectable"—an adjective Hardy
repeatedly uses to describe her. She works hard to educate "And being forced to class herself
herself, and she behaves responsibly in her relationships with
among the fortunate she did not

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The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide
cease to wonder at the
persistence of the unforeseen."
— Narrator, Chapter 45
The novel's concluding sentence sums up the role of chance
and coincidence in human affairs, as Elizabeth-Jane puzzles
over the contrast between her happy present and her tragic
past. Her youth, she reflects, "seemed to teach that happiness
was but the occasional episode in a general drama of pain"—a
viewpoint reflected in the novel's pessimistic outlook on the
possibility of enduring happiness.
l Symbols
Five Guineas
A guinea consists of 21 shillings, or one pound plus one shilling.
This is the price Newson pays when Henchard auctions off his
wife, Susan, at the Weydon-Priors fair. At the end of Chapter
10, when Henchard writes Susan a note asking her to meet him
at the Ring, he encloses five guineas. Hardy draws explicit
attention to the symbolism: "The amount was significant; it may
tacitly have said to her that he bought her back again."
Henchard's relationships with women lead to many problems
and conflicts for him. For example, he dismisses Susan several
times for her "meekness," and he has no idea how to deal with
the flighty Lucetta. In Chapter 12 he goes to the extent of
asking Farfrae, then his assistant, to frame a letter to Lucetta,
even as he deceives Elizabeth-Jane. All too often Henchard's
relationships with women seem transactional. As he says at
the end of Chapter 12, "Can it be that it will go off so easily! ...
Now then, to make amends to Susan!"
The five guineas he sends Susan, then, symbolically suggest
Henchard regards an intimate human relationship as a
commercial transaction. At the beginning of Chapter 13 the
narrator says Henchard pursues his quest for a remarriage to
Susan "with businesslike determination."
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Symbols 33
Skimmity-Ride
As the pivotal event in the plot, the skimmity-ride is fraught
with symbolic significance. Above all there is the symbolism
suggested by the effigies. Seated back to back, the man and
woman mocked by the procession are physically and visually
inverted, suggesting the illicit nature of their relationship. They
are seated on a donkey, a notoriously randy animal, signifying
lust motivates their connection. The intensely public nature of
the skimmity-ride, advertised by loud clangor and inebriated
revelry, signifies shaming and exile from society.
But there is more. On a deeper level the skimmity-ride signifies
the immense, potentially lethal, power of public opinion and the
ominous menace of mass psychology. Characters like Joshua
Jopp, Nance Mockridge, and Mother Cuxsom are motivated by
malice, envy, and resentment, not by any authentic concern for
social morality. The forces driving these characters are
dramatized when they egg each other on and whip up their
followers, even to the extent of opposing more moderate
views, such as those of Solomon Longways.
The skimmity-ride, then, symbolizes the breakdown rather than
the reinforcement of the social order in Casterbridge. It is
motivated by petty nastiness and selfish indulgence, and it
leads directly to Lucetta's death.
Goldfinch
Henchard chooses a goldfinch in a cage as his wedding gift to
Elizabeth-Jane. At the beginning of Chapter 45 she finds the
bird dead of neglect.
Goldfinches were especially popular as caged birds in 19th-
century Britain. They are handsomely colored and very small,
seldom exceeding five inches in length, and they have a
pleasant, twittering call.
The goldfinch initially suggests Henchard's love for Elizabeth-
Jane, but its cage and death foreshadow Henchard's own
death, as he is imprisoned by the conflicts and
disappointments of his life. The image of a caged bird may also
evoke a passage from Shakespeare's King Lear, when the title
The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide
character addresses his daughter Cordelia in Act 5, Scene 3:
see the "Insights" section on Chapter 45.
m Themes
Marriage as a Transaction
Marriage dominates the plot of The Mayor of Casterbridge. At
the book's start Michael Henchard shows his cynical
disillusionment with his marriage, which has lasted only two
years, by selling his wife. Late in the book Henchard's
stepdaughter, Elizabeth-Jane, weds Donald Farfrae. In
between, marriage as an institution is subjected to the author's
severe scrutiny, with very mixed results.
Throughout the novel Hardy implies marriage all too often
involves cynical exploitation or manipulation. Henchard handles
his relationship with Susan as a commercial transaction, buying
her back for the same price as he sold her many years
beforehand: five guineas. Lucetta furnishes another example,
as she manipulates her prior link to Henchard and then angles
for a marriage with Farfrae instead. Townsfolk such as Joshua
Jopp and Nance Mockridge, in their drunken revelry at the
skimmity-ride, don't really seem to care about upholding the
moral principles of marriage; they're simply indulging their
envious and vengeful natures.
Elizabeth-Jane is the only major character to stand apart from
the story's intricate marriage webs. For example, she tells
Lucetta it would be best to remain single—advice Lucetta
ignores. Elizabeth-Jane's marriage to Farfrae, near the novel's
conclusion, seems likely to succeed. But then, as Hardy might
phrase it, there is always "the persistence of the unforeseen."
As in The Return of the Native (1878) and several other of his
major works, Hardy projects a decidedly pessimistic view of
marriage as an institution.
