The Mayor of Casterbridge

“Straightforward dealings don’t bring profit—‘tis the sly and the underhand that get on in these times!”

Since the day of the fair when Henchard auctioned his wife and daughter, a sense of malaise has fallen over much of the countryside. The food tent was once a centerpiece of the fair, but it is now reduced to one caldron balanced over an open fire. This is a bad time, suitable for bad men like Henchard. Unsurprisingly, such bad times have allowed him to rise to power. Henchard is built for these immoral times, but a reckoning is about to be delivered upon him.

“He is not how I thought he would be—he overpowers me! I don’t wish to see him any more.”

Susan is horrified to discover that her husband has risen to such heights. This successful version of Henchard stands in stark contrast to the itinerant man with an alcohol addiction who sold her at a town fair, so much so that she feels overpowered. She is not only overpowered by the change in Henchard but the unfairness of this change. While she has suffered and endured, he has risen to unthinkable heights. As well as the revelation of his success, Susan must contend with what Henchard’s success says about the fairness and morality of the universe.

“If there was one good thing more than another which characterized this singlehearted girl, it was a willingness to sacrifice her personal comfort and dignity to the common weal.”

Elizabeth-Jane distinguishes herself through her lack of self-interest. While other characters (to varying degrees) conduct their affairs with themselves in mind, Elizabeth-Jane is the only one who goes above and beyond to make a sacrifice for others. Such sacrifices come naturally to her, framing her as one of the novel’s most sympathetic characters and positioning her in stark contrast to her supposed father, Michael Henchard.

“The best of ye hardly honest—not that surely?”

The town takes so quickly to Farfrae because of his social optimism. While Henchard is a cold man who is difficult to like, Farfrae is able to make the townspeople feel good about themselves. He refuses to believe that they could not be honest people, indulging them in a charismatic and charming manner. He sells them an optimistic version of their town, in which they and their neighbors are better people than they ever imagined themselves to be. This version of Casterbridge is preferable to Henchard’s cold, realistic vision of the town.

“They met in the middle of the arena.”

Chapter 11 opens with a lengthy description of the Roman amphitheater where Henchard has arranged to meet Susan. As well as the gladiatorial combat performed centuries ago, many people are used to fighting in the Ring. The setting has a sinister, adversarial atmosphere which sets the tone for the reunion between the spouses. Rather than physical violence, however, the amphitheater is now playing host to emotional violence, both in the past and in the future.

“I am not going to let her know the truth.”

After the first proper day of their business partnership, Henchard makes a full confession to Farfrae about the sins of his past. After he has revealed everything, he asks for Farfrae’s honest advice. Farfrae recommends that he be honest with Susan, Lucetta, and Elizabeth-Jane. Immediately, Henchard rejects this advice. This sets the tone of his relationship with Farfrae, which he will frame as open and honest, but depends on Farfrae indulging Henchard’s moods and telling him only what he wants to hear.

“He either goes home, or I march out of this yard for good.”

Farfrae’s greatest asset is his business acumen. His insight into the value of goods and services makes him ideal for Henchard. This same insight, however, has the potential to undermine Henchard. The better acquainted Farfrae becomes with the business, the more he understands his own importance. As such, his threatening to leave becomes even greater depending on the length of time he remains with Henchard. Farfrae does not just understand the value of the market and the goods, but his own value, and he is willing to negotiate upon this value to get his own way. This makes him invaluable and dangerous to Henchard.

“Farfrae was compelled, in sheer self-defense, to close with Henchard in mortal commercial combat.”

The trade war between Henchard and Farfrae foreshadows the physical fight between the two men that occurs later in the novel. As he will in their physical fight, Henchard considers himself the most powerful force, and he has initiated the battle through raw emotion and unthinking impulsiveness. Farfrae only thinks about defending himself on either occasion. No matter how much Henchard wrongs him, he cannot ever quite bring himself to attack Henchard.

“Henchard, being uncultivated himself, was the bitterest critic the fair girl could possibly have had of her own lapses.”

Henchard’s cruelest criticisms of Elizabeth-Jane are actually criticisms of himself. He punishes her for her poor handwriting and rural accent, as they remind him of his own lack of intellectual ability. Similarly, her presence reminds him of the mistakes of his past, particularly after he discovers that she is not his daughter. Though Elizabeth-Jane does not know it, each of Henchard’s criticisms and insults is, in actuality, an expression of self-loathing.

“I have taken her name—as a means of escape from mine, and its wrongs.”

Lucetta reveals to Henchard that she has taken her aunt’s name as a way to distance herself from her scandalous past. The name change comes at an ironic time, just at the moment when Henchard’s other past scandal has impacted his life. He has recently convinced Elizabeth-Jane to adopt his surname before learning that she is not his daughter. The relationship between scandal and name is blurred, though Henchard remains the only constant. Whatever the names of the women he meets, whatever their names become, he is the common negative factor in their lives.

“The Casterbridge populace still retained the primitive habit of helping one another in time of need.”

The concept of mutual assistance in Casterbridge is portrayed as “primitive,” as though the idea of a community coming together is somehow outdated and alien to the contemporary moment. There is a supernatural quality to the moonlight reaping which suggests that the community of Casterbridge is on the cusp of alienated modernity and that events such as this are a vestigial trace of a more involved, more social world that is coming to an end. Agricultural cooperation is being thrust into the past by the machines of the Industrial Revolution.

