The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Power of New

I have chosen an old book to review in this first month of New Year. The reason is that this book is full of new beginnings and resolutions. If you know Thomas Hardy, he will make you fall in love with his central character and it’s imperfections. He will make you weep throughout the book and the ending is a tragedy too. So no respite. We had this book in college and I wrote some of my best nine pagers for it. Not that all of them were good enough for the examiners. However, I am not going to parade one of those answers here. I will just highlight how many new beginnings ensue here. I am emboldening the word ‘new’ wherever such an event occurs.

The story starts in 1885, England, when Michael Henchard, a hay trusser with an alcohol problem, sells his wife, Susan and his child for five pounds to a sailor named Newson in a drunken stupor. The next morning, he wakes up distraught with guilt. After failing to find them, he enters a church and makes a resolution. Just like we make every year. He resolves not to drink alcohol for twenty-one years, the number akin to his age. After abandoning the search for his family, he starts a new life in the town of Casterbridge. Unknown to the reader, so do his wife and children with Newson, the sailor.

Eighteen years later, Susan and the now grown Elizabeth Jane arrive at Casterbridge looking for Henchard, only to find that he is now the not so popular Mayor. Elizabeth is unaware that Henchard is her father and only knows that they are looking for an old relative. Henchard and Susan decide that in order to keep Elizabeth in the dark regarding the disgraceful way that they parted years ago, Henchard will court Susan and then marry her. Thus, a new life begins for the three of them once more.

Also, on the night that Henchard’s family arrives in Casterbridge, Donald Farfrae, a young man on the way to search for opportunity in America provides some cutting-edge advice to Henchard. Impressed, Henchard offers him a position in his business. Farfrae takes it and thus starts his new life in Casterbridge.

Soon Elizabeth is making bright eyes at Farfrae and there is this incredibly romantic scene where Farfrae has to blow off chaff from the back and sides of her neck. And just as you think life is smooth, Farfrae, who is younger, sharper and more practical than Henchard keeps outwitting him in every respect, until Henchard fires him and forbids him to see Elizabeth.

Susan dies revealing to Henchard that Elizabeth is not his but the Newson’s daughter. And Henchard learns of this right after he spills the beans about himself and Susan to Elizabeth. The poor girl is absolutely confused when her father starts ill-treating her, until she can’t take it anymore and goes to live with a lady who has arrived newly in town. And who do you think this new person is? Why! Its Henchard’s girlfriend whom he had to abandon on Susan’s arrival. But now the path is clear, and she is set to marry Henchard.

However, waiting for him, she meets Farfrae instead. And like his business, Farfrae proves a superior competitor in love too. Soon, Henchard is disgraced when his wife-selling past is revealed and suffering losses in business, he goes bankrupt. Farfrae buys his business, his old house and starts living there with Lucetta. Henchard now works as a hay-trusser under Farfrae. His twenty-one years are over too, so he starts drinking again. He is the same man, in the same town starting a new life once more. And the cherry on the top of this fate-filled cake is that Farfrae becomes the Mayor. Elizabeth now goes to live with Henchard in a small cottage, and their bond grows.

Meanwhile, Henchard agrees to return Lucetta’s letters, but on the way the secret gets out, and both become subject to a ‘skimmity-ride,’ which proves too much for Lucetta’s nerves and she dies. Now comes Nelson, to claim his daughter. Selfish in his love for Elizabeth, Henchard tells him that she has died. But he comes back when he learns of this deception, and Henchard leaves town before she confronts him. He goes to meet her on her wedding day, but she snubs him. Later, Elizabeth regrets her behavior towards him and she and her new husband search for him. They are too late and only find his will where his final wish is to be forgotten.

Studying this book for a year, I fell in love with Henchard. And no matter how perfect Farfrae is, not making a single mistake, my heart never warmed for him. That’s Hardy’s unparalleled genius! And my absurdity I suppose. The number of times that he started his life anew in grueling circumstances is worth analyzing.