"As they read, students [in A.P. Literature and Composition] consider a work's structure, style, and themes,
as well as its use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone." So says the College Board. It seems to me, then, that any work containing these elements is A.P. worthy.
The novels of Thomas Hardy are classics for a reason. Or rather for many reasons. Certainly each novel, not excluding The Mayor of Casterbridge, is worthy of the A.P. curriculum. That is to say the structure, style, themes, figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone of The Mayor of Casterbridge are worth considering. Having already touched on style and figurative language—and intending to discuss themes later—I will consider some of the remaining literary devices here.
The chapters in The Mayor of Casterbridge are episodic. They nearly work as stand-alone readings. Each chapter has its own arc, and new plot points are revealed as old ones are resolved. The story of Michael Henchard and the cast of Casterbridge residents progresses chapter to chapter in a linear fashion. As Hardy's novels were originally serialized, this structure suited his works well.
Like with many other Victorian novelists, Hardy's imagery can be almost cinematic. It's best, I think, just to present the following passage as an example.
"The river—slow, noiseless, and dark—the Schwarzwasser of
Casterbridge—ran beneath a low cliff, the two together forming a
defence which had rendered walls and artificial earthworks on this side
unnecessary. Here were ruins of a Franciscan priory, and a mill attached
to the same, the water of which roared down a back-hatch like the voice of
desolation. Above the cliff, and behind the river, rose a pile of
buildings, and in the front of the pile a square mass cut into the sky. It
was like a pedestal lacking its statue. This missing feature, without
which the design remained incomplete, was, in truth, the corpse of a man,
for the square mass formed the base of the gallows, the extensive
buildings at the back being the county gaol." (p. 143)
Here, as Hardy describes the poorer quarter of Casterbridge, the vivid imagery and the bleak tone work hand in hand to develop a sense of gloom. The atmosphere mirrors Henchard's internal feelings. He has just learned that his daughter isn't really his daughter. Distraught at his lack of offspring, Henchard is wandering contemplatively throughout Casterbridge. It's through Hardy's use of imagery and tone, rather than explicit narration or dialog, that the reader comes to understand Henchard's inner thoughts.
It's clear that there's a lot to the book. You could really dissect it if you wanted to. That's what the College Board is going for, I think. As long as a novel has something (anything) going on beneath the surface, it's got "literary merit" to some degree. So I'd have to argue that Thomas Hardy and The Mayor of Casterbridge are A.P. worthy.
Max, now that you've identified this work as having literary merit, I wonder if you think it is something that should be included in the course's curriculum as a whole class read?
ReplyDeleteI love your descriptions of each chapter as "episodic." That's a really good way of describing them that I had not thought of before.
ReplyDeleteI think the descriptions of Casterbridge itself as being an ancient Roman outpost also has a great amount to do with Henchard. I would be very interested to see your interpretation of this and the parallels of the town to the characters of the book.
Hi Max! I liked how you described Hardy's imagery as cinematic. That's something that I definitely also noticed as I read, but couldn't quite articulate. I often find myself imagining the book as a movie or miniseries as I read (I guess that makes me a little dumb for not coming up with the word "cinematic" myself when I was literally imagining watching it at a 'cinema'...). Out of curiosity, I watched a clip from a miniseries adaptation from 2003 on YouTube. It was the scene where Farfrae comes back upstairs after Henchard has been reading him Lucetta's old letters. Frankly, it was weird and slightly ominousand I was not really fan (maybe because there were like 100 spoilers between the video and the comments!!). It might have been okay had it had some context of the larger world of Casterbridge along with it, but alone it kind of fell flat. Anyway, I guess I'm interested to know whether you think a movie or a miniseries of this book that brought Hardy's words faithfully to life would be good... or should well enough be left alone?
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