Another of Henchard’s traits also leads to his downfall. This is his objective way of looking at things. He always takes things at face value and never thinks to look beyond the cover of a situation. One example of just such a situation is the twenty-one year vow that he takes to never touch alcohol when he realises that he has sold his wife and child to Newson. When the vow expires, instead of only drinking in moderation, as he would have done before he took the vow, he waits until the very day that the vow times out and immediately goes out and gets as drunk as possible in the three mariners.
All of these characteristics lead to Henchard being very poor at making friends but very good in the business world due to his inability to back down and the way that he can make a decision very quickly without first thinking about the consequences. This characteristic works not only for but against him also. When we first hear of Henchard being the mayor of Casterbridge it is when the women in the square talk of
“the corn-factor—he’s the man that all our millers and bakers deal wi’—and he has sold ‘em growed wheat”
this shows that Henchard quickly sold the “millers and bakers” poor quality corn without first stopping to think of the effect on the populace of Casterbridge. This selling of “growed wheat” is of course one of the main events in the book as it leads to Henchard hiring Donald Farfrae. I think that Henchard hires Farfrae for two main reasons. First and foremost he is hired because he knows a way to restore “growed wheat” back to almost its original state and secondly and more subtly he hires Farfrae so that he may make a friend.
Henchard can never escape the events of his past mainly because the mistakes that he makes are long-term ones. For example when he sells his wife and child they don’t instantly stop having anything to do with him and cease to exist, instead they just move out of sight and out of mind. This allows Henchard to continue his life as a corn factor with the two burdens of his conscience and his vow.
Henchard’s bad temper is also a major contributing factor in his downfall. When Henchard holds the revelries, Farfrae, unknown to Henchard at the time, organises another venue in case the original plans were rained off. In fact it did rain and whilst Henchard’s revelries were cancelled, at massive loss of face for him, Farfrae’s were a roaring success. Henchard, being the type of person that he was, took this as a personal insult and fired Farfrae on the spot. Donald was well liked in the town because of his fair treatment of his workers and the sentimental songs that he sung in the three mariners. Henchard firing him, obviously, did not go down too well which caused Henchard to be disliked even more. It also thrust Farfrae, by vote of sympathy, to the position of best-liked person in Casterbridge. This meant that when he set up against Henchard the farmers and dealers would much rather deal with him than Michael.
When the scandal of Henchard selling his wife is started by the old furmity woman explaining to the court of assembled aldermen,
“twenty years ago or thereabout I was selling furmity in a tent at Weydon Fair—”
she continued
“A man, and a woman with a little child came into my tent”
she goes on to relate her tale of woe and how she used to “season my furmity with rum for those who asked for’t” and tells of Henchard taking advantage of this until at last
“he quarrelled with his wife and offered to sell her to the highest bidder. A sailor came in, and bid five guineas, and paid the money, and led her away. And the man who sold his wife in that fashion is the man sitting there in the great big chair.”
This forces Henchard to leave office. The post is soon filled by Donald Farfrae. This send Henchard further down his path of despair.
Henchard then tries to woo Lucetta but is met with refusal to his proposal when she reveals that she is, in fact, already married to Farfrae. This episode is capped off when Lucetta, fearing discovery of her and Henchard’s past relationship, requests that all evidence of her relationship and their correspondence is returned to her. Henchard willingly agrees but, being to depressed to go to her himself, sends Jopp, whom he is staying with, to her with the package. On the way Jopp stops at an inn called Peter’s Finger and opens the package. The customers learn of the affair and organise a skimmity-ride outside Farfrae and Lucetta’s house when Donald is out of town. This has two disastrous effects. Firstly it leads to the untimely death of Lucetta and secondly Michael sees the effigy of himself floating face down, which was tossed into the river when the police arrived and broke up the skimmity-ride. This causes him to dwell on thoughts of death and suicide. It is this, I think, which finally makes Henchard want to drown himself.
All of these reasons made Henchard incredibly depressed. So depressed in fact that he finally drowns himself. Looking back on his life Henchard was mainly unlucky with his decisions and whenever something could go wrong for him it usually did. I think that Henchard could not possibly escape from the events of his past because each one started a multitude of other events which all intertwined. None of this would have happened, or indeed been possible, if Henchard had not sold his wife on that fateful day at the Weydon Fair.
James Kay 5r
