61 pages • 2-hour read
The Mayor of Casterbridge
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Character Analysis
Michael Henchard
Michael Henchard is the protagonist of the novel, and, for a time, he is the titular Mayor of Casterbridge. A complicated, morally compromised man, the novel documents his rise and fall from poverty to wealth and back again. The novel opens with Henchard selling his wife in a drunken outburst of fury. The next day, he wakes up and realizes what he has done. This opening event sets the tone for much of Henchard’s story, in which he will act emotionally and then suffer the consequences of his actions. A key part of Henchard’s character is that he takes the wrong lessons from his regrettable actions. Henchard drunkenly sold his wife, for example, because he hated his impoverished existence. He incorrectly blamed Susan for his failures rather than himself. After the sale, he swears to God that he will not drink alcohol for a long time. During this period of sobriety, he becomes a very successful man. Rather than learning the benefits of sobriety and self-reflection, he returns to drinking and blaming others for his failures. Henchard’s fatal flaw is his emotional personality, which overpowers his ability to reflect on his own behavior and recognize the patterns of self-destruction in his life.
Henchard is a strong, physical man, but these traits do not help him as a businessman or a politician. He recognizes that he is not particularly clever or inventive. Instead, he believes that his reputation as a hard but fair employer and an honorable creditor is the key to his success. The problem with this belief is that Henchard’s reputation is built on the most fragile of foundations. The arrivals of Susan and Lucetta in Casterbridge have the capacity to destroy it. Rather than recognize that he is not an honorable man—given that he has potentially destroyed the reputation of two separate women—he fumbles a cover story and convinces other people to keep his secrets. Even though he warns other people that the truth always finds a way to come out, Henchard cannot recognize that his treasured reputation is built on lies. The reputation that he values so much is eventually undone and he is left with nothing but his physical strength.
Henchard’s own actions bring about his downfall, from his affair with Lucetta to his misguided attempt to run Farfrae out of business to his lie to Newson that Elizabeth-Jane is dead. In each instance, Henchard reacted emotionally. He fell in love with Lucetta when she nursed him back to health, he envied the townspeople’s affection for Farfrae, and he feared that Newson would take Elizabeth-Jane from him. The result is that Lucetta’s reputation is publicly ruined, leading to her death; he loses his fortune and home to Farfrae; and Elizabeth-Jane learns about the lie to Newson and disowns Henchard as her father. He is driven out of Casterbridge as the direct result of his own mistakes. A hint of redemption is given at the moment of his death, however. When he falls sick, Henchard is cared for by Abel Whittle. Though he has publicly mocked Whittle in the past, Henchard benefits from his past kindness. He helped Whittle’s mother through a difficult winter. One act of charity leads to another. For the first time, Henchard receives a positive consequence of his actions, though it is too late for him to learn from this.
Elizabeth-Jane Henchard
Elizabeth-Jane is not Michael Henchard’s daughter, even though she comes to bear his name. She is the daughter of Susan and Richard Newson, replacing a different child with the same name who died while very young. Ironically, Henchard only learns that she is not his daughter after she writes the letter in which she officially accepts his surname as her own.
Elizabeth-Jane’s relationship with Henchard charts his moral and financial rise and fall, showing how important she can become in his life once she is the sole source of affection for him and the power she has in withdrawing this affection. The two characters’ affection for one another ebbs and flows throughout the novel according to changes in their relative social power. When Henchard has all the power and money, he grows cold and disinterested toward her, criticizing her accent and education. When Elizabeth-Jane has gained the upper hand—marrying the town mayor and learning of her true parentage—Henchard loves and longs for her, but she rejects him. There is a brief period when their affection for each other is reciprocated, but it is while both are poor and powerless, and Henchard sabotages Elizabeth-Jane’s potential relationships with other men in order to keep her with him. Thus, Elizabeth-Jane’s evolving relationship to Henchard reflects the flaws that will ultimately destroy him, charting the steps by which he loses even the love of his selfless and generous step-daughter.
Elizabeth-Jane’s character arc also demonstrates the role of class markers in Victorian society. She was born into a poor family, and her accent, diction, and relative lack of formal education make her origins apparent to others. For Henchard, those social markers are reminders of the past he has tried to bury, including both selling his family and his own humble beginnings as a hay trusser. During the period when Henchard comes to resent Elizabeth-Jane, he focuses on her accent and her choice of words as evidence of the poverty from which he has tried to escape. Elizabeth-Jane, still believing Henchard to be her father, works hard to impress him. She studies Latin in her spare time and changes her mannerisms and accent to please him. She even finds work with a reputable lady—who, ironically, is another source of scandal in Henchard’s life—in an effort to improve herself. Her efforts eventually pay off, as she wins Farfrae’s love not once but twice, and eventually marries him.
