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POULAMI KUNDU
SEM-4 CC-10 TUTORIAL (draft)
UNIVERSITY ROLL
NUMBER – 192031-11-0047
UNIVERSITY REGRISTRATION
NUMBER – 031-1211-0222-19
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THE ATRIBUTES OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FARFRAE AND

LUCETTA IN The Mayor of Casterbridge

Thomas Hardy’s 1886 novel The Mayor of Casterbridge – the Life and Death of a Man of

a Character presents the readers with a major interpretive puzzle with a narrative on a

grand scale revolving around human character, society, environment, and various man –

woman relationships. The dynamics between Donald Farfrae, a young Scottish man, who

later was perceived by the protagonist Michael Henchard as his arch enemy, and Lucetta

Templeman, a young woman from Jersey who had a brief association with Henchard, is

one such relationship that plays a very crucial role in the Hardy universe.

Critic Maria Dorm writes in her journal –

“The novel’s magnetic energy and absorbing readability are fueled by a

triangular patterning in man-woman relationships which finds the women or men

not as objects desired for themselves but rather as objects desired for themselves

but rather as objects of contention in a power struggle.” (196)

Hardy’s design of Farfrae and Lucetta’s relationship in the novel perfectly fits this

structure of power dynamics.

Lucetta first met Farfrae after settling in High Place Hall. She became quickly enamored

with him. However funnily enough, Farfrae’s motive to visit High Place Hall was
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actually to ask the hand of Elizabeth Jane, whom Lucetta had sheltered, for marriage, as

Farfrae thought

“Apart from her personal recommendations, a reconciliation with his former

friend Henchard would, in the natural course of things, flow from such

an union.” (Chapter twenty two)

Lucetta too had been waiting for Henchard to meet her and hand over the love letters she

wrote to him that captured her scandalously indiscreet affair with him. Even though she

said she was no longer interested in Henchard, she made sure to arrange herself

attractively and picturesquely on the chair and hid herself behind the window curtain on

hearing about his arrival as

“In spite of the waning of passion the situation was an agitating one – she had not

seen Henchard since his temporary parting from her in Jersey.” (Chapter

twenty two)

Even though she had previously suffered for living recklessly, instead of being cautious,

once she met Farfrae instead of the man she was expecting, she openly showed interest in

the stranger and coquettishly began flirting with him, completely ignoring his plan to see

Elizabeth-Jane. Thus, the first meet of Farfrae and Lucetta, that flagged off their

relationship, was nothing but a chance incident, where both of them were actually aiming

to meet not each other, but Elizabeth and Henchard, respectively. The very foundation of
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their association was therefore not based on any strong emotional exchange or intellectual

bonding.

Nevertheless, Lucetta did excite Farfrae. However, by character she was a subterfuge

opportunist.

“In her poverty she had made with repulse from the society to which she had

belonged, and she had no great zest for renewing an attempt upon it now. Her

heart longed for some ark into which it could fly and be at rest.” (Chapter

twenty three)

Farfrae was not a man who was sentimentally inclined or made decisions out of gushing

emotions. His attraction for Lucetta, too, was more of an infatuation underlined by an

allurement of what appeared to him social respectability.

Soon after, Farfrae and Lucetta secretly got married at Port Breedy. When Lucetta

justified her clandestine marriage with Farfrae to Henchard, she explained in terms of

worldly success, not in terms of any emotional exchange.

“I could not risk myself in your hand; it would have been letting myself down to

tale your name after such a scandal. But I knew I should lose Donald if I did not

secure him at once – for you would carry out your threat of telling him of our

former acquaintance.” (Chapter twenty nine)

Even though Henchard, jealous of Farfrae and betrayed by Lucetta, initially devised a

revenge plan, he finally gave up as he realized,

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“…no longer envied Farfrae his bargain. He had married money, but nothing

more.” (Chapter thirty

five)

Soon after their marriage Farfrae moved in with Lucetta because she had a nicer house

and greater wealth and therefore Lucetta was socially higher than Farfrae for then.

Farfrae also agreed to Lucetta’s proposal for allowing Elizabeth Jane to continue living

with them. Any other man in his position may have had felt some discomfort at this, but

Farfrae was unbothered as he was not primarily driven by emotions and Lucetta was like

a trophy wife to him.

Nevertheless, the newly married Farfrae and Lucetta indulged in their public display of

affection on Sundays and weekdays

“Farfrae and Lucetta might have been seen flitting about the town like two

butterflies – or rather like a bee and a butterfly in the league of life.” (Chapter

thirty three)

Lucetta was especially fond of strolling around in her husband’s company; however

Farfrae failed to feel deeply for his wife and spent most of his afternoons in business

while his wife waits for him indoors. Thus, Farfrae was like an industrious ‘bee’ to

Lucetta’s charming delightful ‘butterfly’, and there was an absence of any lovely

connection between them.

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Farfrae once came very close to discerning the truth of Lucetta’s past dalliance with

Henchard when he confessed to Lucetta that he was confused by Henchard’s hatred of

him and could not understand why Henchard felt so strongly about the situation, as if

they were in a rivalry of love, rather than a small trade rivalry.  Even though he assured

her that the situation was not all that bad, it fueled Lucetta’s incessant anxiety of her

hideous past getting exposed to her husband, the fear that later ended up even taking her

life and in order to escape, Lucetta told Farfrae that she wished he would seriously

consider her plan of moving elsewhere, to which he momentarily agreed. At that very

moment, Mr. Vatt offered Farfrae his seat on the council, and Farfrae instantaneously

accepted, forgetting about his wife. Farfrae prioritized his social position in Casterbridge

over Lucetta and rejected her wish to move away, which could have saved her from her

horrific death, in the face of the offer to be the Mayor.

Soon after Lucetta’s death, Farfrae also quite easily transferred his affections to Elizabeth

Jane after his brief mourning was over. His rationality and calculative mind made him

very flexible, but it also indicated his emotional indifference.

“It was inevitable that the insight, briskness, and rapidity of his nature should

take him out of the dead blank which his loss threw about him. He could not but

perceive that by the death of Lucetta he had exchanged a looming misery for a

simple sorrow.” (Chapter forty

two)
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Donald Farfrae was a man who thought more than he felt; he was successful in his

commercial dealings but his mechanical mind often failed at being passionate or tender-

hearted. On the other hand, Lucetta Templeman was a flirtatious woman and also

opportunistic and impetuous. A sound healthy relationship between them was thus

impossible. Farfrae, too, realized the same after Lucetta’s truth was revealed to him.

Hardy’s careful representation of their relationship makes The Mayor of Casterbridge a

novel not merely about the rise and fall of Michael Henchard, but also about the intrigues

of man – woman relationships.

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WORKS CITED –

 Dorn, Maria. “I WON’T BE A SLAVE TO THE PAST – I’LL LOVE WHERE I

CHOOSE.” The Thomas Hardy Journal, vol. 27, 2012, pp. 114–21. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org.

 Hardy, Thomas. The Mayor of Casterbridge. Penguin Books, 2003.

 R. Karl, Frederick. “THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE: A New Fiction

Defined.” Modern Fiction Studies, vol. 6, no. 3, 1960. JSTOR, www.jstor.org.

 Rodden, John. “Infernal Triangles: Patterns of Conflict in Hardy’s The Mayor of

Casterbridge.” Journal of Ritual Studies, vol. 25, no. 2, 2011. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org.
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