"Character is fate" wrote Hardy. How far do you think Henchard in "The Mayor of Casterbridge" and the main characters in "Of Mice and Men" end up lonely figures.

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“Character is fate” wrote Hardy.  How far do you think Henchard in “The Mayor of Casterbridge” and the main characters in “Of Mice and Men” end up lonely figures because of their characters and how far it is to do with elements beyond their control?

The issue of this essay is whether or not “character is fate” according to the two books, “The Mayor of Casterbridge” and “Of Mice and Men” which I will be comparing.  “Character is fate” means that someone’s fate is determined by his or her personality or character.  A person will end up a certain way in life, such as lonely, by the way they handle situations.  So maybe fate will put a person in a certain situation or give a person a certain opportunity, but it is how that person chooses to deal with what is happening which will change the course of their life.  This depends on a person’s character.  But the other side of the debate, one might argue, is that if that person was not put by fate in that certain situation in the first place, then they would not have the chance to deal with a situation that may change the course of their life.  This argument is highly complicated and controversial, and so throughout this essay I will be trying to show each writer’s ideas on this subject and show how they portray them in the story.

Both “Of Mice and Men” and “The Mayor of Casterbridge”, plainly tackle the situations and feelings associated with loneliness.  Both texts clearly address the given question in quite different ways.  While Mayor demonstrates that the character Henchard is fully responsible for his own downfall, Hardy’s strong belief that character is fate shines out, in the narrative of the book, to constantly persuade and convince the reader of Henchard’s self destructive character.  Whereas in Mice it is not as clearly shown, whether fate or character leads characters to be lonely, as it is in Mayor.  Steinbeck outlines and emphasise the elements beyond individual’s control, in America in the 20’s, such as the social causes of loneliness for ranch workers.

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In Mayor Henchard tells Elizabeth Jane that he is her father but shortly afterwards he finds out that this is not the case.  He then treats her badly, pushing her away. It is because of this that she moves in with Lucetta.  He had ‘showed a positive dislike for the presence of this girl not his own, whenever he encountered her.’  Here is an example of the strong narrative portraying Henchard as a bitter stubborn man, pushing the reader to believe that Henchard's loneliness is caused by his character.     ‘ “Bide where you be,” he echoed sharply. ...

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