Today in class we discussed the classical elements of a tragedy and how Macbeth might be a tragic hero. All I can say is that the timing is very fortunate. The Mayor of Casterbridge is tragic beyond belief.
Michael Henchard is a tragic character with a major flaw: “the volcanic fires of his nature” (p. 260). He's got an awful temper. When he's mad his instincts take hold of him, leaving no room for thought. It's why he sells his wife, frustrated by the “extinction of his energies by an early imprudent marriage” (p. 12). It's why he estranges himself from his best friend Donald Farfrae, his “jealous temper” unable to stand Farfrae being “top sawyer” in public opinion (p. 122). It's why he gambles away his wheat-crop empire on the advice of a local clairvoyant, his desire to “grind [Farfrae] into the ground” causing him to ignore smart business practices (p. 205). Throughout the entire novel, Henchard's temper has disastrous consequences.
Henchard isn't stupid, though. He recognizes his problem, and even takes steps toward fixing it. After he sells his wife, for example, he takes an oath to “avoid all strong liquors for the space of twenty-one years to come” (p. 23). He understands that alcohol exacerbates his bad temper. As the novel progresses, Henchard's attempts to keep his temper in check eventually result in success. Henchard resists, for example, the temptation to ruin Farfrae's chances of marriage to Elizabeth-Jane by revealing Elizabeth-Jane as “legally, nobody's child” (p. 339). Instead he convinces himself that he's ok with the marriage by repeating to himself, “I am content” (p. 338). You might think that Henchard's growth as a character means he escapes a tragic end, but you'd be wrong.
You'd be wrong because, despite how I've presented it so far, Henchard's tragic struggle is not a struggle against his own temper. Henchard thinks it is, though. What he doesn't realize—not until the final moments of the novel—is that his real battle is one impossible to win. Try as he might, he cannot escape the permanent consequences of his past actions.
After Henchard sells his wife, he tries to start things over. He leaves the town of Weydon-Priors and wanders throughout southern England till he reaches the town of Casterbridge. Here nobody knows his dark past, and he has a fresh start (or so it seems). In the next 20 years he becomes tremendously successful, even achieving the position of town mayor. But Henchard's escape from the consequences of the past is only temporary. One day someone who witnessed the auction of Mrs. Henchard arrives in Casterbridge. Recognizing the mayor, the newcomer reveals Henchard's secret and “the act having laid as dead and buried ever since, the interspace of time was unperceived; and the black spot of his youth wore the aspect of a recent crime” (p. 242). And, just like that, Henchard's new reputation and position are completely destroyed.
In my opinion these ideas about the permanence of past events, and the futility of trying to escape their influence, constitute the central theme of the novel. And it's hard to think of a theme more tragic, especially considering that it's true even for people who have learned from their mistakes and changed. I mean Henchard's actually a nice-enough guy by the end of the novel, but his past mistakes stay with him anyway.
Henchard's final downfall is follows this idea. It's hard to talk about in specifics, though, since there are several contradictory surprise twists over the course of the novel. Deception on top of deception of top of deception, really. There's just too much context that you'd need for it to make sense. But here's the gist of it. Henchard and his stepdaughter Elizabeth-Jane have developed a really positive relationship. This is the end of the novel, so he's really poor and has no other friends. But that's ok because he's got his stepdaughter. But then Elizabeth finds out a terrible secret that Henchard's been keeping from her. This devastates her completely and she forsakes Henchard. I know this is terribly vague, but it's basically the same idea as his fall from being mayor. Just this time he's got nothing left so it's a fatal blow.
It's a pretty bleak ending, to say the least.
Hello, Max! I liked how in this post you went through Henchard's story twice: once to show how he believes that his temper is his problem, and a second time to show how it was really his past mistakes that dragged him down. I came to the same conclusion in my blog post, although I wouldn't deem the ending completely "bleak" (not to say Henchard's death wasn't sad, because it really really really really was). Don't you think that the way Elizabeth-Jane's part of the story ends, with her living a life that is the opposite in many ways from Henchard's, makes the book at least a little happier? I found, as I finished it, that while I didn't feel cheerful, I did at least feel content.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading this book with me! I hope you felt like it was a good choice!!
Some nice use of parallel structure in your post, Max, and I appreciate your link to the content we discussed in class of the tragic hero. Do you think that you felt pity or fear for Henchard, as an audience is supposed to feel for a tragic hero?
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