How The Mayor of Casterbridge reflects the social, historical and cultural influences of the period and place in which it is set and during which Hardy lived.

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Lucy Crabb                10W

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GCSE English coursework

The Mayor of Casterbridge-Thomas Hardy

How The Mayor of Casterbridge reflects the social, historical and cultural influences of the period and place in which it is set and during which Hardy lived.

The Mayor of Casterbridge was written in the second part of the nineteenth century by the novelist Thomas Hardy. He based it on Dorchester and how he remembered the town from his boyhood days during the 1840’s. The story circles around a prosperous businessman, Michael Henchard, his shady past and his prosperous present. It shows the power of the corn trade in the early years and also the impact of a newfound belief in the period- Fate. In this essay I will be analysing the book and its contents to see how it reflects the social, historical and cultural influences of the era in which it is set.

As a skilled architect, and having a great eye for detail, Hardy included large pieces of narrative about Casterbridge and the key buildings in his novel. His first, general description about the layout of Casterbridge came early on in the book:

                                                            “It was

        compact as a box of dominoes. It had no suburbs- in

        the ordinary sense. Country and town met at a mathematical line.”

        “From the centre of each side of this tree bound square

        ran avenues east, west and south into the wide expanse

        of corn-land and coomb to the distance of a mile or so.”

As Elizabeth Jane and Susan entered the town, Hardy added a bit of information about the houses on the main street:

        “…There were timber houses with overhanging stories, whose

small-paned lattices were screened by dimity curtains on a

drawing-string, and under whose barge-boards old

cobwebs waved in the breeze. There were houses of brick-nogging…”

“There were slate roofs patched with tiles, and

tile roofs patched with slate, with occasionally a roof of

thatch.”

Henchard’s house is also described, but with surprisingly little detail compared to accounts of other houses. It is described as dull red and grey brick, open front door and a very large garden. This building still exists today, even though it is now Barclays bank and there is no sign of a large garden at the back!

 Henchard’s yard is described as, “flanked by hay barns” with “wooden granaries on stone-saddles” including, “a store house several floors high.” Into which, if you looked, you could see,

                “…A closely packed

throng of bursting wheat packs.”

        

In contrast, Lucetta’s house and its features are described in great detail, from the house itself:

                        “…It was Palladian, and, like most

architecture erected since the Gothic age, was a compilation

rather than a design.”

“It was rich but not rich enough. A timely consciousness of

the ultimate vanity of human architecture.”

To the keystone of the door:

                                        “Originally the mask had

 exhibited a comic leer, as could still be discerned; but

generations of Casterbridge boys had thrown stones at the mask,

aiming at the open mouth; and the blows thereon had chopped

off the lips and jaws as if they had been eaten away by disease.”

The three mariners is described as:

                                                        “Built of

        mellow sandstone, with mullion windows of the same

material, markedly out of perpendicular from the

settlement of foundations. The bay window projecting into

the street, whose interior was so popular among the

frequenters of the inn, was closed with shutters.”

In a time where motorcars were practically non-existent, there were only a few limited and slow ways of getting to a destination.

     “Sometimes they might have been seen on

foot, sometimes on farmers’ wagons and sometimes in carriers’

vans.”

This was, of course, referring to Elizabeth Jane and Susan’s journey to find Henchard.  The trip must have been rough, but they could afford no more. For those who were much wealthier however, they could afford to use such things as flys and gigs, which were horse drawn carriages.  We see Elizabeth Jane using a fly to transport her belongings to High-Place Hall, something she would not have been able to do if she had not met Henchard; Farfrae had his own gig, which is mentioned several times throughout the novel and finally the carriage that was used on Henchard’s and Susan’s wedding day; a brougham.

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“Susan Henchard entered a carriage for the first time

 in her life when she stepped into the plain brougham

 which drew up at the door on the wedding day.”

Because of this lack of transport, even distances that we think of as short, such as 35 miles, must have seemed enormous to the people of those days.  Hardy does give us an example of this in The Mayor of Casterbridge; two lovers being split up when the male gets a job in another town.  It ends up with the two acknowledging that they will probably never see each other ...

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