Introduction

Thomas Hardy is often characterized as a disappointed Romantic. The remnants of Romanticism still lingered in the early Victorian era, the society into which he was born. Hardy has, by this stage of his life, become disillusioned with Victorian society, and observed the inability of Romantic ideals to survive in this world; and yet his disillusionment inspires an impulse towards Romanticism, as a solace in the face of an unfamiliar world.

The Romantic period ended with the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1837, and the Victorian Period began, when eighteen-year old Queen Victoria ascended to the British throne and ended with her death in 1901. The Victorian period has been perceived as a serene, complacent and intellectual stagnant age. The main actions that take place in “The Mayor of Casterbridge” occur during the Victorian era around the year 1846. In his novel, “The Mayor of Casterbridge,” Hardy offers us however an opposite tableau of the Victorian age, thus depicting the period as a violent, disturbed and revolutionary age. Actually, Hardy’s view of the nineteenth century, Victorian age is more accurate.

During the first half of the nineteenth century, the English society was making a difficult transition from a pre-industrial to “modern” Victorian times. In the middle of the nineteenth century, England was experiencing unprecented political, industrial and economic power, fuelled by the Industrial Revolution. Modern transportation emerged such as railways; living standards of the working class and middle class were buoyed and trade unions were formed to promote the interests of skilled workers. Economic hardships encouraged immigration to the British colonies and to the United State. More than two hundred thousand Britons left home each year during the 1880s – as Newson did and as Farfrae intended to do in “The Mayor of Casterbridge”.

For England, these changes had begun during Hardy’s time and the rapidity of theses changes created an unbalanced structure, which affected the society and the economy. England was feverishly metamorphosing from a rural to an agricultural, industrial and urban nation. These were the years in which traditionalists accepted defeat and where modernism took over. Hardy refers to theses changes in his novel.

2. Settings

2.1. Hardy’s Wessex

Thomas Hardy’s impression of his early youth – the society, the economy, the events, the countryside and the evolution of rural England to “modernism” of the nineteenth century are reflected in his “Wessex” novels and stories. Hardy drew on his own experiences and described the people and countryside of the southwest of England, thus adopting the name “Wessex” for his fictional country. The town of Casterbridge is the Dorchester near where Hardy was brought up. At age 16, Hardy was apprenticed to an architect whose specialty was the restoration of churches. During his apprenticeship, Hardy developed a greater respect for the simplicities of country life and its traditional institutions and architecture. This appreciation is obvious in the careful descriptions of architectural structures in The Mayor of Casterbridge. Mentions of various prominent buildings and ancient Roman foundations and architects such as Maumbury Rings and the Fairfield, which has been home to Dorchester’s famous historic open, are found in the novel.

2.2. Urbanization

The nineteenth century Britain experienced a population explosion. The problem of this population explosion, serious in itself, was aggravated by the collection of these masses of people in the new urban centers resulting from introducing of the factory system during the Industrial revolution. When Farfrae arrives, he brings with him new and efficient systems for managing the town’s grain markets and increasing agricultural production. Thus Casterbridge is clearly a Wessex town, caught in the past and just awakening to nineteenth-century social change. And Michael Henchard is certainly a Wessex character, attempting to deal with his fate. In this way, Henchard and Farfrae come to represent tradition and innovation, respectively. As such, their struggle can be seen not merely as a competition between a grain merchant and his former protégé but rather as the tension between the desire for and the reluctance to change as one age replaces another. Nevertheless, Hardy reports the passing from one era to the next with a quiet kind of nostalgia. Throughout the novel are traces of a world that once was and will never be again.

2.3. The lost romanticism

Hardy’s romance with rural life is revealed when he states that Casterbridge is full of agricultural and pastoral people, “untouched by the faintest sprinkle of modernism.” (P38. Chapter 4.) Casterbridge puts emphasis on traditional customs at the beginning: business is conducted by word of mouth and weather-prophets are consulted regarding crop yields. When Farfrae appears in Casterbridge for the first time, “Casterbridge had sentiment – Casterbridge had romance; but this stranger’s (Farfrae) sentiment was of differing quality.” (P69. Chapter 8.) Indeed, Farfrae is the representation of modernism and thus the romanticism of Casterbridge started losing its position as when Farfrae introduces the horse drill, Elizabeth-Jane observed: “… the romance of the sower is gone for good.” (P204. Chapter 24)

