The Mayor of Casterbridge
About the author
Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 in Dorset, a rural county
in the south-west of England. His father was a stonemason
and the family were not well off. Hardy showed an early
interest in books, however, and when he was sixteen, he
began training as an architect in Dorchester. In 1862, he
went to work in London, where he was able to compare
city life with the customs and timeless ways of the country
village where he grew up. He began writing in his spare
time. In 1870, he met and fell in love with Emma Gifford,
but they could not afford to marry. His fourth novel, Far
From the Madding Crowd, published in 1874, was a big
success. This allowed him to become a full-time writer and
to marry. Hardy wrote several more novels, among them
The Mayor of Casterbridge, published in 1886. He and
Emma lived in Dorset, but they spent part of every year in
London, where they mixed with literary people and Hardy
was much admired. Although Hardy’s books were very
popular, when Jude the Obscure appeared in 1896, people
hated it. They thought it was an attack on marriage, and
found it shocking and immoral. Hardy turned to poetry
and never wrote another novel. He died in 1928. Some
biographers portray him as snobbish, mean and hateful
towards women. Others believe he was a sensitive man
who cared deeply about the human condition.
Summary
Young, poor Michael Henchard feels trapped by his wife
and child and one night gets drunk at a fair and sells
them to a stranger called Newson. Horrified by what
he has done, he swears not to touch alcohol for twenty one
years. Eighteen years later he is the mayor of Casterbridge
and a successful businessman. Believing Newson is dead,
his wife, Susan, and daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, arrive in
Casterbridge to find Henchard because she has no money.
He marries her again and they have a short happy life
together. Farfrae, a young man with modern business
ideas, arrives at the same time and becomes Henchard’s
farm manager. Susan dies, and Henchard learns that
Elizabeth-Jane is really Newson’s daughter. Henchard falls
out with Farfrae, who sets up a rival business, and soon
outdoes him. A woman from Henchard’s past, Lucetta,
comes to Casterbridge. Henchard now wants to marry
her, but she and Farfrae fall in love. Henchard’s business
fails and he loses his house so he starts drinking again.
Lucetta dies of shock after the local people make fun of
her and Henchard in public. He sees that he will now
lose his ‘daughter’ as well as everything else. He leaves
Casterbridge on foot. He is penniless and has lost his
family – just as at the beginning of the story. Elizabeth-
Jane remains loyal to Henchard, but he dies before she can
find him.
Chapter 1: Henchard, a farm worker aged twenty, has a
family, no job and no home. He gets drunk and sells his
wife and child for five guineas to a sailor named Newson
at a fair. Devastated at what he has done, he looks for
them without success. Henchard makes a solemn promise
not to touch alcohol for twenty years.
Chapter 2: Susan, widowed and poor, and her eighteenyear-
old daughter, Elizabeth-Jane arrive in Casterbridge to
find Henchard. She is relieved to find he is now the Mayor
and a businessman who needs a corn manager for his
growing business.
Chapter 3: Henchard employs Farfrae, a handsome
innovative Scotsman as corn manager and the business
improves. He also meets Susan and devises a plan so
that the townspeople do not find their marriage strange.
He draws closer to Farfrae and tells him about his past;
including a woman in Jersey he promised to marry.
Chapter 4: Henchard marries Susan, but she is reluctant
to have her daughter’s last name changed. He and Farfrae
disagree publicly over a worker. Henchard is jealous and
organises a rival entertainment day to Farfrae’s, but it fails.
Farfrae leaves him and sets up a rival business. Susan dies
but leaves a letter with the truth about her daughter.
Chapter 5: Henchard tells Elizabeth-Jane what happened
at the fair twenty years ago but reads in Susan’s letter that
she is really Newson’s daughter. He begins to treat her
coldly, and even encourages Farfrae to see her. Elizabeth-
Jane meets a woman at her mother’s grave who is friendly
and offers her to share her house.
