Analysis of Protagonist in Thomas Hardy's 'The Mayor of Casterbridge'.

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ABSTRACT

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APPENDICES

Synopsis of The Mayor of Casterbridge

In his drunkenness, Michael Henchard, an unemployed man, ends up selling his wife, Susan, and his baby daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, to a sailor. The next day, he finds that they are gone and he swears to God that he will not drink alcohol for twenty one years. Three months after the sale, Elizabeth-Jane dies. Shortly after that, Susan and the sailor have another baby girl, to whom Susan gives the same name as her late daughter’s. Eighteen years later, thinking that the sailor has died, Susan, together with Elizabeth-Jane, seeks Henchard. Susan learns that Henchard is now the mayor of Casterbridge and later remarries him without telling the present Elizabeth-Jane about their past.

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Lucetta asks Henchard to give her all the letters during their affair, but the sealed letters are read by the messenger in an inn. When the scandal surfaces, Lucetta is shocked and falls ill, she dies shortly afterwards. The next day, Newson, who is thought to have died, arrives at the town looking for his daughter. Henchard lies to Newson, who leaves at once but later returns and reunites with Elizabeth-Jane. Henchard leaves Casterbridge while Farfrae and Elizabeth-Jane plan their marriage. At the wedding, Henchard approaches his step-daughter and promises her that he will not trouble her any more. A month later, Elizabeth-Jane and Farfrae look for Henchard but they find out that he is already dead, leaving a message that tells people not to remember him.

Biography of Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy was an English poet, novelist and short story writer. He was born on 2nd of June 1840 in Dorset, England. His father, also named Thomas, was a stone mason and violin player and his mother, Jemima, taught him to read and write. Hardy studied at a local national school in Lower Bockhampton in 1848, then he was sent to a non-conformist school in Greyhound Yard, Dorchester in 1850. By sixteen, Hardy finished his formal education.

Hardy started writing poetry during his stay in London in 1860's, but he was not able to get his works published. In 1867, he returned to Dorset and wrote his first novel, The Poor Man and the Lady which was rejected by the publisher. In 1874, Hardy married Emma Lavinia Gifford and in the same year, his novel entitled Far from the Madding Crowd, won him public notice. Then in 1878, The Return of the Native, brought him more success and it was followed by The

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Unfortunately in 1891 and 1895, Hardy's novel, Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure received heavy criticism. This made him stop writing prose and

returned to poetry. Hardy compiled and published his earlier poems entitled Wessex Poems in 1898.

In 1912, Hardy's wife, Emma, died and this shocked him. However, fourteen months after his wife's death, Hardy married Florence Dugdale, who was his admirer. In autumn 1927, Hardy fell seriously ill and finally died on 11th of January 1928. In his life, Thomas Hardy wrote 14 novels, more than 40 short stories, over 900 poems and 2 dramas. He was also regarded as the most outstanding writer of his time.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Thomas Hardy was one of England's most celebrated poet and novelist in the Victorian period. In his career, Hardy wrote some novels that gained worldwide fame such as Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1895). Although considered overly pessimistic, his heavily criticized works actually describe the ugly reality of humans life. Hardy was awarded the order of merit for his distinguished achievement in literature.

Hardy began and ended his career with writing poetry, but it was his novels that made him remembered nowadays. His novels, including The Mayor of Casterbridge, are often considered to present pessimistic views of life. They are

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towards fatalism, that “character is just as responsible for the foibles of mankind as fate is” (Wright par. 5). Compared to the general view of fatalism which regards fate as the only force that makes humans suffer, Hardy’s fatalism emphasizes that humans’ characteristics are also responsible for the misfortunes that happen in their life. In this novel, this argument can be proven through the portrayal of protagonist. Protagonist itself is “the leading character or one of the major characters in a play, film, novel, etc” (“Protagonist”). Throughout the story,

the protagonist is constantly facing bad situations. If the readers take a look at the protagonist’s life, they might understand Hardy’s idea of fatalism and why he created such a character.

The novel itself is a unique piece among Hardy's novels as he added the subtitle “Life and Death of a Man of Character” to emphasize that he wrote the novel as a study of a character, which in this novel is the protagonist, Michael Henchard. The Mayor of Casterbridge is set in Hardy's fictional town of Casterbridge and this setting is one of the factors causing this novel to be an admirable work. This novel shows Hardy’s talent of using environment and

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Statement of the Problems

The problems in this thesis are formulated as follows: 1. How is the protagonist portrayed ?

 What is the purpose of the author in creating such a character ?

Purpose of the study

This study is conducted for the following purposes: 1. To show how the protagonist is portrayed

 To show the author's purposes in creating the character

Method of Research

In this thesis, the method I used is library research. First I read Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge. Then, I collected information from books, Internet sources and dictionaries to help me understand more about the novel. After that, I analysed the novel by referring to one of the literary elements, which was the portrayal of the protagonist. Finally, based on the analysis of the novel, I drew the conclusion and wrote this thesis.

Organization of the Thesis

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CHAPTER THREE

CONCLUSION

After reading and analysing Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge,

I conclude that the novel is a great presentation of fatalism. Fatalism is presented in the novel through the life of the protagonist, Michael Henchard. At first, the readers might think that it is his fate that makes him struck by a series of unfortunate situations, but in fact there is something else that causes his sufferings. Throughout the story, Henchard often encounters situations which seem disadvantageous for him. However, these situations are not the true cause of all his misfortunes. Henchard is really the one who unknowingly turns these situations to become disadvantages for him. Henchard is able to do such a thing because he is driven by his characteristics, therefore his characteristics are responsible for the cause of his sufferings. I believe that the author portrays Henchard as such because he wants the readers to understand the idea of fatalism. Fate exists, but it does not directly cause misfortune in humans’ life because in the end, humans are the ones who make choices through their characteristics.

