"THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

Elizabeth-Jane is the embodiment of a proper young woman. She is reserved, innocent, and polite. You may think that some of her views, particularly those she expresses early in the book, are a little prim. For example, she is concerned about Susan's talking with the furmity woman and is shy in approaching Farfrae. By Victorian standards, however, Elizabeth-Jane should be concerned with acting properly at all times. She must live up to her status as a mayor's daughter.

Elizabeth-Jane becomes a more interesting and more fully realized character as the book progresses. As the only person in the novel who grows and changes, she works very hard at educating herself academically and socially. She is always trying to improve herself. At the beginning, Elizabeth-Jane may seem to be a prig or a naive small-town girl, but she grows into a gentle, kind-hearted woman. She never becomes cynical. She can even forgive Henchard for his lies to her. Elizabeth-Jane is also the only character who seems to express warm feelings, even love, toward others. Susan and Farfrae are stoical; Henchard and Lucetta are overemotional. One question you will have to answer for yourself is whether Elizabeth-Jane is really a heroine.

Does her emergence in a position of strength at the end of the book show that she has actively grown or passively survived?

Elizabeth-Jane touches all the other main characters in the novel. First, as a child, then friend, and later, wife. She serves as a sounding-board for the others. Elizabeth-Jane is a listener and confidante, offering protection and advice. She also acts as an outside observer for you. You learn a great deal about Henchard, Susan, Lucetta, and Farfrae from Elizabeth-Jane's interaction with them, and their reaction to her.

^^^^^^^^^^THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE: DONALD FARFRAE

While Michael Henchard represents energy in the novel, Donald Farfrae represents reason. He thinks more than he feels. He has a sharp business mind and writes every transaction in ledger books. Henchard makes deals with handshakes; Farfrae makes them with contracts. Henchard uses brawn and personality; he even challenges Farfrae to a fight to the death. Farfrae uses intelligence and logic. Notice the difference in the way the two men feel toward each other. Henchard's emotions toward Farfrae are strong ones that range from love to anger to hatred to jealousy. Farfrae's feelings about Henchard are mild ones that range from respect to friendship to annoyance to pity to mild indifference.

Farfrae's courtships of both Lucetta and Elizabeth-Jane don't show much depth, either. Notice how quickly he turns against Lucetta when he learns of her affair with Henchard and how rapidly he forgets her and moves on to a new relationship with Elizabeth-Jane.

You may have mixed feelings about Farfrae. He is admirable in his basic honesty and good will. These qualities win him the respect of most of the people--rich and poor alike--in Casterbridge. But he is also callous in his disregard of Henchard's feelings. He appropriates everything of Henchard's, even his house and furniture, and goes so far as to paint his own name over Henchard's on the signpost when he takes over Henchard's business. Farfrae is successful, but is he the "man of character" that Henchard is? Henchard is always colorful, even in utter defeat; Farfrae is usually drab. Yet Farfrae survives at the end, and Henchard doesn't. Whom do you think Hardy admires more? Whom do you admire more?

^^^^^^^^^^THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE: LUCETTA TEMPLEMAN (LE SUEUR)

Throughout the novel, Lucetta seems to play the role of "the other woman." She has an affair with Henchard while he is still technically married to Susan, then she marries Farfrae instead of accepting Henchard's offer to clear her reputation. Lucetta may have changed her name to the properly English Templeman, but Hardy lets you know that she is French at heart. To British readers, her Frenchness implied sensuality and possibly even moral looseness. In Chapter XXII, Hardy writes, "She had arrived at Casterbridge as a Bath lady [a proper Englishwoman], and there were obvious reasons why Jersey [where she was condemned as a loose woman], should drop out of her life." But it never does.

Lucetta is flighty and at times conniving. She is also the one character in the novel who feels sexual passion. This sexuality makes her a more interesting character, but it also gets her into trouble. Her rapid romance with Farfrae contrasts greatly with Elizabeth-Jane's slow-building relationship with him. Lucetta is as impulsive as Henchard and even more emotional. Why else would she suffer a stroke at seeing herself paraded in effigy in the skimmity-ride?