“Any suspicion of impropriety was to Elizabeth-Jane like a red rag to a bull.”

The metaphorical bull used to describe Elizabeth-Jane’s emotions echoes the actual bull that chased her down mere hours earlier. The bull is a recurring motif throughout the novel, often associated with Henchard and his emotional outbursts. Elizabeth-Jane may not be Henchard’s daughter but, after spending so much time with him, she comes close to echoing his emotional temperament when her propriety is challenged.

“A smear of decisive lead-colored paint had been laid on to obliterate Henchard’s name, though its letters dimly loomed through like ships in a fog. Over these, in fresh white, spread the name of Farfrae.”

Henchard’s downfall puts his time as mayor squarely into the past. He was not well-loved in the town, so few people cherish his memory. The townspeople are fonder of Farfrae, so they cooperate with the slow erasure of Henchard in favor of the Scotsman. Painting over Henchard’s name is a figurative act as his influence is slowly erased from all parts of the community and determinably forgotten.

“Jopp was the one man in Casterbridge whose observation and opinion the fallen corn-merchant despised to the point of indifference.”

Henchard agrees to stay with Jopp, who is happy to see his former employer fall so low. While Jopp views this as a victory, it is actually a reflection of Henchard’s dim view of Jopp. He cares so little about Jopp and places so little value on Jopp’s opinion that he does not care if Jopp judges him. For Jopp, Henchard is a terrible villain. For Henchard, Jopp is an irrelevance.

“But the bitter thing is that when I was rich I didn’t need what I could have, and now I be poor I can’t have what I need!”

While Henchard still struggles to grasp how his actions could impact him in the future, he is increasingly capable of looking critically at his past. His ironic quip about his fall from grace contains a fundamental truth. What he wants after becoming poor again is different from what he wanted when he was poor as a young man: He wants affection and sincerity as he grows older, whereas he once only wanted wealth and for his ego to be massaged. Newly poor, Henchard’s needs and perspective have both changed.

“Every scrap shall be yours…But between you and me, Lucetta, he is sure to find out something of the matter, sooner or later.”

Henchard has told many lies throughout his life. His advice to Lucetta is bitterly sincere, as he is speaking from experience. His lies have always been uncovered; his mistakes have always come back to haunt him. The irony of Henchard’s advice to Lucetta is that it is both good advice and advice that Henchard himself will not follow. Henchard is not done lying, showing how his emotions overrule his sense even though he knows that there will be consequences.

“I saved her from a real bad marriage, and she’s never been the one to thank me.”

The old woman takes credit for preventing Lucetta from marrying Henchard, even though she accused Henchard out of self-interest rather than some kind of social altruism. In the future, the skimmity-ride that the old woman helps to organize will result in Lucetta’s death. The old woman will not take responsibility for this, nor will anyone else. People are quick to attribute successes to themselves but rarely failures. This is true for both the rich and the poor in the novel.

“As the mayor and man of money, engrossed with affairs and ambitions, he had lost in the eyes of the poorer inhabitants something of that wondrous charm which he had had for them as a light-hearted penniless young man.”

When he becomes mayor, Farfrae discovers that he cannot maintain his public relations at all times. On first arriving in Casterbridge, he charmed the locals with his songs and his Scottish mannerisms. When he has power, however, he must make unpopular decisions. The songs and charm cannot save him from this unpopularity and, eventually, he becomes like every other mayor. Farfrae is experiencing the resentment that Henchard took so personally. His challenge is to balance this resentment with his responsibilities to the town.

“Royalty be damned.”

After Henchard’s display at the procession, he has completely lost interest in any kind of social institution. The royalty in Britain at the time the novel is set is one of the few institutions expected to endure any sort of criticism. By damning the royalty, Henchard is showing the world how he no longer cares about anything other than his emotions. The vestiges of respect have been stripped away, replaced by Henchard’s raw emotion.

“l am a wretched man, but my heart is true to you still!”

Henchard throws himself on the mercy of Farfrae’s forgiveness. The problem Henchard faces is that—now that he is genuine and sincere about trying to help—he has burned through any reserve of goodwill that he might have built up. The consequences of his actions are painfully apparent, as Lucetta may be denied the presence of her husband as she lies dying. Rather than Henchard, these consequences punish those he claims to love, forming a burden that he cannot bear on their behalf.

“And yet it seems that even I be in Somebody’s hand!”

Henchard desperately wants to believe in the potential for his own redemption. He comments on how shocked he is that any kind of God might take pity on him. His self-destructive tendencies undermine any potential for redemption, however, as any atonement is colored by the inevitability of his next mood swing. Henchard cannot trust himself to the forgiveness of God because he cannot trust himself.

“I don’t forbid you to marry him.”

Henchard has changed in subtle ways. Previously, he forbade Elizabeth-Jane from seeing Farfrae. Now, he makes the opposite decision. He still resents the coupling, but he chooses to remove himself from the equation rather than deny them happiness. His actions and judgments focus on himself, rather than others, signifying a genuine change in his responses.

“He walked to another spot; it was not really where the tent had stood, but it seemed so to him.”

Henchard arrives at the spot where the fair once took place and mistakenly convinces himself that he knows the place where the fateful tent once stood. Henchard is wrong, but he finds meaning in his mistake. This mistake is indicative of his attitude to many failures throughout his life, in which he has invested his misunderstanding with undue meaning. Rather than responding violently and emotionally, however, he uses this mistake as an opportunity for self-reflection.