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

Several minor characters appear in The Mayor of Casterbridge, filling you in on past events and giving the common people's impression of their leaders. These people--such as Mother Cuxsom, Nance Mockridge, Christopher Coney, and Solomon Longways stand outside the windows of the hotel, drink in the Three Mariners Inn, or gather in the side streets of the town. They serve as a kind of Greek chorus in the novel. [In Greek dramas a group of actors appeared on stage to comment on the action and fill in plot details.] The town chorus here maintains the traditions and superstitions of Wessex life. Significantly, they are the only true Wessex citizens in the novel. All of the other characters are outsiders who have immigrated into the region.


^^^^^^^^^^THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE: SETTING

Most of the action of The Mayor of Casterbridge takes place inside Casterbridge, the largest town in Hardy's Wessex. Hardy focuses carefully on the architecture and the historic nature of the town. As is typical in a Hardy novel, the landscape almost takes on a life of its own. Casterbridge itself seems to be a character in the novel. It has moods and emotions and a magnetic appeal that affects the other characters. Notice, for example, Hardy's first description of the town as Susan and Elizabeth-Jane enter in Chapter IV:

The lamplights now glimmered through the engirdling trees, conveying a sense of great snugness and comfort inside, and rendering at the same time the unlighted country without country without strangely solitary and vacant in aspect, considering its nearness to life.

Casterbridge is part Roman, part Wessex, and part Dorchester. It is a place of ancient artifacts, rustic customs (including skimmity-rides), and early nineteenth-century architecture and life-styles. Casterbridge is a traditional place preparing uncomfortably for industrialization and modernization.

Hardy, who was an architect, provides a very detailed look at the bridges, roads, buildings, inns, marketplace, and surrounding areas of the town. As you read The Mayor of Casterbridge, pay careful attention to the way Hardy describes the different landmarks. For example, he points out cracking paint or worn paths to symbolize deterioration, and he interplays images of light and darkness to add to the gothic (haunting) character of many of the locations. Each landmark seems to have a symbolic function. Bridges are for contemplation of one's turns of fortune. Inns are for gatherings of social classes. Houses are for looking out onto the town (High-Place Hall), for enclosing one in high status (Henchard's house, later occupied by Farfrae and Lucetta), or for locking one away from the world (Jopp's cottage).

In only the first two and last two chapters of the novel does the action occur outside Casterbridge. These chapters concern the auction that begins Henchard's troubles and the death that ends them. In the first two and last two chapters, Henchard is a restless wanderer. In these prologue and epilogue sections of the book, Hardy shows the bleakness of the Wessex landscape and its magnetic power as well. Once people enter Wessex, they are seldom able to leave or stay away for good.

^^^^^^^^^^THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE: THEMES

Hardy develops several themes in The Mayor of Casterbridge. Some are related to the story of Michael Henchard himself. Others are related to Hardy's sense of history or of literary tradition.

1. THE SIN OF HUBRIS

Like many of the great tragic heroes in literature, Michael Henchard suffers from excessive pride. The Greeks called this sin hubris. Hubris involves a combination of excessive pride, ambition, and self-confidence. In a sense, a tragic hero creates his own sense of morality that may run counter to the basic moral rules of the society. The punishment for hubris is often a slow and painful death, in which the hero must first be stripped of personal possessions and public favor.

Hardy illustrates Henchard's excessive pride throughout the novel, from his blaming liquor for his having sold his wife, to his concealing the real reason behind his oath of abstinence, to his refusing to take the loss in the sale of the bad wheat, to his "buying back" Susan with five guineas, to his lies to Elizabeth-Jane and Newson. Ironically, even the will he leaves shows his pride. He asks to be forgotten completely rather than be remembered as a man who had flaws.

Because of his hubris, Henchard loses his wealth, his social position, and his chances at being loved. He leaves Casterbridge dressed as a hay-trusser, just as he was when he first entered the town.

