"How many years more do you think I shall last before I get hopelessly plain?" she asks … Elizabeth-Jane” (Ch. 24)
While staying in High-Place Hall however, Lucetta quickly becomes enamored with Henchard's archrival, Farfrae. Lucetta’s pride wants it all – long-term beauty and passionate romance – and she wishes to choose without regard for social constraints:
"I will love him!" she cried passionately; "as for [Henchard] – he’s hot-tempered and stern, and it would be madness to bind myself to him knowing that. I won't be a slave to the past – I'll love where I choose!" (Ch. 25)
Hence, Henchard’s relationship with Lucetta suffers. On Henchard’s part, he is too proud to visit Lucetta when his stepdaughter is present; in addition, his pride prevents him from accepting Lucetta's invitation for a private meeting. His frequent absence disheartens Lucetta, who "no longer [bear towards] Henchard all that warm allegiance which had characterized her in their first acquaintance" (Hardy). Subsequently, she marries Farfrae instead, rationalizing that Henchard’s conduct at Weydon-Priors contradict his legibility as a socially acceptable husband. Her relationship with Farfrae is peaceful, though she constantly fears that Henchard will reveal their past connections through her scandalous love letters. Although warned of these likely consequences plus the fact that Elizabeth-Jane also likes Farfrae, Lucetta proceeds to love whomever she wants however she pleases. Then the town somehow learns of Lucetta's past relationship with Henchard, whereupon they make her the subject of a shameful “skimmity-ride” to mock her and Henchard. The shock of seeing the skimmity-ride kills Lucetta eventually. In conclusion, Henchard’s act on dismissing Farfrae leads to a drawn-out business competition between the two corn-factors and strips Henchard of his personal possessions, his public favour as mayor, and the two women in his life: Lucetta and Elizabeth-Jane. Possessed of a “restless and self-accusing soul,” Henchard seems to seek out situations that promise further disgrace. Although Farfrae eventually appropriates Henchard's job, business, and even his loved ones, it is Henchard who insists on creating the competition that he eventually loses. He is struggling to convince the masses that, despite a mismanaged harvest, he is an honest person with a worthy name. In Lucetta’s case however, her character lacks the boldness and certainty of purpose that would elevate her to the level of “the isolated, damned, and self-destructive individualist” that critic Albert Guerard described. Lucetta emerges not as heroic but as childish and imprudent. Similarly, her rapidly shifting affections brand her as an emotionally volatile Victorian female, one whose sentiments are strong enough to cause the most melodramatic of deaths.
In contrast to Henchard and Lucetta’s radiant and fiery personality, Farfrae and Elizabeth-Jane present a more moderate manner. For example, these two characters hold an equal amount of temperaments in them. Farfrae is well-rounded: he knows business, and he also understands society's desires for courtly manners and entertainment, as Lucetta commented on him, having “both temperatures going on in [him] at the same time”, “free from Southern extremes.” Even Henchard greatly respects Farfrae and asks him for advice on several occasions during their early relationship. Farfrae, a young Scotchman, serves as a foil for Henchard. Whereas will and intuition determine the course of Henchard's life, Farfrae is a man of intellect. He brings to Casterbridge a method for salvaging damaged grain, a system for reorganizing and revolutionizing the mayor's business, and a blend of curiosity and ambition that enables him to take interest in, and advantage of, the agricultural advancements of the day such as the seed-drilling machine. Meanwhile, although Elizabeth-Jane has a melancholy air, Elizabeth-Jane has a great ability to love, giving it to her mother, her father, her stepfather, and later her husband. She is also concerned with manners and respectability. As she follows her mother across the English countryside in search of a relative she does not know, Elizabeth-Jane proves a kind, simple, and uneducated girl. Once in Casterbridge, however, she undertakes intellectual and social improvement: she begins to dress like a lady, reads voraciously, and does her best to wipe out rustic country dialect from her speech, whilst maintaining her kindness and simplicity.
Other distinctive features are the couple’s selfless attitude and sense of contentment.
When Henchard soon comes to view Farfrae as his rival, the Scotchman's victories are won more in the name of progress than personal satisfaction. His primary motive in taking over Casterbridge's grain trade is to make it more prosperous and prepare the village for the advancing agricultural economy during the Industrial Revolution. He does not intend to dishonor Henchard. Indeed, even during Henchard’s fight with him in the barn, or when Henchard is trying to shame him, the Scotchman reminds himself of the fallen mayor's circumstances, taking pains to understand and excuse Henchard's behavior. On Elizabeth-Jane’s part, one could easily argue that she has a share equal to that of Henchard or Lucetta in terms of misery. Unlike these characters, however, Elizabeth-Jane suffers in the same way she lives—with a quiet kind of self-possession and resolve. She lacks Lucetta's sense of drama and lacks her stepfather's desire to bend the will of others to her own. Thus, when Henchard cruelly dismisses her or when Lucetta replaces her in Farfrae's heart, Elizabeth-Jane accepts these circumstances and moves on with life. This approach to living stands as a bold counterpoint to Henchard's, for Henchard cannot bring himself to let go of the past and relinquish his failures and unfulfilled desires. If Henchard's determination to cling to the past is partly responsible for his ruin, then Elizabeth-Jane's talent for “making limited opportunities endurable” accounts for her triumphal realization, unspectacular as it might be, that “happiness was but the occasional episode in a general drama of pain.”