2.4. Naturalism

“The Mayor of Casterbridge’ is an example of the naturalist movement in literature. Influenced by the evolution theory of Charles Darwin, Hardy’s depicts realism in his novel. The actions of “The Mayor of Casterbridge” concern the past. The proceeding of the first two chapters of “The Mayor of Casterbridge” begin in the late 1820s, has its main actions in the late 1860s and was written in the 1880s. Hardy was able to record lost customs such as the skimmity ride, the traditional to modern methods in agriculture and farming and chronicle the take over of modernism. The depiction of the nineteenth century life is exposed in the novel for example the changes that marked the century such as politics, art, religion, industrialization and education among others, the existence of the “wife-selling” tradition in the early nineteenth century and also the delineation of emblematic nineteenth century women. Furthermore authentic food consumed during the century that is “furmity” is found. The author takes pain to be specific and even listing the ingredients because he wants to convey to the readers the typical life of the nineteenth century. Hardy’s persistent use of the “Wessex” setting and his exact historical details in his novels indeed authenticate about a real time and place, thus confirming that the nineteenth century life was indeed the way that Hardy described. Hardy uses realistic dialect and phrases he is familiar with from listening to country people in his native region, the southwest of England. Casterbridge townspeople talk in dialect and are used to identify the social class of the characters. For example Henchard is seen speaking in dialect but criticizes his daughter when she speaks a “country phrase” such as “leery.” Thus we see that social class was important for the people of Hardy’s epoch

2.5. Religion and the Bible

One may argue that the “romantic revolution” of the first part of the century had been an attempt to retain a “religious” or “illusion” view of life. The progression of the nineteenth century was in the direction of “disillusionment” of religious interpretations of man and his place in the universe. During the second half of the 1800’s, new scientific theories seemed to challenge many religious beliefs. The most controversial theory appeared in “The Origin of Species” (1859) by the biologist Charles Darwin. In the book, he stated that every species of life develops from an earlier one, which seemed to contradict the Biblical account of the creation of life. The theories of Darwin and other scientists led many people to feel that traditional values could no longer guide their lives. A dwindling of his religious faith troubled Hardy. He had carefully read the writings of Charles Darwin and other scientists and had lost some of his belief that a controlling force governed the universe. This loss of faith is reflected in the bleakness of the landscape in Wessex and the harshness of the fate that plagues many of Hardy’s major characters. Victorian England was deeply religious. During this period, families were generally large and patriarchal. Habits of hard work, respectability, deference and religious conformity were taught to the new generation. People were frequent Churchgoers and read the Bible regularly. For this reason, Hardy’s representation of Henchard was that he was a “church-warden.” The townsfolk’s interpretation of the Christian fate is made to fit their natural inclination. And their Christianity is well bound up with creature comforts as the regularly walk after service across from the church to the Three Mariners, but, on a point of honour, only for half-a-pint. The nineteenth century people were questioning the traditional belief that the Bible was the word of god. The modern Christian rid himself of the superstitions of myths accumulated. At that time, the Victorian period, men were examining, testing and criticizing the Bible – this shattered their personal faith for this reason Hardy chooses that it is fate, rather than God, that dominates the environment and directs the action. Although Hardy’s faith remained intact, the irony and struggles of life led him to question God and His traditional meaning in the Christian sense.

Michael Henchard for example deserts his family and can never quite escape the psychological guilt that plagues him throughout the rest of his life. After his sin, he remains trapped in his past actions and emerges later as a pessimistic character. Henchard accepts the burden of guilt and takes a 21-year oath of abstinence. But his gradual downfall causes him to lose faith: “Now the Three Mariners was the inn chosen by Henchard as the place for closing his long term dramless years. He had so timed his entry as to be well established in the large room by the time the forty church-goes entered to their customary cups. The flush upon his face proclaimed at once that the vow of twenty-one years had lapsed, and the era of recklessness begun anew.” (P277. Chapter 33)

Hardy’s critics were shocked by what they regarded as wantonness and pessimism, but most modern readers are more surprised by how contemporary Hardy’s themes and characters seem.

3. Important features of the nineteenth century:

3.1. Politics, power and economy

During the Victorian era, Britain became the world’s leading power, controlling one quarter of the world’s population and one third of the land area. The changes in the society contribute to changes in the political and economic structure. Queen Victoria’s reign proved that England could do without a monarch. A new middle class of industrialists and merchants arose, hence the political demands of London’s working people became ever clearer. New ideas like democracy, liberalism, socialism, labour unions, Marxism, feminism and other modern movements that were to change the whole world in future, took form during this period. The Victorians were liberal in their hearts and wanted to spread their ideas throughout the British Empire.

