Summary The next morning, Donald Farfrae meets Henchard and together they walk to the end of town. Elizabeth-Jane sees the two men walking away and is sad and hurt at Donald’s departure — he has seen her but has neither spoken nor smiled. Susan, bolstered by Henchard’s quickness to like […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 9 – Farfrae Takes the JobSummary and Analysis Chapter 8 – Farfrae Sings at the Three Mariners
Summary Elizabeth-Jane goes to remove Farfrae’s supper tray, leaving Susan in their room, her face “strangely bright since Henchard’s avowal of shame.” Farfrae joins the patrons on the ground floor of the Three Mariners and before long is charming them with a plaintive Scotch ballad. Elizabeth-Jane, having cleared away Farfrae’s […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 8 – Farfrae Sings at the Three MarinersSummary and Analysis Chapter 7 – A Conversation between Henchard and Farfrae Is Overheard
Summary Despite the modesty of their accommodations at the Three Mariners, Susan believes that they are “too good for us.” Elizabeth-Jane is pleased at their “respectability,” however. Unknown to her mother, she offers to defray some of the expense by working as a serving maid in the busy bar. During […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 7 – A Conversation between Henchard and Farfrae Is OverheardSummary and Analysis Chapter 6 – Henchard Follows the Stranger
Summary As the festivities proceed within the King’s Arms Hotel, a handsome stranger “of a fair countenance, bright-eyed, and slight in build,” stops before the hotel, his attention arrested by the discussion about corn. After hearing Henchard’s closing words on the subject, he hastily scribbles a note and instructs a […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 6 – Henchard Follows the StrangerSummary and Analysis Chapter 5 – The Mayor of Casterbridge
Summary The town band is playing merrily in front of the King’s Arms, Casterbridge’s chief hotel. A dinner is being held inside for all the town dignitaries and well-to-do citizens, although the windows are left open so the lesser folk can hear. Susan and Elizabeth-Jane are attracted to the gathering […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 5 – The Mayor of CasterbridgeSummary and Analysis Chapter 4 – Henchard’s Name Is Overheard
Summary A flashback reveals the events of Susan’s life as Mrs. Newson. “A hundred times she had been upon the point of telling” Elizabeth-Jane about the past, but it had become “too fearful a thing to contemplate.” We learn that the family had emigrated to Canada. We also see that […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 4 – Henchard’s Name Is OverheardSummary and Analysis Chapter 3 – Susan and Elizabeth — Jane Eighteen Years After
Summary It is approximately eighteen years later. Susan Henchard, her face less round and her hair thinner, who now calls herself “Mrs. Newson,” is again walking along the dusty road into Weydon-Priors. She walks hand in hand with her daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, young, “well-formed,” pretty, and vivacious. The two women are […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 3 – Susan and Elizabeth — Jane Eighteen Years AfterSummary and Analysis Chapter 2 – The Oath
Summary Upon awakening the next morning, Michael finds Susan’s wedding ring on the floor and the sailor’s money in his pocket. He now understands that the preceding night’s events are not a dream, and “in silent thought” walks away from the village into the country. At first he wonders if […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 2 – The OathSummary and Analysis Chapter 1 – A Wife Is Sold
Summary Michael Henchard, an unemployed hay-trusser “of fine figure, swarthy and stern in aspect,” his wife Susan, and their little child Elizabeth-Jane are wearily approaching the Wessex village of Weydon-Priors at the end of a late-summer day in the year 1826. When she looks at the child, Susan is pretty, […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 1 – A Wife Is SoldAbout The Mayor of Casterbridge
On every page of Hardy’s Wessex novels is displayed the influence of Hardy’s upbringing, regional background, and architectural studies. His characters are often primitive — as is the case in The Mayor of Casterbridge — and exhibit all the passions, hates, loves, and jealousies that rustic life seems to inspire. […]
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