Chapter 6: Lucetta, the woman from Jersey, has inherited
property in Casterbridge and has employed Elizabeth-Jane
as a housekeeper. Henchard tries to see her but they fail to
meet. Farfrae calls in to see Elizabeth-Jane, who is out. He
likes Lucetta and she loses interest in Henchard.
Chapter 7: Henchard goes bankrupt because of the
weather and his own impatience while Farfrae’s business
succeeds. Henchard realises he and Farfrae compete for
Lucetta’s love, so he threatens her with making their past
public so that she accepts his proposal of marriage.
Chapter 8: Henchard agrees to postpone their wedding
if Lucetta helps him buy some time to repay a debt to
Grower. She can’t because she has secretly married Farfrae
and Grower acted as witness.
Chapter 9: Henchard claims the letters from his safe, and
reads them out to Farfrae without disclosing the sender.
He promises Lucetta to give tham back to her and asks
Jopp to deliver them.
Chapter 10: Jopp asks Lucetta to help him become her
husband’s manager but she refuses. In a pub, he reads out
the letters to two women and they plan a skimmity-ride in
town to scorn Lucetta and Henchard.
Chapter 11: A member of the Royal family visits the
town but Henchard is not allowed to greet him. Hurt,
Henchard fights Farfrae in a barn but cannot bring himself
to kill him.
Chapter 12: Henchard is back in town to see the ride.
Farfrae does not see the ride because he is lured away from
town but Lucetta dies of the shock.
Chapter 13: Henchard and Elizabeth-Jane live
together happily. Elizabeth-Jane and Farfrae renew their
relationship and get married. Newson returns and tells his
daughter the truth, which makes her very happy.
Henchard leaves the town.
Chapter 14: Elizabeth-Jane marries Farfrae and tries to
find her father to take care of him but he dies before she
can find him.
The original text
The novel first appeared serially, in twenty instalments,
in 1886 in The Graphic, an English periodical and
simultaneously in the United States. The book appeared
as soon as the serial publication was complete but it differs
a lot from the serial novel. It has been adapted for TV as a
miniseries.
Background and themes
Where the story came from: Hardy claims the story
was inspired by three actual events: the sale of a wife
by her husband reported in a local newspaper, the
uncertain harvests and the visit of Prince Albert, Queen
Victoria’s husband, to Dorchester, the town upon which
Casterbridge is based, in 1849.
Fight with self: The main theme of the book is
Henchard’s fight against two things: his own character
and chance. As he fights with himself, his actions and
decisions affect other people’s lives, usually badly. He
often allows negative feelings to overwhelm him – at the
beginning when things seem so bad he sells his wife. He is
always honest in business, but not always kind; he is often
impatient and quick to anger, but he is capable of great
love and great loneliness. His complex character creates
uncertainty in the reader – should we feel sorry for him or
does he deserve everything that happens to him?
Chance: Chance plays an important part throughout the
story: the chance appearance of Newson in the tent when
Henchard is trying to sell his wife; the rain that spoils
Henchard’s fair; the August weather that ruins Henchard’s
business; the chance meeting between Farfrae and Lucetta
when they fall in love. Hardy believes that although
Henchard is a powerful character, he is never fully in
control of his life.
Alcohol also has a role here. Henchard’s life improves
when he stops drinking; as he devotes himself to work,
builds a successful business and eventually becomes mayor.
Once he starts again, he loses his pride and his judgement.
Traditional versus modern: The two men represent
contrasting ways of life in the country. Henchard is
traditional and old-fashioned. Farfrae is young and
modern. Hardy was always fascinated by country customs
and ways. He often includes strange country rituals like
the skimmity-ride in his novels. They make useful plot
devices and allow him to paint pictures of colourful but
less important characters. He also uses them to reveal the
conservative side of society, which can be very cruel to
people who fall outside its strict rules of moral behaviour.
Lucetta dies because of the skimmity joke. This breaking
of the moral code becomes a very important theme in
Hardy’s later novels, which shocked the reading public
and ended Hardy’s novel-writing career.
