Critical commentary

Question 1

Holtsberry- the novel

Answer 1

The Mayor of Casterbridge is a ‘fascinating portrait of human weakness and emotions’

Question 2

Asquith- the novel

Answer 2

Hardy locates the moral message of his story: life is made for suffering, we must endure it, and, like the sparrow, make the most of the limited opportunities for happiness.’

Question 3

Daleski- the novel- marriage

Answer 3

‘Unlike the Victorian novel convention which famously ends in marriage the novel begins with a failed marriage.’

Question 4

Tomalin- the novel

Answer 4

built on the territory in which Hardy worked best-country people play out their lives between custom and education, work and ideas, and love of place and experience of change

Question 5

Patterson- Casterbridge

Answer 5

a ‘primitive hierarchic society’

Question 6

McGlamery- Casterbridge

Answer 6

‘Casterbridge fortunes are inextricably bound to agricultural ones.’

Question 7

Patterson- the past

Answer 7

‘rooted in the demoralization of the present by the corruption of the past’-

Question 8

Ebbatson- the past

Answer 8

‘As in Greek tragedy, the past returns to haunt the protagonist in various shapes of Susan, the furmity-woman and Newson’

Question 9

Showalter- paternity

Answer 9

‘Paternity is a central subject of the book, far more important than conjugal love.

Question 10

Warren- Henchard

Answer 10

‘The protagonist is energetic in his destruction of others, so it is appropriate that he punishes himself with equal ferocity’

Question 11

Shaw- Elizabeth Jane

Answer 11

Elizabeth-Jane emerges as a singular female character whose presence is valued at the conclusion of a narrative that is directly informed by her perspective

Elizabeth Jane functions as a spectator

Question 12

Millgate- Elizabeth Jane

Answer 12

EJ gradually establishes herself for the reader as much the most acute and reliable intelligence within the novel, the one whose judgments are most to be trusted.

Question 13

Shaw- Lucetta

Answer 13

‘Lucetta’s newfound wealth and desire to abscond her scandalous past are the factors that fuel her obsession with outward appearances.’

Question 14

Asquith- Henchard as a victim

Answer 14

It merely suits his (Henchard’s) own egotism to reinvent himself as a victim.”-

Question 15

Asquith- Henchard

Answer 15

Henchard is guilty of “possessing too forceful a character in a world that rewards acceptance and moderation, a fact to which his egocentricity makes him blind.

Question 16

Wilson- Henchard

Answer 16

“Michael Henchard begins and ends the novel away from Casterbridge and in virtual anonymity - his origins unexplained - his death a self-willed annihilation”-

Question 17

Miles- the elderly

Answer 17

Old women can be ‘without gender’-

Question 18

Guerared- Henchard

Answer 18

‘The isolated, damned and self-destructive individualist’

Question 19

Woolf- Henchard

Answer 19

‘Henchard’s struggle was with the decrees of fate and not with the laws of man.’-

Question 20

Millgate- Elizabeth Jane and the reader

Answer 20

‘Elizabeth-Jane becomes the reader’s representative within the novel’s world.’-

Question 21

Miller- Henchard

Answer 21

driven by ‘a passionate desire for full possession of some other person.’

Question 22

Tomalin- Henchard

Answer 22

‘depressive, black-tempered, self-destructive but also lovable as a child is lovable.

Question 23

Carrol- Henchard

Answer 23

“Michael Henchard has personality traits and motivational dispositions that are more typical of antagonists than of protagonists.

Question 24

Showalter- Henchard

Answer 24

“Henchard undergoes a transformation from a romantic male individualism to a more complete humanity. By becoming less male, Henchard becomes more fully human, and he thus becomes a tragic hero.”-

Question 25

Ebbatson- the will

Answer 25

‘Henchard, a man of strong speech, fades into the silence of writing in his will’-

Question 26

Ebbatson- rivalry

Answer 26

‘Rivalry in trade extends subtly through rivalry in love into direct physical confrontation’-

Question 27

Ebbatson- Lucettas return

Answer 27

‘Lucetta’s return presents an opportunity for companionship, but she is also lost to his rival

Question 28

Howe- the wife sale

Answer 28

The wife sale represents ‘male fantasy, a second chance at life.’

Question 29

Showalter- the wife sale

Answer 29

Henchard via the wife sale ‘divorces his own feminine self, his own need for passion, tenderness and loyalty.

Question 30

Ebbatson- Lucetta’s value

Answer 30

‘Henchard reinvents his affection for Lucetta whose value has been enhanced by Donald’s competition for her hand’

Question 31

Showalter- hayloft fight

Answer 31

Henchard has ‘crossed over to the long-repressed feminine side’ of himself after his fight in the hayloft