What is the main theme of The Mayor of Casterbridge?
The foremost theme in The Mayor of Casterbridge is regret. Henchard’s drunken decision to sell his wife and baby daughter haunts him throughout the rest of his life and poisons his relationship with Susan and Elizabeth-Jane.
What type of novel is The Mayor of Casterbridge?
Novel
Psychological Fiction
The Mayor of Casterbridge/Genres
What is the plot in The Mayor of Casterbridge?
Michael Henchard is traveling with his wife, Susan, looking for employment as a hay-trusser. When they stop to eat, Henchard gets drunk, and in an auction that begins as a joke but turns serious, he sells his wife and their baby daughter, -Elizabeth-Jane, to Newson, a sailor, for five guineas.
How long is The Mayor of Casterbridge?
The average reader will spend 7 hours and 53 minutes reading this book at 250 WPM (words per minute). The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), subtitled “The Life and Death of a Man of Character”, is a novel by British author Thomas Hardy.
What was Thomas Hardy’s purpose for writing The Mayor of Casterbridge?
The book is one of Hardy’s Wessex novels, and is set largely in the fictional town of Casterbridge, based on Dorchester in Dorset. The author intended Casterbridge to be an imaginative presentation of certain aspects of the town as he remembered it in the “dream” of his childhood.
Why does lucetta move to Casterbridge?
Lucetta wrote a series of love letters to Henchard, and, once she hears that Mrs. Henchard has died, she moves to Casterbridge, having recently inherited a large fortune.
How far the title of the novel Mayor of Casterbridge is appropriate?
The title of this novel seems generic, at first – “The Mayor of Casterbridge.” Sure, OK.
Who was Michael Henchard?
Michael Henchard, fictional character, a well-to-do grain merchant with a guilty secret in his past who is the protagonist of the novel The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) by Thomas Hardy.
Who Becomes Mayor of Casterbridge after Henchard?
Farfrae
Henchard’s fortunes continue their decline while Farfrae’s advance. When Henchard’s successor as mayor dies suddenly, Farfrae becomes mayor. Henchard’s ruin is almost completed when the “furmity woman” is arrested as a vagrant in Casterbridge and reveals the transaction two decades earlier when Henchard sold his wife.
What happens at the end of Mayor of Casterbridge?
Henchard goes away and works as a farm laborer until he hears that Elizabeth-Jane is going to be married to Donald Farfrae. He decides that Elizabeth-Jane will surely be able to forgive him now, so he travels to Casterbridge for the wedding with a caged goldfinch as a wedding present.
What was Thomas Hardy purpose for writing The Mayor of Casterbridge?
What happens at the end of The Mayor of Casterbridge?
Who are the characters in the mayor of Casterbridge?
The Mayor of Casterbridge is a novel by Thomas Hardy that was first published in 1886. Read a Plot Overview of the entire book or a chapter by chapter Summary and Analysis. See a complete list of the characters in The Mayor of Casterbridge and in-depth analyses of Michael Henchard, Donald Farfrae, Elizabeth-Jane Newson, and Lucetta Templeman.
Why was the mayor of Casterbridge first published in serial form?
Yet it is not completely the whims of fate that bring the characters to their downfall. When The Mayor of Casterbridge was first published in serial form, Hardy wrote, “It is not improbabilities of incident but improbabilities of character that matter.”
Is the mayor of Casterbridge a Greek tragedy?
Character is just as responsible for the foibles of mankind as Fate is. The Mayor of Casterbridge is a tragedy, in the tradition of the Greek tragedies and the plays Othello and King Lear. However, the novel still ends with a hope for humanity.
How does the mayor of CAS-terbridge manage his business?
Cas-terbridge exists in a sort of bubble, and Henchard rules it accordingly. He manages his books in his head, conducts business by word of mouth, and employs weather-prophets—already obsolete in many parts of the country—to determine the success of a harvest.
