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

4. Chapters XXXI-XL--from Henchard's bankruptcy until Lucetta's death

5. Chapters XLI-XLV--from Newson's appearance until Henchard's death

Each section develops an important link to Henchard's downfall. Each part opens with Henchard asserting the strength of his character and ends with Henchard's strength being undercut. At the end of section 1, Henchard has lost all contact with his family. At the end of section 2, he learns the truth about Elizabeth-Jane. At the end of section 3, he has admitted his guilt and lost public favor. At the end of section 4, he grieves over Lucetta's death and learns of Newson's arrival. At the end of section 5, he has died unremembered.

You might think of the plot in terms of five descending lines, marking the downward movements in Henchard's fortunes.

^^^^^^^^^^THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE: THE STORY

The chapter titles you will see in this section are not Thomas Hardy's. They have been inserted to summarize a major focus of each chapter and to help you follow the unwinding of the complex plot of The Mayor of Casterbridge.

^^^^^^^^^^THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE: CHAPTER I: THE AUCTION

The first chapter of The Mayor of Casterbridge is one of the most surprising opening chapters in literature. A man, feeling encumbered by his wife, auctions her off to a total stranger and begins a new and (for a time) highly successful life. The opening will certainly command your attention.

The carefully paced and dramatic events of Chapter I give you a strong hint that you are going to be following the life of an energetic and impetuous man, and also a man of questionable moral character. Two questions you will probably ask yourself as the chapter ends are: Will Henchard escape punishment for his moral "crime"? and How will he be punished in the end? By provoking these questions in your mind, Hardy has aroused your interest.

Chapter I is noteworthy not only for its plot but also for its craftsmanship. Every word and every image are carefully chosen. Pay close attention to the descriptions of the characters and to the imagery that Hardy uses. Notice the echoes of the horse auction in the auction of Susan Henchard. Think about the bird flying through the furmity tent. Note Henchard's temper and Susan's passive acceptance of her sale.

As the book opens, three people--a husband, a wife, and an infant daughter--are entering the large Wessex village of Weydon-Priors. The man is an unemployed hay-trusser, a skilled farm worker. He and his wife are walking together physically, but they are mentally far apart. Hardy emphasizes this mental separation by describing the "perfect silence" between the husband and wife, and the fact that the wife "enjoyed no society whatever" from having her husband alongside her. You also learn that this distance between the couple is not a new thing. No recent incident has separated them. Instead, their alienation from each other is clearly a natural part of their relationship. As Hardy notes, they have a "stale familiarity" about them. Recognizing the type of relationship that Michael and Susan Henchard have with each other will help you understand why he auctions her later in this chapter, why she agrees to leave with the sailor after the auction, and what kind of marriage they will have when she returns to him later in the novel.

Take note of Hardy's first descriptions of the Henchards. He refers to them as "the man," "the woman," "the wife," and "the couple." They have no names yet. It is as if Hardy wants you to feel a sense of distance from them. Yet, from the first, the man is clearly the more interesting character. His features are sharply etched, and his walk is distinctive. The woman, on the other hand, has no real distinguishing features. She is somewhat pretty, if the sunlight strikes her in a certain way. Hardy describes her face as having a "mobility" about it. As you will see, mobility is an apt word to describe Susan. She allows herself to be moved from place to place and from man to man. Michael Henchard is an active person, characterized by his unflagging energy. Susan Henchard is a passive individual, almost a pawn.

The landscape also reflects a sense of alienation. The vegetation has turned from green to blackened-green, and the leaves are "doomed," on their way to eventual winter death. There is dust everywhere, and only one weak bird is singing a "trite" song. Yet the landscape is also ageless. Readers, like the Henchards, have entered Wessex, a region bounded by tradition and superstition and still untouched by technology and other aspects of the modern world.