There are some speculations on their personalities, however: Farfrae is a model man of science, in his calm, measured thinking; and Hardy depicts him with the stereotypical strengths and weaknesses of such people. He possesses an intellectual competence so unrivaled that it passes for charisma, but throughout the novel he remains emotionally distant. Although he wins the favor of the townspeople with his highly successful day of celebration, Farfrae fails to feel any emotion too deeply, whether it is happiness inspired by his carnival or sorrow at the death of his wife. In this respect as well he stands in bold contrast to Henchard, whose depth of feeling is so profound that it ultimately dooms him. Farfrae thus has everything that Michael doesn't: the love of Lucetta, the support of the townspeople, and eventually the mayoralty of Casterbridge. In the meantime, Elizabeth-Jane is drawn in the softest of half-tones, and does not at once catch the eye but the longer acquaintance with her reveals her fascination. She is a single-hearted girl, with a marked “willingness to sacrifice personal comfort and dignity to the common weal.” Her personality is light and unemphatic, perhaps excessively modest in the earlier stages. But her personality develops, first under suffering, and later with her marriage to Farfrae. She has a “craving for the correctness of procedure that was almost vicious.” Her only lapse from virtue is her unkind dismissal of the hopefully-returning Henchard. Still Hardy calls her “this flower of Nature, Elizabeth-Jane”
With all these, it seems like Hardy meant to say that one could achieve happiness if they do not dwell too deeply in emotions, and that they are ephemeral and often disastrous. Thus, true enough, the emotionally distant characters such as Farfrae and Elizabeth-Jane finds real happiness in their marriage to each other.
The significance of these pairings of characters in The Mayor of Casterbridge is to emphasize the importance of settling for half, the consequence of fighting Fate; and to instill the sensation of catharsis to the readers.
When one settles for half, it could mean that they are content with whatever they have in their hands. When Farfrae is kicked out of Henchard’s company, he never resents Henchard’s harsh treatments to him yet he humbly starts his own hay and corn company from zero. As for Elizabeth, she is undergoing a really hard time after the death of her mother when Henchard treats her with hostility. She strives to keep up with Henchard’s demands without resentment. Furthermore, upon knowing that her place in Farfrae’s heart is taken by Lucetta, she makes peace with her heartache and moves on. On the other hand, Henchard and Lucetta’s extreme characteristics such as their “pride, impulsive nature and ambition are exactly the conditions [that cause their] downfall and destruction" (Gatrell 84). Henchard’s character traits and his subsequent exaggerated reaction to certain circumstances lead to his financial ruin, and to the destruction of his relationships with the others about whom he cares most. Lucetta meanwhile suffers a melodramatic death as a consequence of her desperate attempt in hiding the truth. These serve as a moral lesson for the readers, that is, moderation brings prosperity and exaggeration brings a downfall. Thus, the readers are rejuvenated – though ironically comes from a novel of tragedy – with the hope that if they practice more on self-control and be more reserved, bliss will dawn upon them.
The consequence of fighting Fate may be analogous to a ‘rubber-band effect’. It means the more you struggle to stretch the distance of yourself from Fate, the stronger its force is to come back at you. For instance, young Henchard sees a bright future ahead of him but feels restrained by the burden of his wife and daughter, though he has no intentions of losing them. Therefore, in a spur of moment, or in Hardy's phrase, "introspective inflexibility" Henchard permits his passions, especially the desire to save face in the furmity vendor's tent, to overwhelm his common sense and sells off his wife and daughter. This act has inflicted regret and great agony in him later. To the Greek critic, the catastrophe is the result of those external forces which he called "Fate." As for Lucetta’s part, it is her denial of her bleak future with Henchard that brings her the misery in the end. She refuses Henchard and marries Farfrae instead and consequently has to live in anxiety, fearing the secret of her relationship with Henchard should be disclosed. No matter how, Fate has found its malicious way to get back at Lucetta, when the townspeople found about her scandalous letters to Henchard , thus performing a “skimmity-ride” that humiliates her to death. All in all, the readers are driven into a sense of hopelessness with this pathos of the striving characters, and given the idea that there is no room for free will in their life.
Another effect of pairing these tragic characters is that it could expurgate their sense of pity and fear of self (catharsis). Catharsis is essentially a purifying or figurative cleansing of the emotions, especially pity and fear, described by Aristotle as an effect of tragic drama on its audience, and thus bringing these two sensations into their proper balance. In real life, Aristotle explained, men are sometimes too much addicted to pity or fear, sometimes too little; tragedy brings them back to a virtuous and happy mean. In The Mayor of Casterbridge – a novel of a drama of tragedy – the readers are exposed to the hardships of Elizabeth-Jane and Farfrae under the control of Henchard, and Henchard and Lucetta’s relentless attempt to gain personal satisfaction which ultimately brings them to doom. The events bringing the end of the latter couple’s death is unusual, unexpected and often brutal, as if done by the indestructible Fate. These are far more tragic than what could happen in real life. Tragedy is then a remedy; through watching tragedy the audience learns how to feel these emotions at the proper levels. Some modern interpreters of the work conclude that catharsis is pleasurable because audience members feel astonished from the fact that there existed those who could suffer a worse fate than them was to them a relief.
To wrap things up, the traits which are concluded from the similarities of Henchard and Lucetta, and those from Farfrae and Elizabeth-Jane elevate a few moral values of The Mayor of Casterbridge and kindle the emotions of its readers. The readers are taught of the importance of moderation in life, that is extreme-desired personas will never surpass the temperate ones. The readers are also taught to never fight Fate and be content; apart from being given the sense of despair. Ultimately, the novel is given a medical value by which it could reduce the sense of self-pity or fear in the readers. Thomas Hardy is then may be dubbed as a social or heart healer.
