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. His carelessness is again shown on page six, where he gets drunk from the excessive rum in his furmity. Henchard has his furmity laced, becomes drunk and begins to talk about selling is wife. We can tell his wife is used to this kind of thing because she “seems accustomed to these remarks.” She does not argue with him about these harsh words demonstrating what a quiet person she is. She might have been in control of the situation as Henchard went on to sell his wife. The furmity lady is described as ‘haggish’ and is said to be of fifty years of age. She was wearing a white apron, reaching almost all the way around her waist. Her only actions were to stir the large pot of furmity, which consists of grain, flour, milk, raisins, currants, etc. She seems to be just a furmity lady, but Hardy’s crone-like description of her fits nicely with her slyness as she laces the furmity with quite a lot of rum. She appears again 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, ‘
He then goes on further, when he states how he got married too young. Michael puts himself and Susan in great shame, when he auctions her. At this point, we don’t know whether it’s the drink talking, or if he really feels this way. Later on in page eight, Susan gets more serious, realising the great significance of Michael’s actions; ‘Come, come, it is getting dark, and this nonsense won’t do. If you don’t come along, I shall go without you. Come!’ The repetition shows her concern and desperation to avoid the situation. Susan tries to maintain her dignity and pride by agreeing to all of the selling, probably to rid herself of such humiliation and torture. We know instantly that Susan regrets the whole ordeal as ‘she went out of the tent sobbing bitterly.’ We are persuaded that Michael really wants to rid of his wife, when, on pages 8/9/10, he pursues his selling, until finally a bidder puts the money on the table and the exchange is made. Hardy shows that Henchard really is a malicious man, without any thought to his responsibility. We know this by the language used; he talks badly of Susan; ‘I married at 18, like the fool that I was; and this is the consequence of ’t.’ we finally see the back of Susan, telling us that the exchange was true and complete. Henchard was very open about his marriage life while he was in his drunken state. He seemed to feel that marriage is the biggest mistake a man can make and that it is for fools.
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.
The rural economy of the period plays quite an important part in the tale as well. This is because Michael and Susan first went towards Weydon-Priors, because Henchard was in search of employment. Change is evident in the area of Weydon-Priors as the turnip-hoer told Michael of the knocking down of the houses, which means that there are people moving to the Cities and Towns. The quality and style of life will obviously be changed by this new revolution. By mentioning or hinting the industrial revolution, Hardy sets the time and setting of the anecdote well, making it more realistic.
Hardy uses the theme of nature in The Mayor of Casterbridge, but only occasionally in the first two chapters. An example of Hardy doing this, is on page two, “…half-apathetic expression of on who deems anything possible at the hands of Time and Chance except, perhaps, fair play. The first phase was that work of Nature…” As you may notice, Hardy used capital letters for the beginnings of the three words; Time, Chance and Nature. He might have done this to make the three words stand out and allow the reader to see their significance. Time and Chance seem to control occurrences. Time; things are going to happen, it’s just a matter of time when. Chance; sometimes. People can be lucky and have ‘chance’ on their side. Nature; the contrasts between man and nature.
Fate seems to play a small, but quite important role in the anecdote. Hardy uses this element skilfully. Hardy believed that characters made their own fate. It assists the auction scene with the entrance of the sailor. It would have been quite hard for the sailor to hear the auctioneer’s voice from outside; he was destined to meet and ‘purchase’ Susan and Elizabeth-Jane. On the other hand, it may have been fate that made the furmity woman turn out to be in league with smugglers.
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.