NOTE: NATURE IN THE NOVEL Even though most of the action in The Mayor of Casterbridge occurs in town settings, the countryside plays an important role in the novel, and Hardy uses natural images for symbolic effect. Weydon-Priors and Casterbridge are surrounded (almost imprisoned, it seems) by the countryside. Note, for example, Hardy's description in Chapter IV of the wall of trees that serves as the boundary of Casterbridge. These natural settings aren't beautiful or gentle; they are cold and threatening. Also note Hardy's symbolic use of horses in this chapter (Susan is auctioned like a horse) and his having a bird sail freely through the furmity tent while Susan is being "bound over" to another man. The bird is an important symbol. Henchard thinks that selling his wife will make him as free as the bird. (At the end of the book, he will see himself as a caged bird, rather than as a free one.)

The travelers meet a turnip-hoer as they enter the village. He tells them that they will find no work or housing in Weydon-Priors. There is, however, a fair going on. The turnip-hoer says that the real business of the fair day, the auctioning of animals, has already been completed. Only a few inferior animals remain for sale. However, the peasant's words will soon ring false. One more major business transaction will soon take place.

NOTE: FAIR DAYS Dorset, in which Hardy grew up and upon which he modeled Wessex, was a traditional farming area. People there lived by an agricultural calendar. Fairs and festivals marked the beginning or end of seasons, and, as such, occurred at set times. That the novel opens on a fair day, then, has a special significance. The date of the auction will be clearly set on the Wessex calendar.

The travelers decide to look for refreshment. The man wants to enter a tent in which beer and hard cider is being sold, but his wife directs them instead into the furmity tent, where the puddings are sold. The wife obviously knows that her husband has trouble holding his liquor. Ironically, in trying to avoid a problem, the woman precipitates a series of events that will change all their lives. As always in a Hardy novel, fate will soon take charge.

The woman who runs the furmity tent illegally spikes the pudding with rum. Michael Henchard drinks four basins (bowls) and becomes increasingly drunk and quarrelsome. He begins to reflect on the major problem in his life--the family that he feels is restraining him from success.

At that moment, an auctioneer outside the furmity tent is selling the last of the horses. His calls unconsciously trigger a desire in Henchard to sell his family to the highest bidder. Quickly and loudly, he begins his auction. For the first time, you see the impulsiveness that will always characterize Michael Henchard. The crowd in the furmity tent thinks Henchard is joking at first, but he becomes increasingly serious, as does his wife. Susan Henchard is obviously used to her husband's drunken outbursts. She tries to calm him at first. Then she, too, becomes annoyed as he continues the auction. Finally, she declares that she would welcome being sold. "Her present owner is not at all to her liking," she says. This statement reveals a lot about Susan. She obviously sees herself as a possession to be owned by a man.

A sailor bids five guineas (about $25 in Hardy's time) for Susan, and the deal is soon completed. Susan and the child leave with the sailor.

During the auction, the action has been fast-paced. Hardy continues to build the mood with lean sentences and very short paragraphs. Following the auction, however, Hardy slows the narrative pace with two long paragraphs--one dealing with the peacefulness of nature outside the furmity tent, and the other with Michael Henchard's falling asleep inside the tent. The contrasting calmness of these two paragraphs against what follows helps make the infamous auction scene even more disturbing to you.

The auction is the key event of The Mayor of Casterbridge. It underlies the tragic events that follow. Yet it has all happened so quickly, and so early, in the novel. You can see that a Hardy novel doesn't build slowly toward a climax. It pounds away with one dramatic event after another.

^^^^^^^^^^THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE: CHAPTER II: THE OATH

The next morning, Michael Henchard awakens in the furmity tent, only vaguely remembering what happened there the previous evening. He spots Susan's wedding ring on the floor, then discovers the sailor's money in his pocket. As his memory returns, he begins talking aloud to himself.

Henchard is obviously upset. He feels a series of emotions but, strangely, not shame. Hardy describes Henchard as having a "gloomy curiosity" and a sense of revitalization as he faces the new day. He is "surprised and nettled" that Susan has left with the sailor, and he worries that he might have identified himself while drunk the night before, but is soon relieved to learn that no one knows him. Initial annoyance with Susan quickly builds to anger. How could she have taken him so literally? Then he remembers her passivity. Therefore, he must be responsible for what happened.