Step 1: Sell your Wife and Daughter

When picking up a book subtitled “The Life and Death of a Man of Character,” you could probably give a pretty good guess as to what you might find inside. First off, it would not be a surprise if the book was presented as a kind of moral guide— here is a famous and profitable man who lived in a certain way, so perhaps you should consider living like this too. Second, the story must in some way end in success. Finally, our protagonist must live up to his description of being “of character.” The Mayor of Casterbridge, however, is written by Thomas Hardy, which basically means that all bets are off. 

The story starts off with a rather common occurrence: the selling of a man’s wife and child. I mean, who hasn’t accidentally sold one’s wife and daughter for five and a quarter pounds amid a drunken haze? The vendor in this situation turns out to be our very own “man of character,” Michael Henchard. He has decided that his wife Susan and daughter Elizabeth-Jane are responsible, like many others, for "the frustration of many a promising youth's high aims and hopes and the extinction of his energies by an early imprudent marriage" (5). Upon saying this, Michael has forever doomed himself to live in the shadow of these words. The story quickly advances following the auction, we soon find ourselves amid the bustle of the rural village of Casterbridge, some time in the future.

Once more of the goings on of Casterbridge are revealed, we soon see that Henchard, who has somehow grown from a lowly hay-trusser into the town's mayor, has tried his best to put the sale of his wife behind him. He is involved in the corn business and is actually quite a merchant. Henchard manages to buy several tons of a crop of corn that refuses to be ground into wheat, causing widespread anger among the people he is at the moment representing. Henchard is also revealed to have sworn off drinking after the auction, mainly blaming the alcohol for his past mistake.

Finally, and most important to the characterization of Henchard, is his response to learning that his sold wife and child, after nineteen years, have found themselves in Casterbridge. Henchard, rather than owning up to his past mistakes, decides that money and secrecy will solve everything. He decides to pretend like he has never met his wife before, and to court and wed her as if they had just fallen in love. All of this is done while Henchard feels little for Susan, mainly because he has already given his heart to another woman in a neighboring county. Of course, Henchard refuses to "'let her know the truth'" (57), and instead sends his sweetheart a nice bundle of money to keep her quiet.

Henchard as our “man of character” is only classified by his mistakes. These are what govern his life, as for Henchard, the past seems to have the nasty habit of popping up again and again. He puts it perfectly when he states outright that "the Mayor of Casterbridge is not so thriving in his mind as it seems he might be from the state of his pocket" (58).

Susan and Elizabeth-Jane, the once and future family of Michael Henchard, can both easily be described as “wet noodles.” Both women seem to be unable to function on their own. Susan feels tied to the man who bought her, saying that he "had acquired a morally real and justifiable right to her by his purchase" (17), and happily lives under this illusion for over a decade. When he dies, Susan decides that she is actually not happy in a home that she was given no choice in joining (shocker) and goes to seek out Henchard.

Elizabeth-Jane on the other hand seems unable to see what is right in front of her face. Her mother describes her upbringing by saying "It had seemed, indeed, folly ot think of making Elizabeth-Jane wise" (17). Elizabeth-Jane does certainly live up to this description-- she is by no means wise and fails to see that the relationship between her mother and Henchard is a bit more than long lost cousins.

The only likable character found thus far in the book is Donald Farfrae, a man so charming to me that it almost makes up for everyone else we meet in the book. Donald is a Scotchman who comes to Casterbridge as a last stop before he starts his journey across the pond. In no time at all, he solves Henchard’s corn problem, causing him to extend a hand of friendship and a job as the manager of all things corn. Donald agrees, and quickly integrates himself into Henchard’s life.

It takes little time to see that Donald and Henchard are sheer opposites— foils even. Where Henchard is depressed, mathematically challenged, and emotionally reliant, Donald is happy, a scientist by nature, and logical. When no clear path appears to Henchard, the solution is obvious to Donald. It is of little doubt (I say with delight) that Donald will continue to stay a large portion of the story as he supports Henchard through his emotionally unsure times. Perhaps there is hope after all for happiness to beat Hardy’s signature depression.