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argue that fate is not the only one responsible for human sufferings, and humans’ characteristics can drive them to their miseries. The author has presented fate using environment which creates unexpected and uncontrollable situations. In the story, these situations are the triggers that can be pulled to result in misfortune. This misfortune will happen if the triggers are pulled by Henchard’s negative characteristics, which are reckless, jealous, bad-tempered and anxious.

The author’s opinion towards fatalism can be seen right at the beginning of the story through Henchard’s recklessness. Henchard loses his wife and baby

daughter because they are taken away by Newson. However, it is Henchard who makes this misfortune happen because he decides to drink strong liquor. This rash decision immediately brings terrible consequence, since Henchard becomes drunk and sells his family members. Then, when Henchard is trying to surpass Farfrae’s successful business, he makes another rash decision as he trusts a

weather-caster without considering logic. As a result, he loses much of his wealth. Lastly, Henchard lies to Newson without considering both Newson’s and

Elizabeth-Jane’s reactions if they find out about his lie. This decision causes Henchard’s ultimate suffering because it makes Elizabeth-Jane hate him. It is fate that brings Newson to the place where Henchard gets drunk. Fate also creates the good weather after Henchard buys too much grain. Further, fate makes Newson survive the storm. Still, fate is not truly responsible for causing Henchard’s sufferings, as Henchard, driven by his reckless nature, is the one who makes bad decisions, which cause these situations to bring sufferings upon him.

Another example of Hardy’s fatalism can be seen when Henchard

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However, Henchard is the one who dismisses Farfrae in the first place and this makes Farfrae decide to start his own business. It is true that fate makes Farfrae become more popular and successful than Henchard, but it is Henchard’s jealousy

that makes him unable to accept Farfrae’s success. Because of his jealousy,

Henchard turns his closest friend into an enemy he cannot defeat.

The same view is also visible in Henchard’s bad temper. When Henchard

realizes that Lucetta is already married to Farfrae, Henchard bursts out in anger. Also, when he is prevented from greeting the royalty by Farfrae, his temper causes him to try to kill Farfrae. Fate is involved in both of these situations, as fate brings Lucetta and Farfrae together and makes Farfrae become the mayor of the town. However, these situations do not causes Henchard to suffer. In fact, Henchard’s bad temper is the true cause of his sufferings since it drives him to react badly towards the situations. His bad temper makes him curse Lucetta and tear their relationship. Yet this consequence is nothing compared to the one that strikes Henchard when his bad temper makes him nearly kill Farfrae. Even though Henchard asks for forgiveness, Farfrae ignores him, making Henchard unable to save Lucetta’s life when she is ill. Again, Henchard suffers because his

actions have previously been driven by his bad-temper characteristic.

Henchard’s anxiety is caused by his reckless characteristic. This also

represents Hardy’s fatalistic view as this characteristic is the result of Henchard’s

decision when he is facing a situation which is caused by fate. Newson’s survival

in the storm is fated and because he is still alive, he looks for his daughter. It is true that Newson’s arrival in Casterbridge can make Henchard suffer, since he

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forever or not.

In my opinion, Thomas Hardy was truly a remarkable writer. He cleverly fuses the environmental factor, which can be seen as the situations, with the idea of fatalism. This allows the readers to understand how fate provides the trigger for Henchard’s misfortune. Hardy also successfully manages to show his idea to

the readers. Through the portrayal of Michael Henchard, I can see that fate is not the only factor responsible for Henchard’s misfortune. In fact, Henchard’s characteristics are the other factor that causes his misfortunes. Every time Henchard faces situations which are created by fate, his characteristics drive him to do things which later cost him his happiness.

The idea of fatalism is truly a pessimistic view, but this view is the reason that makes this novel a timeless piece of art. It is true that fatalism was used by Hardy almost a century ago to argue about humans’ life, but I believe that

fatalism is not an outdated belief, which simply disappears as time goes by. In fact, fatalism can still be used to argue about human’s life in the present and

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Texts

Hardy, Thomas. The Mayor of Casterbridge. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Limited, 1994. Print.

References

Allingham, Philip V. “The Novels of Thomas Hardy: An Introduction.” Victorian Web. 2000. Web. 6 April 2014

“Anxious.” Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press, n.d. Web. 30 May

2013.

“Bad-tempered.” Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press, n.d. Web. 30 May 2013.

Diniejko, Andrzej. “Thomas Hardy. A Biographical Sketch.” Victorian Web. 7

Feb. 2010. Web. 12 Mar. 2013.

“Fatalism.” Wikipedia. N.p. n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2014.

Fincham, Tony. “About Hardy.” The Thomas Hardy Society. 2 Feb. 2011. Web. 12 Mar. 2013.

“Jealous.” Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press, n.d. Web. 30 May 2013.

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New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983. Print.

“Protagonist.” Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press, n.d. Web. 30 May 2013.

“Reckless.” Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press, n.d. Web. 30 May 2013.

Wright, Latonya. “About The Mayor of Casterbridge.” Gradesaver. GradeSaver