These events are reflected in the novel, “The Mayor of Casterbridge”. The traditional business of the great country fair is in decline, a symptom of a change in the rural economic pattern. In the opening chapters we meet the furmity woman who “was once the owner of a great pavilion-tent that was the attraction of the fair,” but later we meet her again working in the open, with hardly any customers and is almost ignored. The customers of the furmity woman also change with time to small boys with halfpennies. Her source of income is gone with the changing time. Money is significant of power and dominates every transaction even if it is pence rather than pound. The market place is the centre of Casterbridge. Hardy’s novel consists of a commercial atmosphere with much emphasis on buying and selling. For Henchard, money buys everything even the buying and selling of his wife. Even Farfrae acknowledge to Elizabeth-Jane that with money, he would have bound to be more powerful: “I wish I was richer, Miss Newson…” Hardy takes us to events in the novel where he radically shows us that in the nineteenth century, money governs the market as the labouring classes took over when the merchants and more leisured people left off. As for Lucetta, she used the scandal that was the result of her behaviour to press Henchard to marry her, but when she inherited money of her own, she felt free to fall in love with Farfrae. She uses her money to buy clothes. Her attention to clothes in contrast to Elizabeth Jane, who prefers not to dress showily, is a way to show her power and financial stability.

At the time of the novel, women such as Susan and Elizabeth-Jane had no righting vote. In the nineteenth century, shifts in population raised questions of reappointment and demands and demands for extension of voting rights to the middle class and later to lower classes. The transformation of Michael Henchard, from an out-of-work hay trusser to a resplendent leading citizen of a thriving community is significant to the changes. Hardy portrays within the character of Henchard the shift of power within the community. As time goes by, people revolutionize together with the changes in the economy structure. Change became a way of life, distasteful to many, but apparently unavoidable. Henchard himself has worked his way from a penniless wanderer to an established tycoon: “He (Henchard) worked his way up from nothing when “a came here; and now he”s a pillar of the town.” (P47. Chapter 5) Henchard is naturally proud of his success, and at the mayoral dinner bells “a story of his hay-dealing experiences, in which he had outwitted a sharper who had been bent upon outwitting him.” (P48. Chapter 5)

Therefore power, money and politics clearly are the three major aspects that interested Henchard and Farfrae as well as the people of the nineteenth century especially due to the Industrial Revolution. With the invention of the powerful machines that would carry out heavy agricultural works, machinery became too unwieldy and too expensive for the individual farmer. The only people who would afford to operate and maintain the machines were the people as Henchard and Farfrae. The rest of the population was lowly hay-trusser like Henchard in the beginning chapters, striving and seeking for job and or farmers working on small garden plot. In fact when after Henchard’s downfall, he becomes hay-trusser once more, which symbolizes that this were the main occupation of the people of the nineteenth century.

Change in the economy structure is bound to prolong, Farfrae overtakes Henchard both politically and financially and gains power while Henchard loses everything and this goes the same way for the furmity woman who was once respectable, is brought into court in Casterbridge for disorderly behaviour later in the novel. Farfrae is the new man, becoming involved in the traditional activities of the area with a new approach and new success. The people of the nineteenth century follow changes and accept changes as the people of Casterbridge accepted the practical methods and changes of Farfrae. Although the traditionalists fought for renewal with traditions, it became evident that they were already defeated.

3.2. Traditionalists versus Modernism

In the novel modernism has taken over, a momentous change of the nineteenth century such as the introduction of modern transport such as railways took place. We are at first introduced to a traditional Casterbridge through Elizabeth-Jane’s description as she and her mother arrived to the town: “What an old fashioned place it seems to be!” (P37. Chapter 4) In the novel, Hardy portrays the take over of modernism by stating: “certain mechanical improvements might have been noticed in the roundabouts and highfliers, machines for testing rustic strength and weight, and in the erections devoted to shooting for nuts.” (P29. Chapter 3)

As a real fact of the nineteenth century, Hardy in his novel, “The Mayor of Casterbridge,” show how modernism was drastically taking over by showing that the Weydon-priors fair was busy and prosperous when Henchard and his family arrived at the beginning of the novel. Nearly twenty years later when Susan and Elizabeth returns, the old fair is almost desert: “…the real business of the fair had considerably dwindled. The new periodical great markets of neighbouring towns were beginning to interfere seriously with the trade carried on here for centuries. The pens sheep, the tie-ropes for horses, were about half as long as they had been. The stalls of tailors, hosiers, coopers, linen-drapers, vehicles were far less numerous…” (P29. Chapter 3)

Farfrae’s introduction of new machinery of sowing grain is a sign of the industrialism that will change rustic life, a symbol of the passing of rural England: “It was the new-fashioned agricultural implement called a horse-drill, till then unknown, in its modern shape, in this part of the country, where the venerable seed-lip was still used for sowing as in the days of the Heptarchy.” (P201. Chapter 24) The effect of modernism had a great influence on the people of Casterbridge as modernism had its impact in the nineteenth century: “Its arrival created about much sensation in the corn-market as a flying machine would create at Charing Cross.”