About the author
Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 in Dorset, a rural county
in the south-west of England. His father was a stonemason
and the family were not well off. Hardy showed an early
interest in books, however, and when he was sixteen, he
began training as an architect in Dorchester. In 1862, he
went to work in London, where he was able to compare
city life with the customs and timeless ways of the country
village where he grew up. He began writing in his spare
time. In 1870, he met and fell in love with Emma Gifford,
but they could not afford to marry. His fourth novel, Far
From the Madding Crowd, published in 1874, was a big
success. This allowed him to become a full-time writer and
to marry. Hardy wrote several more novels, among them
The Mayor of Casterbridge, published in 1886. He and
Emma lived in Dorset, but they spent part of every year in
London, where they mixed with literary people and Hardy
was much admired. Although Hardy’s books were very
popular, when Jude the Obscure appeared in 1896, people
hated it. They thought it was an attack on marriage, and
found it shocking and immoral. Hardy turned to poetry
and never wrote another novel. He died in 1928. Some
biographers portray him as snobbish, mean and hateful
towards women. Others believe he was a sensitive man
who cared deeply about the human condition.
Summary
Young, poor Michael Henchard feels trapped by his wife
and child and one night gets drunk at a fair and sells
them to a stranger called Newson. Horrified by what
he has done, he swears not to touch alcohol for twenty one
years. Eighteen years later he is the mayor of Casterbridge
and a successful businessman. Believing Newson is dead,
his wife, Susan, and daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, arrive in
Casterbridge to find Henchard because she has no money.
He marries her again and they have a short happy life
together. Farfrae, a young man with modern business
ideas, arrives at the same time and becomes Henchard’s
farm manager. Susan dies, and Henchard learns that
Elizabeth-Jane is really Newson’s daughter. Henchard falls
out with Farfrae, who sets up a rival business, and soon
outdoes him. A woman from Henchard’s past, Lucetta,
comes to Casterbridge. Henchard now wants to marry
her, but she and Farfrae fall in love. Henchard’s business
fails and he loses his house so he starts drinking again.
Lucetta dies of shock after the local people make fun of
her and Henchard in public. He sees that he will now
lose his ‘daughter’ as well as everything else. He leaves
Casterbridge on foot. He is penniless and has lost his
family – just as at the beginning of the story. Elizabeth-
Jane remains loyal to Henchard, but he dies before she can
find him.
Chapter 1: Henchard, a farm worker aged twenty, has a
family, no job and no home. He gets drunk and sells his
wife and child for five guineas to a sailor named Newson
at a fair. Devastated at what he has done, he looks for
them without success. Henchard makes a solemn promise
not to touch alcohol for twenty years.
Chapter 2: Susan, widowed and poor, and her eighteenyear-
old daughter, Elizabeth-Jane arrive in Casterbridge to
find Henchard. She is relieved to find he is now the Mayor
and a businessman who needs a corn manager for his
growing business.
Chapter 3: Henchard employs Farfrae, a handsome
innovative Scotsman as corn manager and the business
improves. He also meets Susan and devises a plan so
that the townspeople do not find their marriage strange.
He draws closer to Farfrae and tells him about his past;
including a woman in Jersey he promised to marry.
Chapter 4: Henchard marries Susan, but she is reluctant
to have her daughter’s last name changed. He and Farfrae
disagree publicly over a worker. Henchard is jealous and
organises a rival entertainment day to Farfrae’s, but it fails.
Farfrae leaves him and sets up a rival business. Susan dies
but leaves a letter with the truth about her daughter.
Chapter 5: Henchard tells Elizabeth-Jane what happened
at the fair twenty years ago but reads in Susan’s letter that
she is really Newson’s daughter. He begins to treat her
coldly, and even encourages Farfrae to see her. Elizabeth-
Jane meets a woman at her mother’s grave who is friendly
and offers her to share her house.