Like Henchard, Lucetta is also self-destructive. Notice, for example, the letters that she writes to Henchard or her meetings with him after she has married Farfrae.

Lucetta also has a snobbish streak that brings her trouble. She wants to be the great lady of Casterbridge. Her attitude causes Joshua Jopp, Henchard's fired grain manager (see below), to want to destroy her and leads the townspeople to enjoy humiliating her.

^^^^^^^^^^THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE: RICHARD NEWSON

Newson, the sailor who buys Susan and her daughter at the auction in the furmity tent, appears only at the beginning and end of the novel. In each instance, he helps point out glaring weaknesses in Henchard's character. His dealings with Henchard bring out the mayor's self-indulgent side. Each of Newson's appearances also marks a downward turning point in Henchard's life.

Hardy never develops Newson's character fully. His role seems mainly to serve as a contrast with Henchard. Newson's willingness to "disappear" so that Susan can find peace of mind shows his kindness and sensitivity. Elizabeth-Jane's loving feelings for him confirm these characteristics. He is also jolly and forgiving, two qualities Henchard doesn't possess.

Some readers feel that Newson's reappearance at the end of the novel, after having been deceived by Henchard ten months before, is too much of a coincidence, a convenient opportunity for Hardy to finally push Henchard out of the way. Think about this criticism. Decide if you think Newson's return helps to give the novel a fitting ending or one that is too contrived.

^^^^^^^^^^THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE: JOSHUA JOPP

Joshua Jopp is an almost standard villain, the type of character who often appears in a Dickens novel. Feeling that he has been wronged by Henchard and put down by Lucetta, he bears grudges toward both. Jopp is a poisonous influence on the action of the novel. Like a rat, he appears most often at night or in dark places. He directly causes Lucetta's destruction by helping to instigate the skimmity-ride. When Henchard moves in with Jopp, their association symbolizes Henchard's tremendous downfall.

^^^^^^^^^^THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE: MRS. GOODENOUGH, THE FURMITY WOMAN

The furmity woman appears four times in The Mayor of Casterbridge--twice in Weydon-Priors, first playing a major role in the auction, and then, 18 years later, giving Susan the message that leads her [Susan] to Casterbridge. Mrs. Goodenough again appears twice in Casterbridge, where she both reveals Henchard's "crime" and participates in the skimmity-ride. Each time you see her, the furmity woman's appearance and fortunes seem to have deteriorated further. She goes from mistress of the furmity tent to tender of an outdoor pot, to town vagrant. Although her fall is in direct contrast to Henchard's rise, in the end, she helps to bring him down to her level. Mrs. Goodenough seems to fill a role as Henchard's conscience and an instrument of his self-destruction. Perhaps that is the reason for her name. She reveals to Henchard that he is not always good enough.

^^^^^^^^^^THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE: ABEL WHITTLE

Abel Whittle makes two brief, but significant appearances. First, he is the subject of Henchard's verbal abuse and humiliation when he continually fails to arrive at work on time. Henchard's almost cruel treatment of Whittle seems to mark a turning point in Henchard's business fortunes. The second time, Whittle acts as Henchard's companion in his final days and announces the former mayor's death.

Whittle is a simple man but a faithful one. He stays with Henchard at the end because of the latter's kindnesses toward Whittle's mother. His first name is significant also. As Abel, his companionship helps Henchard recognize his own "Cainness." (Remember that Cain, in the Bible, became an outcast after killing his brother Abel. Henchard's association with Abel emphasizes Henchard's alienation from the rest of Casterbridge society.) Abel's surname, Whittle, seems to refer to the whittling down of Henchard's fortunes. In the end, only Abel Whittle, the lowliest of the people of Casterbridge, is left to remember and mourn the man who was once the most powerful person in the town.

^^^^^^^^^^THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE: THE TOWN CHORUS