Step 11: Die

At long last, the event that we were assured of has happened. The book closes a few days after the marriage ceremony between Elizabeth-Jane and Donald (whose wife, Mrs. Templeman, dies suddenly from shock). The two of them decide to seek out Henchard, who has left Casterbridge for good. They find his body, not thirty minutes without life, along with his will, asking “that no flours [sic] be planted on my grave. & that no man remember [him]” (242).

Henchard, throughout his life, is constantly riddled with the mistakes of his past. This is, perhaps, the most apparent theme found in Hardy’s work. The past always seems to come back to haunt. Henchard even begins to recognize his past life will return and tries his best to stop it. He tries to pay off Lucetta Templeman to keep her quiet about their relationship, only to have her turn up in town a few months later. He tries to sweep the sale of his wife under the rug, only to have a woman from the fair turn up and tell everyone.

The past can never be escaped. One by one, from the start of the book, everything in Henchard’s life is reclaimed by his past sins, and Henchard can do nothing to stop it. It is this that causes our man of character’s fall from mayor to a lowly pauper, who dies in a shack without any family left.

Hardy advances this theme through several interesting techniques. Most notably is how he creates a relationship between his setting and the characters of the story. The best example of this is one of the first descriptions of Casterbridge we get as a reader. Hardy says that “Casterbridge announced old Rome in every street, alley, and precinct. It looked Roman, bespoke the art of Rome, concealed dead men of Rome. It was impossible to dig more than a foot or two deep... without coming upon some tall soldier or other of the Empire who had lain there in his silent unobtrusive rest for a space of fifteen hundred years” (50).

Casterbridge was one of the last outposts of the Roman Empire and in every way still bares those influences. Its appearance, customs, and even atmosphere all bare elements of Rome. It is inescapable. Yet, Hardy chooses not to mention the beautiful squares, markets, and architecture that create the heart of the town. Instead, he focuses on the darkness and dead left by the Empire.

At every turn, Hardy adapts the city to match Henchard’s inner turmoil. For example, when he meets Susan after her appearance they do not have lunch on the river bank. Instead, they meet in the old Roman amphitheater that once served as a hanging post. The scene matches the mood.

Hardy’s use of these implied metaphors applies what he is already spectacular at (ie creating vivid pictures through imagery) to his theme, cementing its importance in the book. This development of theme makes Hardy’s work of undeniable literary merit. Not only does his writing evoke every one of the reader’s senses, but through figurative language and metaphor, it is inseparably tied to the development of his themes throughout the book. So it seems that while Henchard has skeletons in his closet, Casterbridge itself has some beneath its streets.