Fate or Destiny
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Themes 34
Fate or destiny is a leading theme in most of Thomas Hardy's
novels. Hardy typically views fate as arbitrary but inalterable
and often inexplicable. In Chapter 41 of The Mayor of
Casterbridge, for example, Henchard exclaims about the
skimmity-ride and the effigy he saw in the water: "That
performance of theirs killed her [Lucetta], but kept me alive!"
Likewise, what Hardy terms "the persistence of the
unforeseen" at the end of the novel intervenes to frustrate
Henchard in his attempt to ruin Farfrae. Henchard makes a
mistaken bet on the weather, having superstitiously consulted
the "weather prophet" Mr. Fall. As a consequence, he suffers
huge losses. Farfrae, on the other hand, buys grain when
prices are low and makes large profits. On a less dramatic
scale, unpredictable weather at Casterbridge results in the
failure of Henchard's plans for a festive public entertainment.
Hardy dramatizes the role of fate or destiny in numerous ways
in the novel. Long-absent characters such as Joshua Jopp and
Richard Newson unexpectedly reappear to play a major part in
the action. Situations and conflicts undergo unanticipated
reversals: for example, the friendship between Henchard and
Farfrae, the shift in Lucetta's affections, and the belief
Henchard is Elizabeth-Jane's father. For Hardy, in the end, the
role of destiny in human affairs is inscrutable.
Rivalry
Rivalry is a major thematic strand in The Mayor of
Casterbridge. This theme is most clearly illustrated by the
competition between Henchard and Farfrae, which unfolds in
many different spheres of the two men's lives. At first friends
and quasi-partners, Henchard and Farfrae contend against
each other in the grain business, with Farfrae adopting an
ethical approach and Henchard behaving bitterly and
obsessively. In politics and society, Farfrae slowly gains
influence and prestige and is finally installed as mayor of the
town, while Henchard suffers disgrace and humiliation. In
romance, Henchard also loses out to Farfrae when Lucetta
rejects him and weds Farfrae instead. Finally, Henchard's
morbid fear of losing Elizabeth-Jane is borne out when she
marries Farfrae and reproaches Henchard for having lied to
Richard Newson, her real father.
Although he is absent from most of the novel's pages, Richard
The Mayor of Casterbridge Study Guide
Newson is also portrayed as Henchard's rival. This is most
apparent in Henchard's morbid anxiety about Newson
replacing him in Elizabeth-Jane's affections. In Newson's own
account of his marriage to Susan, it is also clear Susan saw the
two men, former and present husbands, as rivals.
Deception
Many characters in The Mayor of Casterbridge engage in
deception; lies and half-truths come to dominate life in Hardy's
fictional world. The results of such behavior are nearly always
damaging.
Susan, for example, deceives Henchard into thinking he is
Elizabeth-Jane's natural father. She also deceives Elizabeth-
Jane, during their initial search for Henchard, telling the young
woman they are trying to locate a relative or "connection by
marriage." Toward the end of the novel, Henchard lies to
Newson, telling him Elizabeth-Jane is dead.
Lucetta also practices deception when she pits Farfrae and
Henchard against one another. She conceals her past links
with Henchard from Farfrae, and she conceals from Henchard
her secret marriage at Port-Bredy.
Henchard is hardly forthright about the most shameful action in
his past: the auctioning of his wife to the highest bidder. When
the furmity woman discloses Henchard's secret, the former
mayor is disgraced.
Finally, the townsfolk who organize and participate in the
skimmity-ride are masters of deception, frustrating the "rusty-
jointed executors of the law." In Hardy's fictional world,
deception is so rife it appears to be an integral part of human
nature.
Pride
The theme of pride in the novel is closely related to the themes
of rivalry and deception. Pride motivates many of Henchard's
actions and conflicts, both external and internal. For example,
pride plays a role in his decision to surrender his gold watch at
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Suggested Reading 35
the bankruptcy proceedings. Likewise, pride seems to be the
most likely motive in his decision to tie one arm behind his back
in the fight with Farfrae. Late in the novel, when he returns to
Weydon-Priors, Henchard refers to his "cursed pride."
Like Henchard, Lucetta has a complex past and a deep anxiety
about maintaining her pride and dignity. Her love letters to
Henchard pose the most serious threat, and this accounts for
the importance attached to them in the plot. When the letters'
content becomes public knowledge and Lucetta is publicly
mocked in the skimmity-ride, her pride is dealt, quite literally, a
mortal blow.
On the other side of the coin, three important characters seem
immune to the pitfalls posed by pride. First is Elizabeth-Jane,
who copes with her displacement by Lucetta in Farfrae's
affections with equanimity. Second is Farfrae, whose
pragmatism and inherent good nature keep him from
succumbing to fits of pride, even when he becomes mayor.
Finally, Richard Newson is patient and sympathetic enough to
step aside in Susan's life so she can resume her relationship
with Henchard.
e Suggested Reading
Dalziel, Pamela. Introduction. Thomas Hardy: The Mayor of
Casterbridge, by Dalziel, Oxford World's Classics, 2004.
Langbaum, Robert. Thomas Hardy in Our Time. Macmillan,
1995.
Miller, J. Hillis. Thomas Hardy: Distance and Desire. Harvard UP,
1970.
Millgate, Michael. Thomas Hardy: A Biography Revisited. Oxford
UP, 2004.
Paterson, John. "The Mayor of Casterbridge as Tragedy."
Victorian Studies, vol. 3, no. 2, 1959, pp. 151–72.