HomeOld_PostsAn Africa-centred critique of The Mayor of Casterbridge: Part Two.....‘O’-Level English Literature...

An Africa-centred critique of The Mayor of Casterbridge: Part Two…..‘O’-Level English Literature (2013/1) series

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Like Susan, Lucetta suffers much at the hands of fate. When she is fully confident that she is going to marry Michael Henchard, Susan returns and drowns her dream.
The blow is one of incalculable intensity. Her pathos is captured in the confession to Henchard: I quite forgive you for landing me in such a dilemma … I thus look upon the whole as a misfortune of mine, and not a faulty of yours … Now you will, I am sure, perceive that the one condition which will make any future happiness possible for me is that the past connection between our lives be kept a secret outside this isle – I remain still, yours ever.
Even this last wish is denied dignity by conspiring circumstances beyond her control. Forces of destruction have already mounted the cornerstone of her death by the presence of Joshua Jopp in Jersey, at the moment of her acquaintance with Henchard.
When Susan dies, she hopes the stumbling block has been cleared and in her gesture to go and stay close to Henchard, now as Miss Templeman, her aunt’s name to whom she has just fatefully become heiress, she stays with Elizabeth, a lady whose presence at her home lures Farfrae.
Destiny calculates its steps so well that she falls in love with him and strives hard to stamp Henchard out of her heart.
Of course love is irresistible, when it comes there is no barrier, but the way destiny works out for the absence of Elizabeth and Henchard’s deference of his appointment to see her all show the direction set for Lucetta’s life by forces of negation.
In the meantime, it is of significance to point out that the fear she has expressed in the extract above has already been coated red by Henchard’s failure to return the letters as occasioned by the sudden death of Mrs Templeman.
It is no surprise that when Henchard deems it unfit to return the letters, he promotes the blooming of fate’s long-begotten plan. He gives them to Jopp who happens to seek revenge on her so that he discloses the letters to the Skimmington riders. He takes part in the mockery that is accelerated by Newson’s sudden reappearance on the scene of planning.
When she thinks that she has won happiness at last, she faces yet another blow, the Skimmington, at the sight of which she collapses and eventually dies. Hers is a will for life full of flowers of happiness, but nature’s offer is not.
Fate dictates sorrow, misery and death. One can as well conclude that what Caryle has said about fate could never be truer for Lucetta as it is for the main character: Whom Heaven has made a slave, no parliament of men, nor power that exists on earth can render free.
Indeed this quotation goes for Michael Henchard, the Mayor, as well. Henchard is arguably one of the greatest characters Hardy has ever created. His life is a complex of the interplay of his hot temperament and intricate mishaps which perpetuate his fall. Though his character has a lot to do with his tragic end, the extent to which it goes seems so unalterably determined in advance to justify the accountability of fate.
Granted, his violent exertions also have a big share of blame for his fall. Let me begin by contending that the underlying cause of his tragedy is strongly linked to his vaulting ambition.
He is a typical embodiment of the unbridled spirit of capitalism. The ambition esteems affluence more than genuine love as is clear in his regret: I married at eighteen, like the fool that I was; and this is the consequence o’t … I haven’t more than fifteen shillings in the world, and yet I am a good experienced hand in my line … and if I were a free man again I’d be worth a thousand pounds before I’d done o’t ….
This is the first fateful seizure which eclipses his whole life owing to the ripples of its aftermath which pursue his aspirations so that no matter how he struggles to better himself, his attempts remain barren of permanent fruit.
But his errors of judgement seem to be compounded by circumstances outside his control too. For instance the timing of Newson’s re-emergence has a lot to do with this. Similarly, the fact that Susan thinks that there is something morally binding in the transaction shows how fate determines the course of events in which their lives are actively embedded.
However, his oath of ‘never to drink any strong liquor for 21 years being each year for every year he has lived’ shows a great sense of regret and self-reproach, and thus draws our sympathy. It is a redeeming feature that extenuates the gravity of error and therefore points towards the trace of fate more visibly to the eye of scrutiny.
In Casterbridge, now as Mayor, Henchard displays many weaknesses of character in which elements of destiny are implicit as well. He persuades Donald Farfrae to his service and confides in him all the secrets of his life. He knows no bounds in his reservations, requests and impulses, a folly that he acknowledges unashamedly – I am the most distant fellow in the world when I don’t care for a man … but if a man takes my fancy he takes it strong.
In employing Farfrae, the Mayor turns away Joshua Jopp so unceremoniously that he creates an enemy for himself. Though this is partly attributed to weakness of character, the fact that this lays the grounds bare for the ambition-fate conflict again makes fate visible to any scrutinising eye.
It is clear that fate merges so inextricably with his Achilles heel that we are bound to wonder whether his life could be redeemed in any way. This battle between blood and environment is what we will continue to explore next week when we conclude our discourse on the tragedy of The Mayor of Casterbridge.

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