The conflicts of traditionalists and modernism are depicted through the characters of Henchard and Farfrae. Henchard represents the traditionalist while Farfrae portrays progression and modernization. As mentioned earlier, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, English society was making a difficult transition from a pre-industrial Britain to modernism. The approach of Henchard to business is different to Farfrae. While Henchard is a man who has an old-fashioned attitude towards business, Farfrae revolutionize Casterbridge with the introduction of new machinery. Through Farfrae, the people in Casterbridge agree to change, preferring his methods and visions rather than Henchard. Like Farfrae, the townspeople revolutionize with him turning their back to traditions. People such as Lucetta welcomes modernism. When she and Elizabeth-Jane descend to the market place to see the new agricultural machine, Lucetta’s alliance with the machine is immediate: “Among all the agriculturists gathered round, the only appropriate possessor of the new machine seemed to be Lucetta, because she alone rivalled it in color.” (P202. Chapter 24)

It was certainly factual that in the nineteenth century, at one time tradition was very popular; similarly, Michael Henchard was also once very popular. Henchard was the Mayor of Casterbridge and the owner of an important business: “…in the chair of dignity, sat a man about forty years of age; of heavy frame, large features and commanding voice.” Henchard’s dress also represents traditionalism: “He was dressed in an old-fashioned evening suit, and expands of frilled shirt showing on his broad chest; jeweled studs, and a heavy gold chain.” (P45. Chapter 5) However, it is inevitable that modernism will overcome tradition and so Farfrae changes roles with Henchard. Henchard is no longer the popular man in town and is seen as outdated. Some traditionalists like Henchard refuse to accept that modernism was taking over and even went to the extent of mocking progress. For this reason, when Farfrae introduced a horse drill to the town of Casterbridge, Henchard as the old-fashioned exclaimed: “…’tis impossible to act!” while attempting to explain the contraction: “…and still more forcibly to ridicule it.” (P203. Chapter 24) As a traditionalist, Henchard’s views are distinctly opposite to Farfrae because he is trying to defend traditions just as some traditionalists took their last stand before accepting defeat in the name of progress in the nineteenth century.

Hence Henchard is the icon of lost tradition of the nineteenth century. Being older and not skilled at bookkeeping or having the patience of keeping a good relationship with his employees, it was evident that traditions were eventually to be forgotten and lost. The townspeople’s revival of the skimmity ride is an attempt to renew the old traditions and it is for this reason why the stranger in the inn if Mixen Lane offers money as an attempt to refurbish with tradition by saying: “…I should like to se the old custom… I don’t mind being something towards it…” (P310. Chapter 36) but the unexpected death of Lucetta is a shock that destroys the attempt. Solomon Longways and others keep Farfrae away on the night of the skimmity ride. Their personal sympathy for Farfrae contributes to the rejection of the old traditions.

In short just as England went through the change in agriculture due to industrialization, Hardy’s Casterbridge society saw modernism progress over tradition.

3.3. Women and marriages

Hardy’s attitudes towards women were complex because of his own experiences. Certainly the latter stages of his own marriage to Emma Lavinia Gifford must have contributed much to his somewhat equivocal attitudes. On the one hand, Hardy praises female endurance, strength, passion, and sensitivity; on the other, he depicts women as meek, vain, plotting creatures of mercurial moods. The Victorian era saw women as icons of faithful wives and mothers. The consequence of the idea that women were essentially wives and mothers was that they were regarded as such by the nineteenth century society. The wife of the early nineteenth century was typically seen as the child bearer, householder and was had low wage jobs such as weavers as is the situation of Susan in “The Mayor of Casterbridge.” Otherwise, in the mid century, a small number of women might become governesses or a lady companion as is regarded for the case of Elizabeth-Jane when she decides to work for Lucetta. Until almost the end of the century, 1882, everything that a woman owned passed into the possession of her husband when she married. This is seen in the case of Lucetta who is financially stable and marries Farfrae: “Whether Farfrae would sell his business and set up for a gentleman on his wife’s money (Lucetta), or whether he would show independence enough to stick to his trade in spite of his brilliant alliance, was a great point of interest.” Hardy brings to light in his novel, the harsh reality of Victorian society’s treatment of women.

