It was not until Chapter 3 when Susan and Elizabeth Jane are reuinted. We are told that Richard Newson died, and so Elizabeth Jane and her mother were left alone and decided finding Michael again would be the best option. The news of his loss at sea solves a problem for her and her conscience. She does not wait for a confirmation of his decease, but instead looks for a way to keep financially stable and to allow Elizabeth-Jane to blossom into the beautiful and intelligent young women she wishes to be. I think that the reason for them looking for him was maybe for financial help, but they were not to know that Henchard had become the Mayor of Casterbridge and become rather wealthy in the process.
Susan's caution and cunningness is revealed when she does not allow Elizabeth-Jane to make inquiries about Henchard when they hear his name mentioned. This lack of initiative is understandable since Susan has not revealed her relationship to him. She wants to make certain that Henchard is acceptable and not drinking before she introduces Elizbeth-Jane.
She could have also searched for Henchard because she was still legally married to him, but I think she was too shy to order him around and realised talking to him about their future together was best. Overly concerned with the appearance of politeness, Susan attempts to keep secrets about Henchard's and Elizabeth-Jane's identity in order to give the appearance of perfect family harmony to Elizabeth Jane and the public. She is afraid to betray Elizabeth Jane and tell her the truth about her father, and is also afraid to make Henchard aware of whom his real daughter is. I feel that she should have told her relations the truth about their past as soon as they were reunited as delaying it only makes the outcome harder to believe and harder for them to trust her in the future. Instead of telling them one-on-one, she leaves a letter for Henchard to open on Elizabeth Jane’s wedding day as she feels she cannot tell him in person. In addition, she becomes very ill however she seems not to be enthusiastic about recovering by letting her illness take over her and eventually she passes away.It is in Chapter 4 when Susan’s ill health is mentioned, Henchard reveals to Elizabeth Jane who her real father is, but only to realise later when he opens the letter Susan has left for him, that he is in fact not her father. She marked the envelope with ‘Do Not Open Until Elizabeth Jane’s Wedding Day’ as she feels that Elizabeth Jane would be settled with a man and Henchard’s relationship with her would be not as strong.
Even thought she has passed away, she has left Elizabeth Jane Newson and Michael Henchard in an awkward position, as they now feel they have been mislead by her, and are unsure of what to believe. Elizabeth Jane is upset to find Henchard as her real father, but Henchard feels he cannot go back to her and say the truth; and the truth was what she knew in the first place, and he doesn’t want to mess her around. It is because of her meekness that she didn’t tell the truth at the beginning, even if she did only mean for the best. If she could see what a confusion she has created, I think she would be very sorry, but she probably wouldn’t say so. As the first line of Chapter 4 goes, “Henchard's wife acted for the best, but she had involved herself in difficulties…” is very true and we can predict a lot from this sentence.