Chapter 6: Lucetta, the woman from Jersey, has inherited
property in Casterbridge and has employed Elizabeth-Jane
as a housekeeper. Henchard tries to see her but they fail to
meet. Farfrae calls in to see Elizabeth-Jane, who is out. He
likes Lucetta and she loses interest in Henchard.
Chapter 7: Henchard goes bankrupt because of the
weather and his own impatience while Farfrae’s business
succeeds. Henchard realises he and Farfrae compete for
Lucetta’s love, so he threatens her with making their past
public so that she accepts his proposal of marriage.
Chapter 8: Henchard agrees to postpone their wedding
if Lucetta helps him buy some time to repay a debt to
Grower. She can’t because she has secretly married Farfrae
and Grower acted as witness.
Chapter 9: Henchard claims the letters from his safe, and
reads them out to Farfrae without disclosing the sender.
He promises Lucetta to give tham back to her and asks
Jopp to deliver them.
Chapter 10: Jopp asks Lucetta to help him become her
husband’s manager but she refuses. In a pub, he reads out
the letters to two women and they plan a skimmity-ride in
town to scorn Lucetta and Henchard.
Chapter 11: A member of the Royal family visits the
town but Henchard is not allowed to greet him. Hurt,
Henchard fights Farfrae in a barn but cannot bring himself
to kill him.
Chapter 12: Henchard is back in town to see the ride.
Farfrae does not see the ride because he is lured away from
town but Lucetta dies of the shock.
Chapter 13: Henchard and Elizabeth-Jane live
together happily. Elizabeth-Jane and Farfrae renew their
relationship and get married. Newson returns and tells his
daughter the truth, which makes her very happy.
Henchard leaves the town.
Chapter 14: Elizabeth-Jane marries Farfrae and tries to
find her father to take care of him but he dies before she
can find him.
The original text
The novel first appeared serially, in twenty instalments,
in 1886 in The Graphic, an English periodical and
simultaneously in the United States. The book appeared
as soon as the serial publication was complete but it differs
a lot from the serial novel. It has been adapted for TV as a
miniseries.
Background and themes
Where the story came from: Hardy claims the story
was inspired by three actual events: the sale of a wife
by her husband reported in a local newspaper, the
uncertain harvests and the visit of Prince Albert, Queen
Victoria’s husband, to Dorchester, the town upon which
Casterbridge is based, in 1849.
Fight with self: The main theme of the book is
Henchard’s fight against two things: his own character
and chance. As he fights with himself, his actions and
decisions affect other people’s lives, usually badly. He
often allows negative feelings to overwhelm him – at the
beginning when things seem so bad he sells his wife. He is
always honest in business, but not always kind; he is often
impatient and quick to anger, but he is capable of great
love and great loneliness. His complex character creates
uncertainty in the reader – should we feel sorry for him or
does he deserve everything that happens to him?
Chance: Chance plays an important part throughout the
story: the chance appearance of Newson in the tent when
Henchard is trying to sell his wife; the rain that spoils
Henchard’s fair; the August weather that ruins Henchard’s
business; the chance meeting between Farfrae and Lucetta
when they fall in love. Hardy believes that although
Henchard is a powerful character, he is never fully in
control of his life.
Alcohol also has a role here. Henchard’s life improves
when he stops drinking; as he devotes himself to work,
builds a successful business and eventually becomes mayor.
Once he starts again, he loses his pride and his judgement.
Traditional versus modern: The two men represent
contrasting ways of life in the country. Henchard is
traditional and old-fashioned. Farfrae is young and
modern. Hardy was always fascinated by country customs
and ways. He often includes strange country rituals like
the skimmity-ride in his novels. They make useful plot
devices and allow him to paint pictures of colourful but
less important characters. He also uses them to reveal the
conservative side of society, which can be very cruel to
people who fall outside its strict rules of moral behaviour.
Lucetta dies because of the skimmity joke. This breaking
of the moral code becomes a very important theme in
Hardy’s later novels, which shocked the reading public
and ended Hardy’s novel-writing career.