In the novel, Henchard sells his wife as Susan allows herself to be “sold” and willingly goes with Newson, her new husband who bought her. Research in the early nineteenth century indicates that in rural districts of Britain, there was indeed the existence of “Wives for sales” among the peasantry of dissolving dysfunctional marriages. Hardy justifies his use of the “wife selling” transaction: “It may seem strange to sophisticated minds that a sane young matron could believe in the seriousness of such transfer; and were there not numerous instances of the same belief the thing might scarcely be credited. But she was by no means the first or last peasant woman who had religiously adhered her purchaser, as too many rural records show.” (P36. Chapter 4)

According to editors Andrew A. Orr and Vivian De Sola Pinto, Hardy had researched the wife selling transaction tradition in British newspapers of the early nineteenth century: “Thomas Hardy had heard of such case at Portland, and that it suggested this incident to him. In the “Observer” of March 24, 1833, …the extract… “Sale of a Wife” appeared.”

This suggest that women of the early nineteenth century such as Susan had no alternative but to willingly accept as being considered as a mere purchasing objects in the eyes of men such as Henchard and Newson. Susan certainly is the emblem of traditional women where society considered them as inferior. Susan remains evidently loyal to Newson until his death. Although she questions the legality of her situation, as a faithful and traditional wife she remains with Newson until she hears about him being lost at sea and she confirms so with Henchard: “I thought I owed him (Newson) faithfulness to the end of one of our lives… I thought that even in honour I dared not desert him when he had paid so much for me in good faith. I meet you now only as his widow… had he not died I should never have come – never! Of that you may be sure.” (P.92 Chapter 11)

The remarriage of Michael and Susan Henchard is the product of what Hardy terms “business-like determination” and “strict mechanical rightness” in Henchard’s conscientious thinking. Henchard courts Susan as if he were going to work or performing a civic duty: “The visit was repeated again and again with business-like determination by the mayor” (P102. Chapter 13) Outside the church on their wedding day the common people’s reaction to the event is negative; the average Casterbridge feels that the Mayor is degrading himself. In the eyes of the townsfolk he is “lowering his dignity by marrying so comparatively humble a woman.” Women like Susan were merely being regarded as unimportant article. Clearly Susan is regarded as “bankrupt.” The people in Casterbridge are mystified at Henchard’s choice, for Susan has neither the social status, nor physical attractiveness, nor money necessary for one who wishes to marry a merchant-prince.

As stated, modernism was overtaking tradition. Women like Susan and the furmity woman no longer had their place in the world of progression. Elizabeth-Jane is aligned between both traditional and modernism. She is sometimes Henchard’s daughter and sometimes Newson’s daughter. She is a modern woman in her craving for education but yet she is so unlike Lucetta because Elizabeth is reserved, shy and like her mother pessimistic with life. In fact Elizabeth-Jane represents the lost romanticism. She is responsive to beauty and to love but has a hard time to fit within the society. She suffers because she is linked with Henchard and does not marry Farfrae at first. It can be said that Farfrae in fact chooses modernism that is Lucetta over romanticism. This is momentous as we see the difficulty in which she tries to fit the tableau. Lucetta on the other hand, the modern woman, changes her name from Le Sueur to Templeman, to mask the past while Elizabeth changes hers from Newson to Henchard to please the one whom she thinks is her real father. Lucetta compared to Elizabeth fit in the story as she marries Farfrae but later is rejected because of her lost chastity.

The behaviour of the three iconic women of the nineteenth century is significant of how progression wins over. The people of nineteenth century found it scandalous the affair of Lucetta with Henchard in the past. For this reason, the skimmity ride was organised, a sheer way of humiliating Lucetta. But the unexpected death of Lucetta made the townspeople reconsider their act and let go of their traditional activities of causing disgrace to untraditional women. For much of the duration of Lucetta’s existence in the novel she is the subject of ridicule. When word is circulated throughout her native Jersey about her intimacy with Henchard, it is she and not Henchard who suffers opprobrium. This intimacy, when revealed in Casterbridge, leads to her social downfall. Hardy shows us the progression of change within the behaviour of women; for Susan there was not such thing as flirting and courting while for Elizabeth-Jane, she does not reveal her true feeling for Farfrae because she is shy and reserved whereas Lucetta the modern woman not only had an affair with Henchard but arranges herself on the sofa and flirts with Farfrae when she does not see Henchard.

The three women perceive marriage differently; Susan considers marriage sacred and as a mean of security for her daughter and herself for this after Newson’s death seeks for Henchard: “The sailor, drowned or no, was probably now lost to them; and Susan’s staunch, religious adherence to him as her husband in principle, till her views had been disturbed by enlightenment, was demanded no more. She asked herself whether the present moment, now she was free woman again, were not as opportune a one she would find in a world where everything had been so inopportune, for making desperate effort to advance Elizabeth.” (P36. Chapter 4)

Elizabeth perceives marriage as the union of love of two mutual lovers and courtship because of her romantic attitude. This is seen through her attitude towards Farfrae as when he enters the granary on Durnover Hill: “By some unaccountable shyness, some wish not to meet him (Farfrae alone, she quickly ascended the step-ladder leading her to the granary door, and entered it before he had seen her.” (P115.Chapter 14)

