Hardy’s language gives a great contribution to the opening of the novel. He uses varied sentences structure to keep the writing interesting. He continues this with a great variety of vocabulary making use of his education.
He doesn’t play the role of a husband or a father at all (we also find out that he and Susan have a baby called Elizabeth-Jane). He remains using similar behaviour until chapter two. The first time he actually opened his mouth to talk, was, when addressing a worker around Weydon-Priors. The second time, one page later, was when he briefly replied to Susan in pg 4/5, when Susan is telling him to go to the ‘Good Furmity Sold Here’ tent at the fair, instead of the ‘Good Home-brewed Beer, Ale and Cyder ’tent. His disinclination to go to the furmity tent is shown when he says, “I’ve never tasted it.’ At this point, he finally shows some responsibility as he ‘gave way to the representations…’ the ‘her’ being Susan. at the bottom of the page when she served Michael and Susan a bowl of furmity. She has a quite a persuasive character as she convinces Michael to have some rum. This meant more profit for her. Apart from the above, her last appearance was when the auction was maturing; she told Susan that it was the drink talking and that Michael didn’t mean what he was saying. The furmity lady represents the working-class of Weydon-Priors. Especially as she is part of the fair, she seems to have a nomadic life; always moving around to different locations. As she is reacquainted with Susan later on, Hardy skilfully relates the furmity lady to the downfall of rural life, ‘
At the scene of the auction, the only people who seem to have some reverence for the sacred bond of matrimony are Susan and the furmity lady. Susan is the only person who tries to put the whole state of affairs to a halt. The furmity tries to reassure Susan that Michael is just under the influence of drink. ‘Others just encourage Michael, ‘there’s them that would do that,’ this shows that they find such an offer common. For the rest of the customers in the tent, it appeared to be a sort of entertainment.
After the auction, later, when he becomes abstemious, he realises his atrocity and falls into a state of remorse. The next day, he starts to search for his ‘spouse’. After failing to locate Susan in the Fair, he makes an oath to ‘avoid all strong liquors for the space of twenty-one years…’ This shows that he has realised that the main cause of the whole dilemma was the alcohol. Henchard lets his heart rule his head by the vow of twenty one years.
After the time gap of eighteen years, Hardy doesn’t find it necessary to show how Henchard progressed as he used Farfrae (Henchards political rival) to show how he did it. Despite being Mayor, Henchard has lost none of his love of tradition. He still did everything the old fashioned way from the clothes that he wore to the way that he runs the town. At this point in the story the other main character, Donald Farfrae, a Scot is introduced. Farfrae is the very opposite of Henchard. He is a traveller in search of wealth and possesses the intelligence that Henchard is missing. Basically Farfrae was used as a contrast to Henchard and as a measure of how Michael did things. When Henchard became the mayor, and has the pressure of being pushed out of business, still Farfrae keeps a cool head.
Hardy uses language effectively to get the appropriate mood and atmosphere. He uses sufficient imagery when he wants to give the reader a detailed description of the scene. He uses symbolism to assist this, e.g. at the Fair, Hardy refers to the horses to represent Susan, as the horses are also being sold. He uses varied sentence structure to achieve tension. Another theme present is the concept of his fate. If the auctioneer had not got involved and shouted what was up for auction, the sailor may not have bought her, had the furmity lady not had the rum, Henchard would never have got the idea to sell Susan.
Hardy draws the reader’s imagination away from the business of the cities and into the openness of the countryside. This gives the effect of a close village, that everyone knows everyone else’s name, age and business round the community and that a large event like an auction of a wife would be unforgettable. They are used to the quiet and simple way of life rather than the complex ways of the cities. Hardy illustrates the characters act in their setting by using lots of imagery. He uses nature’s harmony to show human’s disharmony.
The description of the characters and their surroundings is excellently detailed, with use of a broad vocabulary. He uses description effectively. He draws the reader’s attention to the characters by using strong imagery, showing nature’s harmony, to represent the tension and strain on the marriage of the Henchard’s, human’s disharmony. The characters are similarly of their time period with their language, they use dialectal English as well as their regional accents.
The opening chapters are probably among the most important parts of the story. By the terrible action of the wife sale, Henchard goes on to make himself a better man by vowing never to touch another drink the years he had lived. As he grows older, he has achieved himself a high position in life and his community. Susan did not change; she was still the same person, quiet, faint still she was almost invisible. This makes it her most crucial part to the novel.
In conclusion to how Hardy presents a powerful image of a central character against a vivid background; although people tried to keep things as they always had been the passage of time is unstoppable and the victims of it are the people. Weydon Priors resources had gradually gone to the towns and cities and it had continued to decline. Hardy’s view was that time had been unkind to Susan who had a troublesome and disturbing life. The most successful person at stopping the progress of time was Henchard who managed to keep him and the town of Casterbridge the same for 20 years. His downfall can also be related to fate rather than time but, personally, I realised that time was the main problem. Time and mostly fate however eventually dragged him down too as he was unable to adapt to changes in rural commerce. For the most part time is portrayed as an unstoppable force that preys on the people around it.