Over the past couple of weeks, I've been lucky enough to see the 1978 BBC mini-series production of Thomas Hardy's 'The Mayor of Casterbridge' with Alan Bates playing the central role of Michael Henchard:
During this time, I also read the section on 'The Mayor of Casterbridge' in Geoffrey Harvey's fantastic 'Thomas Hardy: Routledge Guides to Literature' (2003: 71-76) which enhanced my understanding of and sympathy for Henchard's psychological state during his decline and fall in the novel:
Now, I just want to reflect on how much I've learnt about Michael Henchard's psychological disposition through having watched the 1978 BBC production of 'The Mayor of Casterbridge' and especially through having read Geoffrey Harvey's commentary on it. I read the novel itself back in the mid-1980s when I was 20 or 21 and could only grasp a miniscule of its deeper meaning.
(i) Aristotelian Tragic Form:
First, the novel may be viewed as a relentless pattern of natural retribution which follows the tragic Michael Henchard around. It records the rise of a hay-trusser to the top of the Casterbridge community after committing the unforgiveable act of selling his wife and young daughter to the sailor, Newson, at Weydon Priors Fair where he had drunk a spirit-laced furmity drink. At a surface level, Henchard's decline, with the loss of his social standing and worldly goods, is precipitated by him firing the highly talented Donald Farfae; subsequent economic mismanagement of his agricultural business which would've been avoided with Farfrae on board; and the public revelation of his past, unforgiveable act. At a deeper, personal level, Henchard's deepening remorse, longing for reconciliation with people he has wronged, and the news about the death of his real daughter (making the adult Elizabeth-Jane he has got to know and love his step-daughter) eat away at him and lead to his tragic death on Egdon Heath.
(ii) Michael Henchard's Tormented Psychology:
Henchard's complex, volatile nature covers a wide range of both positive and negative emotions, as love, generosity, frustration, and outright aggression are mixed together like in a cauldron in his psyche. In this sense, Henchard's complex character may be viewed as the seed of his self-destruction process. Through the more positive side of his nature, he attempts to repair the damage he has committed in the past to his wife Susan and Elizabeth-Jane (plus his former lover Lucetta), but his efforts are blocked, to some degree by cruel chance and coincidence, but mainly by his own inappropriate, impulsive responses to people and key events.
Hence, 'The Mayor of Casterbridge' may be viewed as the psychological study of a tormented character who is haunted by guilt and driven towards self-destruction, which leads to him becoming alienated from the people closest to him, including the ultra-loyal Elizabeth Jane. Despite his moral crime and flaws of character, Henchard attains the reader's sympathy through not just his personal suffering, but also his 'real man' nature being pitted against his more superficial and less manly rival, Donald Farfrae.
(iii) The Henchard-Farfrae Rivalry:
The reader naturally feels sympathy for Henchard due to his loss of former lover (Lucetta), business, and position as the Mayor of Casterbridge to Farfrae, as well as the potential loss of Elizabeth Jane. Here, the reader can see that Henchard's old rural values are being usurped by Farfrae's more modern ideas better-suited to an urban environment (similar to an old king being cast out of his empire by a young hero), with the story being set in the first half of the 19th century when many agricultural communities were moving towards urbanisation. The tragedy is that the brusque determination of Henchard just cannot cope with the slick intelligence of Farfrae, so an authentic and proud countryman is systematically humbled by an intrusive outsider who represents the forces of modernity and change in an agricultural community dependent on successful corn and hay harvests. Indeed, Hardy records the decline of Henchard and corresponding rise of Farfrae through the latter taking Henchard's dwelling-place, possessions, and (former) lover, Lucetta.
(iv) Wheel of Fortune Symbolism:
All of Henchard's main moral betrayals of Susan (selling her and his daughter); Elizabeth-Jane (not telling her that Newson is her real father); and Newson (telling him that Elizabth-Jane is dead) precipitate his decline and fall, completely undermining all his efforts at reparation and reconciliation with those he has wronged. Tied in with this, the novel contains a sense of the circularity of events, especially with the reappearance of the furmity woman who informs the Casterbridge court room presided over by Henchard of his wife-selling act at Weydon Priors Fair all those years ago. Here, there is a sense of people not being able to escape their worst actions from the past, no matter how much they develop as people afterwards, as the wheel of fortune makes sure that they pay for their previous serious wrongdoings.
(v) Hardy's Humanising of Henchard
The reader's sympathy towards Henchard seems to be based on him renouncing strong drink, disciplining his character, and energising himself towards gaining economic/social success in Casterbridge after his moral crime at the Country Fair. Hence, it is naturally tragic to see him leaving Casterbridge (due to Newson's return) in tattered shape to revisit the scene of his moral crime against his wife and young daughter, and then experience a poor, lonely death on Egdon Heath.
(vi) The Symbolism of the Bull-Subduing Episode
Finally, I believe that much of the tragedy in 'The Mayor of Casterbridge' simply revolves around Henchard being an inwardly aggressive person, who demonstrates this with occasional aggressive turns of action, with the better part of his nature wishing that he didn't have this aggressive-type disposition. In this respect, the episode where he subdues a bull that endangers Lucetta and Elizabeth Jane may be symbolic of him engaging in an inner struggle with his own aggression-driven inner-self. How many men know of this struggle if the truth be known?
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