Lucetta who on the other hand perceives marriage as a means of security, status and romance and says so to Henchard: “I loved him so much… I knew I should lose Donald if I did not secure him at once – for you would carry out your threat telling him of our former acquaintance…” (P.253 Chapter 29)

Thus in “The Mayor of Casterbridge,” Thomas Hardy attempted to make Victorian society more aware of its treatment of and attitudes towards women. Hardy not only depicts the treatment of women through the three main characters but also through the furmity woman, Nance Mockridge, Mother Cuxsom, and Mrs. Stannidge, the genial publican of the Three Mariners Inn. Whether of high or low estate, women are consistently revealed either as insignificant workers or as pawns in male power-games in this late Victorian novel.

3.4. Education

The Victorian Age was characterized by impetus change and developments in every sphere of life- from science and technology to medicine, from population, culture and literature to architecture; the period saw the beginning of a new economic dawn as a result of the Industrial Revolution. Education had its importance in the milieu because it would ensure the accomplishment of a person especially women. As said before, women were considered without respect and it was through education that women could gain recognition and admiration within the society. However education during the Victorian era was not equal- between the sexes and between the classes. While children from Aristocratic families enjoyed all they benefits of going to famous educational institutions like the Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester, Westminster, Cambridge, Oxford and others, those from the lower class had to be content with low quality education.

Elizabeth-Jane is the principal female character yet her status and situation are made the least secure. If marriage for Elizabeth is not the only solution to ensure her a good status and security as it did for Susan and Lucetta, education is the answer. Although when she moves in Henchard’s house and could have every piece of clothing and accessories she desired, she believed to be an incomplete person without education: “If they (townspeople) only knew what an unfinished girl I am – that I can’t talk Italian, or use globes, or show any of the accomplishments they learn at boarding schools, how they would despise me! Better sell all this finery and buy myself grammarbooks and dictionaries and a history of all the philosophies!” (P119. Chapter 15)

Thus in the nineteenth century female education was almost absent and women such as Elizabeth-Jane, Susan and Lucetta were basically taught languages, dancing, drawing, music, sewing, embroidery, accounts etc. at home.

Educated women of the Victorian age gain more insight and this is what Hardy shows us in the novel. If Elizabeth-Jane was a man, Henchard would not have been as domineering in his request since a man’s name is “sacred.” The next idiosyncratic imposition of Henchard upon Elizabeth-Jane involves her style of handwriting; “Henchard’s creed was that proper young girls wrote ladies’-hand.” He makes her feel ashamed at not having written: “a line of chain-shot and sand-bags” rather than a proper Lady’s Hand. Henchard naturally assumes that, since Elizabeth is female, her writing will reflect her relation to him. This, however, was not the case. Essentially, she had been raised as a fisherman’s daughter; Henchard somehow expected that his marrying Susan would transform her into a well-bred lady.

Elizabeth-Jane is conscious that she is “the town beauty” but feels that she is not worth the attention as she is so uneducated: “I am no accomplished person.” So she sets out quietly and deliberately, “with painful laboriousness” to remedy this defect. Indeed, she becomes very fond of books. In the same way she tries so hard to cut out dialect words from her conversation so that she would establish a righteous acceptance in the society in this way she would enjoy a settle position in the community. This depiction of class-consciousness is typical of the nineteenth as at that time, the British people were indeed gave importance to social background and status

To summarize, as progression was taking over it not only meant industrial and machinery but impetus change in the field of science, technology and education among others.

3.5. Superstitions

In Hardy’s time, Dorset was still a rural and unsophisticated area inhabited by rustic and superstitious people. Hence the nineteenth century was the age of superstitions. Beyond the novel, Hardy depicts the people by calling them “pessimistic”. It is the keynote of “The Mayor of Casterbridge”: “Henchard, like all his kind, was superstitious, and he could not help thinking that the concatenation of events this evening had produced was the scheme of some sinister intelligence bent on punishing him.” Elizabeth felt it too: “everybody and everything seem against you so.”

When his rivalry against Farfrae pushed him to outstand himself, he cannot bear to wait and see how events turn out. He wants to know the future. As Hardy says, headstrong nature are often superstitious: “He (Henchard) was superstitious – as such headstrong natures often are – and he nourished in his mind an idea bearing on the matter; an idea he shrank from disclosing even to Jopp.” For this reason, he goes and seeks the advice of the weather prophet, which represents tradition to which Henchard is attached. It is part of the old rural way of life: “He (weather-prophet) existed on unseen supplies; for it was an anomalous thing that while there was hardly a soul in the neighborhood but affected to laugh at his man’s assertions, uttering the formula… whenever they consulted him, they did it “for a fancy” when they paid him…as the case might be “Mr. Fall”.

