Thomas Hardy started writing The Mayor of Casterbridge in 1884, and he finished the novel on April 17, 1885. The novel was serialized in a magazine in 1886, and then published in two volumes that same year. The novel was originally entitled The Life and Death of the Mayor of Casterbridge: A Story of a Man of Character.
The Mayor of Casterbridge is shocking, and has been called improbably. After all, who would believe that a young man, Michael Henchard, would sell his wife and young daughter to a sailor--even if he is under the influence of alcohol. The next morning--when Henchard realizes the horrible act--he laments his actions: "She's gone--to be sure she is--gone with that sailor who bought her, and little Elizabeth Jane. We walked here, and I had the furmity, and rum in it--and sold her."
Upon the dawning of the next day, Henchard promptly sets off in search of his sold-off family, stopping by a church along the way to swear off strong liquors "for the space of twenty-one years." Failing in his search for his family, he gave them up for up for dead and went on with his life, eventually becoming a powerful figure in Casterbridge, and even becoming the mayor.
Upon the dawning of the next day, Henchard promptly sets off in search of his sold-off family, stopping by a church along the way to swear off strong liquors "for the space of twenty-one years." Failing in his search for his family, he gave them up for up for dead and went on with his life, eventually becoming a powerful figure in Casterbridge, and even becoming the mayor.
Character is destiny?
Even as success found him, the old saying of "Character is destiny" seemed to haunt his life. Henchard destroys that which was most valuable when he sold off his family in the heat of a moment. He tries to explain his failure by likening himself to Cain and Job, but he demonstrated his true character when he allowed inebriation and money to separate him from his wife and child.
"If I had only got her with me—if I only had!," he said. "Hard work would be nothing to me then! But that was not to be. I—Cain—go alone as I deserve—an outcast and a vagabond." He would never re-capture what he had lost in that moment of ineptitude.
Rick Moody explains Henchard's self-deprecation by saying: "Unable to shake his hubris, unable to navigate because of the swollen dimensions of his iron will, which, despite its massiveness, despite it's ability to keep him from taverns and public houses for these eighteen years, can do nothing for his loneliness and dissatisfaction." Despite the success he seemed to have for a time, everything Henchard touches eventually whithers and dies. And, in his will, he wishes only to be forgotten.
Even as success found him, the old saying of "Character is destiny" seemed to haunt his life. Henchard destroys that which was most valuable when he sold off his family in the heat of a moment. He tries to explain his failure by likening himself to Cain and Job, but he demonstrated his true character when he allowed inebriation and money to separate him from his wife and child.
"If I had only got her with me—if I only had!," he said. "Hard work would be nothing to me then! But that was not to be. I—Cain—go alone as I deserve—an outcast and a vagabond." He would never re-capture what he had lost in that moment of ineptitude.
Rick Moody explains Henchard's self-deprecation by saying: "Unable to shake his hubris, unable to navigate because of the swollen dimensions of his iron will, which, despite its massiveness, despite it's ability to keep him from taverns and public houses for these eighteen years, can do nothing for his loneliness and dissatisfaction." Despite the success he seemed to have for a time, everything Henchard touches eventually whithers and dies. And, in his will, he wishes only to be forgotten.
In all its tragic loss, the book ushers in a new state of consciousness. As Moody explains, "After The Mayor of Casterbridge, drinking will always seem to usher in the possibility of enormous trouble." All along the same man is there in Michael Henchard, but he gets lost somewhere beneath the surface. And, he can never find himself.