That Elizabeth-Jane marries Farfrae can be seen as a reward for the diligence she has demonstrated in improving herself and for the care she has selflessly given to Lucetta and Henchard. Her only outburst of anger and resentment comes at the end of the novel when she treats Henchard coldly at her wedding. She regrets this but he dies before she can apologize, denying her the opportunity to save him one last time. Henchard’s death adds a slight note of tragedy to Elizabeth-Jane’s story, even though she has everything she ever wanted. Still, Elizabeth-Jane represents the possibility for true forgiveness even for a man like Henchard.
Donald Farfrae
Donald Farfrae arrives in the English town of Casterbridge as an outsider. He is from Scotland, which is far enough removed from Casterbridge to seem almost alien to the townspeople. Within a day, he has charmed the locals with his manners and singing abilities, while having also impressed the local mayor so much with his innovative agricultural practices and business acumen that he receives a job offer on the spot. This charming outsider functions as the foil to Michael Henchard. In personality, they could not be more different. Farfrae is a reserved, considerate, and empathetic man, someone who calculates the exact consequence of any action or interaction. Henchard acts first and then deals with the consequences later. In broader terms, Farfrae represents the scientific future of technology and industry whereas Henchard represents the moribund tradition. The contrast between Farfrae and Henchard—between the past and the future—serves to condemn Henchard in narrative terms and the minds of the townspeople. Henchard quickly falls out of favor, to the benefit of Farfrae. Farfrae takes everything from Henchard, from his mayorship to his house to his lover and daughter. He effectively replaces Henchard as the hero of the narrative and the eponymous Mayor of Casterbridge.
Farfrae is richly rewarded for his intellect and people skills. He becomes the mayor, he becomes rich, and he marries twice. First, he courts Elizabeth-Jane, much to Henchard’s annoyance. Even more to Henchard’s annoyance, Farfrae falls in love with and then marries Lucetta. She is independently wealthy, giving Farfrae another elevation in social terms, but she is also the former lover of Henchard. She has a scandalous past that matches Henchard’s own, a scandal which then breaks and causes her death while she is pregnant. Farfrae loses a wife and a child, just as Henchard once did. Rather than a consequence of his own actions, however, Lucetta dies as the result of the scandal in her past associations with Henchard. Tragically, Farfrae is impacted by the consequences of Henchard’s actions. Farfrae may triumph over Henchard in a material, moral, and emotional sense, winning the life that Henchard once coveted, but he cannot escape the ripple effects of Henchard’s self-destruction. The same proximity and contrast to Henchard which brings so much joy and wealth to Farfrae’s life also brings with it much suffering and grief. In these ways, he functions again as Henchard’s foil. He reflects the destructive tragedy which afflicts even the most intelligent and careful people. Through his suffering and his victories, Farfrae illustrates the sheer destructive power of Henchard’s existence.
Lucetta Templeman
Like Farfrae, Lucetta comes from outside Casterbridge, outside Wessex, and outside England. She is from Jersey, an island in the English Channel with strong cultural connections to nearby France. Henchard fell in love with Lucetta when he visited the island; he fell sick, and she nursed him back to health. Their affair, however, became something of a scandal and Lucetta was forced to leave her home for fear of her reputation. Though Henchard had promised to marry her, Susan’s return complicates the matter and Lucetta is left with a ruined reputation and no one to help her. Until Lucetta arrives in Casterbridge (having inherited a large sum of money), Henchard forgets about her with ease. The defining moment in her life became just another forgotten scandal in his life. Like many others, Lucetta is a victim of Henchard’s destructive tendencies. To Henchard, Lucetta is an obligation and a commodity. He is only interested in marrying her when he is either obliged by reputation or when she threatens to marry someone else.
The inheritance that Lucetta receives from her aunt provides her with the means of escaping Henchard’s abusive tendencies. She achieves a degree of independence never available to women like Susan or Elizabeth-Jane, who similarly struggled to escape the machinations of Henchard’s destructive tendencies. Once she arrives in Casterbridge, Lucetta falls in love with Farfrae. She marries him in private after Henchard tries to force her to marry him, threatening to reveal their past if she remains with Farfrae. Lucetta defies Henchard; she is one of the few characters who feels empowered enough to do so. She chooses love over obligation and reputation. Her marriage to Farfrae is loving but brief, as she can never truly escape Henchard. Her love letters are made public and the people of Casterbridge publicly shame her. Lucetta is so horrified by the skimmity-ride that she has an intense physical reaction and dies. She is pregnant at the moment of her death. Lucetta’s death is tragic, revealing how Henchard’s destructive tendencies trap everyone around him. Even when he is trying to be forgiving by sending back her letters, he cannot help but embroil people in pain and suffering. Lucetta dares to defy Henchard, and she loses everything as a result.
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