The dramatic and social interest in the weatherman scene is beautifully balanced in detail thus reflecting Hardy’s own interest in folklore. It links up with the theme of the importance of the weather for Casterbridge and its district. The theme expands to include the overwhelming importance of weather to the economy, introducing age-old belief in superstition as a means to commercial success. Superstitions exist all throughout the novel. In many ancient myths there is a ritual sacrifice of the corn-king; the old leader must die so that the crops may flourish in the coming season and the community remains stable. According to Hardy, Henchard must be the dramatic sacrifice to progress as a mean of illustrating the superstitious mind of the people of the nineteenth century. Traditional people like Henchard give importance to superstitions. Although superstitions cause Henchard to lose his fortune, later in the novel it is superstitions that save him from suicide. The appearance of the effigy shocks him out of his resolution, bringing home to him the full implications of what he had intended to do. He feels that the coincidence is providential: “The sense of the supernatural was strong in this unhappy man, and he turned away as one might have done in the actual presence of an appealing miracle. He covered his eyes and bowed his head…”

Even Elizabeth is superstitious on account of the new founded happiness when her mother remarries Henchard: “I won’t be too gay on any account… it would be tempting Providence to hurl mother and me down, and afflict us again as He used to do.”

The death of Lucetta reinforces Henchard to believe in superstitions: “But where is the other? Why that one only… that performance of their killed her, but kept me alive!”

But as progression takes over, even traditionalists query about superstitions. At one time in the novel, Henchard questions superstitions: “Are miracles still worked, do ye think, Elizabeth? I am not a read man. I don’t know so much as I could wish. I have tried t peruse and learn all my life: but the more I try to know the more ignorant I seem,” and Elizabeth reassures him saying: “I don’t quite think there are any miracles nowadays.” Just like people were forgetting traditions, they were also no longer believing superstitions and miracles but rather accept the reality as things are.

3.6. Society

English society of the nineteenth century was divided into three distinct classes prior to the Industrial Revolution-the Church and Aristocracy, Middle Class and the Poor Working Class. Hardy’s father was a master mason, which meant the Hardy family was middle class. The middle class people such as Henchard and Farfrae consisted of factory owners, lawyers, engineers, merchants, traders and other professionals. People’s way of thinking and attitude were affected.

Hardy often used a group of minor characters in his Wessex novels such as agricultural workers and villagers as the form of chorus, adding information and commentary on the action of the characters. Casterbridge will have an urban chorus. The key to Hardy’s attitude as novelist to simple folk is in an essay published by him in 1888: The conduct of the upper classes is screened by conventions, and thus the real character is not easily seen: whereas in the lower walks, conduct is a direct expression of the inner life: and thus character can be directly portrayed through the act.

The townsmen in the “Mayor of Casterbridge” have a composite entity as the group, and in addition some have distinguishable personal characteristics. It will be noticed that most of the labouring folk in the novel are all men or women. All are present at Henchard’s wedding and Susan’s funeral with traditional comment and stories that are becoming legends, the burial of the unpretentious woman loosening the threads of reminiscence and sympathetic philosophy. They represent the working classes of Casterbridge, men employed by Henchard and Farfrae, women concern with the quality of their bread.

Hardy’s representation of Casterbridge society depicts the metamorphosis of the traditional to modernity, the chorus of the characters’ actions and their rustic way of life. The characters of Henchard and Lucetta suffer because of how society refuses to accept them. The rules of society of the nineteenth century were basically based on traditional beliefs of chastity and following respectable norms and values.

Thomas Hardy examines the standards of society in Casterbridge at the turn of the twentieth century while detailing Michael Henchard’s responses to these standards. His selling of his wife and child made Henchard an unsociably accepted person. For this reason after his abominable act, he questions: “Did I tell my name to anybody last night, or didn’t I tell my name?” Just beginning his struggle in accepting standards of society, Michael Henchard realizes the disastrous effects of alcohol and promises to never drink again for twenty-one years. In addition to not tolerating alcoholics, the society did not permit adultery. This is the reason why Lucetta had to change her name from “Le Sueur” to “Templeman.” Moreover people avoided working for and buying from people who lacked the respect of others in society as is shown in the disproval of Elizabeth when her mother questions the furmity woman: “Don’t speak to her – it isn’t respectable!”