2. THE WORKING OF FATE

Hardy came from a religious background, and his architectural career was spent in restoring churches. He admired the security of Christian faith. Yet he was also drawn to the writings of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer about evolution and religious skepticism. He eventually began to doubt his own faith. Without a God controlling the universe, he felt, people had no spiritual force to rely on for comfort or to "blame" for their problems. Hardy grew to believe that what happened to people was determined by fate; people could not really overcome fate. Thus, what seem to be coincidences that occur in one's life (and numerous coincidences plague Michael Henchard in The Mayor of Casterbridge) are actually events controlled by an unknown, and often uncaring, outside force. In his poem "Hap," Hardy refers to such forces as "purblind doomsters" who just as easily strew "blisses about my pilgrimage as pain." This dominance of fate creates a sense of emptiness or loneliness in Hardy's Wessex. Surviving in Wessex involves learning to accept one's fate and living within it, something Henchard never learns how to do.

Fate plays a major role in The Mayor of Casterbridge. Henchard thinks he is in control of his life, but he is unable to avoid matters that lead to turning points in his life--a furmity woman who laces her concoction with rum, a long-lost wife who wanders back into his life, a poorly sealed letter that reveals his true daughter's death, the arrest of the furmity woman in Casterbridge, the poorly closed packet of letters, the appearances of Newson. Henchard's indomitable belief that he can somehow overcome his fate makes him stand out as a special person. He has a nobility that cannot be totally destroyed. But his ultimate failure may be a sign of Hardy's own sense of depression over the loss of religious faith.

3. PESSIMISM

Closely related to the dominance of a malevolent fate in the novel is the feeling of pessimism that is evident throughout. Hardy conveys this sense of pessimism in two ways--through images and through characterization. Look for repeated images of rain and darkness in the book. They nearly always accompany downturns in Henchard's fortunes. Also notice how Henchard's appearance and feelings of self-worth deteriorate as he is punished for his hubris. Increasingly, he begins to doubt his own strength as he regards the world with greater pessimism.

As readers, we also grow increasingly pessimistic about the ability of a person--even a strong man such as Henchard--to succeed in this world. Survival is the best a person can hope for. And survival doesn't mean real joy or happiness, as Hardy notes in the final two pages of the book; it means finding a "latitude of calm weather."

4. TRADITION VS. MODERNIZATION

In Hardy's lifetime, England was rapidly becoming industrialized. Hardy felt that something important was being lost through modernization. That's why he set most of his novels in preindustrial times and in an agricultural region.

In The Mayor of Casterbridge, Henchard represents the traditional ways of working and doing business. He makes deals with handshakes and bases business deals on hunches or prophesies. Farfrae, on the other hand, represents modern methods. He introduces technology to the town and keeps careful business records.

Much of the novel is built around the contrasting attitudes and actions of Henchard and Farfrae. Through his focus on the two men, Hardy makes the major social statement of his book. Farfrae, the man of technology and modern business methods, displaces Henchard, the man of tradition and superstition. Farfrae's name tells you a lot about him. He is a free man from far away, bringing distant and free ideas into a tradition-locked area of England. In much the same way, the Industrial Age is rapidly taking over in Wessex and in all England, replacing the traditional agricultural society of the past centuries.

5. PARALLELS TO THE STORY OF SAUL AND DAVID

The interaction between Henchard and Farfrae strongly echoes the biblical story of Saul and David. Saul is the outsider who becomes king of Israel and whose major characteristics are pride and jealousy. Music soothes him over his moments of bad temper. He is a man of brawn who does not always think clearly before he acts. David, the musician, begins as Saul's comforter and eventually replaces him as king. He is a man of creativity and reason. Notice how these characteristics compare to those of Henchard and Farfrae. For example, look at the role that music plays in the novel. Farfrae is a brilliant singer, and Henchard is drawn to music. Also, note Henchard's bullying attitudes (especially toward Farfrae) and contrast them with Farfrae's more sensitive approach.