An Analysis of Thomas Hardys The Mayor of Casterbridge Essay -- essay

An Analysis of The Mayor of Casterbridge     The plot of The Mayor of Casterbridge, by Thomas venturesome, terminate often beconfusing and difficult to follow. The pages of this novel are filled with sex,s stoogedal, and alcohol, but it provides for a very patient ofle and unique story.It all begins one sidereal day in the large Wessex village of Weydon-Priors. MichaelHenchard, a young hay-trusser looking for work, enters the village with his wifeand infant daughter. What follows next, is certainly a little out of theordinary, and this book provides and interesting plot, that is sure to brightenup any boring day.     Michael Henchard, looking for something to drink, enters into a tentwhere an old woman is selling furmity, a liquid pudding do of boiled wheat,eggs, sugar, and spices. Henchard consumes too many bowls of furmity spiked withrum. Feeling trapped by his marriage and under the influence, Henchard threatensto auction his family. The auction begins as a kind of cruel joke, but SusanHenchard in anger retaliates by leaving with a sailor who makes the highest bid.Henchard regrets his decision the next day, but he is unable to ascend his family.     Exactly eighteen years pass. Susan and her daughter Elizabeth-Jane comeback to the fair, seeking news about Henchard. The sailor has been lost at sea,and Susan is returning to her "rightful" husband. At the infamous furmity tent,they learn Henchard has moved to Casterbridge, where he has become a prosperousgrain merchant and even mayor. When Henchard learns that his family has returned,he is determined to right his old wrong. He devises a plan for courting andmarrying Susan again, and for adopting her daughter.     A young Scotsman named Donald Farfrae enters Casterbridge on the sameday as Susan and Elizabeth-Jane. Henchard takes an instant liking to the totalstranger and convinces Farfrae to stay on in Casterbridge as his right-hand man.Henchard even tells Farfrae the two greatest secrets of his life the sale ofhis wife and the affair he has had with a Jersey woman, Lucetta. Henchard isconfused as to how to make good on his bad acts.     Henchard remarries Susan, who dies soon afterward, leaving behind aletter to be opened on Elizabeth-Janes spousal relationship day. Henchard read... ...   Henchard appears at Elizabeth-Jane and Farfraes wedding to deliver apresent. Elizabeth-Jane spurns him, and Henchard sees that Newson has taken overas father of the bride--a role Henchard can never play. He leaves Casterbridgebroken-hearted. A few days later, Elizabeth-Jane discovers Henchards present, a tinkers damn in a cage. The unattended bird has died of starvation. Touched, she andFarfrae go in search of Henchard. Too late, they learn he has just died in thehovel where he had been dungeon with the humblest of his former employees. Theyoung couple read Henchards pitiful will, in which Henchard asks that no oneremember him.     As one can see, to often scandal can end in tragedy, as in the case ofpoor Michael Henchard. He lived a risky life, and paid for his mistakes in theend. The Mayor of Casterbridge proves to be an interesting novel, thatprovides everything recent day critics hope to keep out of the hands of children.The book proved to be at times, quite exegesis, but the plot is presented well,and the settings described beautifully. Thomas Hardy creates a masterpiece indescribing the rise and fall of one Michael Henchard.