But Hardy depicts the consequence of not following the social rules as in the case of Henchard. First, he did not comprehend his actions at the auction. He could not explain the location or status of his wife and child: “The truth was that a certain shyness of revealing his conduct prevented Michael Henchard from following up his investigation with the loud hue-and-cry such a pursuit demanded to render it effectual; and it was probably for this reason that he obtained no clue, though everything was done by him that did not involve an explanation of the circumstances under which he had lost her.’ Not only did he not know if they were in good health, he did not even know if they were alive. Ashamed, he moved away to put the event behind him, hoping it would remain a secret. Working in the corn trade, Henchard became well known, ran for mayor, and served as mayor, still wondering about his family and regretting that day at the fair. When Susan and Elizabeth-Jane come to find him again, Henchard insists of remarriage so that his lost family can be socially accepted. However, since society would not accept such an immediate ceremony, they waited an appropriate amount of time, keeping Susan and Elizabeth-Jane hidden in a cottage outside of town: “I have thought of this plan that you and Elizabeth take a cottage in the town as the widow Mrs. Newson and her daughter; then I meet you, court you, and marry you…”

The negative treatment of his employers has a negative consequence on Henchard social structure. People noticed Henchard’s indifference and negativity to other people. This affected Henchard in that he lost his popularity. Elected to the mayoral office because of his energy and prospects in the town council, Henchard could not please members of society. When the secret of his “Wife-selling” action broke out, it revealed Henchard’s dishonesty to society in serving a public office. If Michael Henchard had followed the standards of society, he may have led a happy life.

In the same way, just like Henchard and Lucetta had to respect the social norms in order to be accepted, in the same way the people of the nineteenth century had to respect the social custom.

3.7. Fate

The many coincidences in Henchard’s life serve an important function in that they confirm Hardy’s bleak conception of the world. As he begins to lose the comforts and position of mayor and businessman, Henchard moves more steadily toward an understanding of life’s harshness. Henchard muses, “I am to suffer, I perceive. This much scourging, then, is it for me?” attempting to understand the reality of his emotional pain. As life presents unpleasant obstacles, Henchard becomes convinced there is “some sinister intelligence bent on punishing” him. His acceptance of suffering-“misery taught him nothing more than defiant endurance of it”-illustrates his bleak and fatalistic outlook. The twists and turns of the novel’s plot, each of which serves to tighten the screws on Henchard’s misery, derive from Hardy’s belief that the universe is designed to create human suffering.

Hardy’s pessimism after studying the workings of Charles Darwin, contributed to his intellectual doubt, and yet he had a strong sense of a power beyond human control or understanding. He frequently referred to this power as “fate’ or “destiny” in his novels. The philosophy expressed in Hardy”s novel is usually expressed by the character themselves. He integrates intellectual ideas into his novels by linking ideas to his characters and to their situations. Hardy was a popular Victorian novelist. He did not evade the issues raised by economic, social and religious changes. Refusing to ignore the darker side of human nature, he was strongly criticized for his attempt to be honest in treating sexual matters and in recognizing the sorrow and pain of human life. Hardy refused to please his readers with sentimental, happy stories. He insisted on the truth of what he wrote, and his emphasis on sorrow was an attempt to be realistic about human experience. Hardy was a Victorian, but his novels offer studies of human nature not limited by the historical circumstances of their author.

4. Conclusion

Every page of Hardy’s “The Mayor of Casterbridge,” displays the influence of Hardy’s upbringing, regional background and architectural studies. The characters are at all time real, for they are based on the people he had grown up with, people he had had heard about in legends and ballads, and people whose tragic histories he had unearthed during his early architectural apprenticeship. The events of the nineteenth century created in Hardy a deep pessimism. But his vision of things revels a creative vision of life as an artist revealed as seen in “The Mayor of Casterbridge.” There is a solution to the dilemma: man will overcome because he has the nobility and strength to endure as is seen in the case of Henchard. The suffering Henchard endures is the result of his actions. Hardy quote the saying, “Character is Fate,’ to suggest the real nature of fate. The novel ends on a note of hope because of Henchard’s strength of will and his determination to undergo sufferings and deprivation to atone his sins. It is this element that makes the book unique outgrowth of Hardy’s philosophy.

Thus the novel “The Mayor of Casterbridge” indeed depicts at certain extent the traditional nineteenth century life and also represents the changes that marked the society during this Victorian era. With the introduction of the “Industrial Revolution”, the society started to lose their traditional beliefs, ways and romanticism. Instead of a quiet, peaceful and complacent Victorian period, we encounter a chaotic and revolutionary Victorian era. Thus Hardy saw the hectic changes of the century, this is what the author depicts in his novel. This is the reason why he wrote in a naturalistic way so that he is close to reality. Like England was transformed from a rural and agricultural nation into an industrial and urban nation, these changes are found in “The Mayor of Casterbridge.”