I, Michael
If being the mayor of Casterbridge is equal to qualifying for the Olympic figure skating team, then Donald Farfrae is Nancy Kerrigan and Michael Henchard is Tonya Harding.
That's not to say that Henchard's friend has hired bumbling criminals to smash in Farfrae's knee (at least not yet). I do, however, see some similar tension between these two sets of rivals.
Tonya Harding was an underdog; raised in a poor family that was not a representation of what figure skating judges wanted their winners to embody, with a troubled past and present. Michael Henchard is a character with a just as troubled past who, like Tonya, tries to redeem himself in the eyes of society with only short-lived success. Also like Tonya, he has some raw talent that is eventually sabotaged by his past choices.
Nancy Kerrigan was America's sweetheart; a perfect representation of what the country wanted to believe it was. Donald Farfrae is a charming Scottsman who easily worms his way into the hearts of Casterbridge's citizens, who climbs the ladder of success with little difficulty, and who seems to take everything away from Henchard.
Of course, there are some discrepancies in this analogy. While it could be said Henchard's problems are results of his own mistakes, I don't think it's fair to say the same thing about Tonya. While Henchard may be considering inflicting violence upon Donald, it is certain that Harding ever intended to hurt Kerrigan. It was only supposed to be letters!
What does all this mean (other than the fact that I saw I, Tonya last weekend and enjoy making strenuous connections feel very legitimate)?
Well, I think this comparison might help me to predict what might be in store for my characters as well as to gain access to some themes that will become clear by the end of the text.
I am aware that Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan are really people while Henchard, Farfrae, Lucetta, and Elizabeth-Jane are not; but that doesn't necessarily mean that the tensions that exist between both sets of people won't result in similar outcomes.
If I know Thomas Hardy (and I know Thomas Hardy), tragedy will certainly befall both Henchard and Farfrae in varying degrees by the end of the novel, just as tragedy struck Nancy Kerrigan with a retractable baton and Tonya Harding with an entire lifetime worth of misfortune.
Donald Farfrae has been a pretty lucky duck up to this point in the novel. He waltzed into town, made a lot of money, married a rich and beautiful woman, and is soon to become the mayor. If that means anything, it means that things will soon turn downhill for him. Whether his downfall will be at the hands of Henchard (either directly or indirectly), or some other force, I think Donald soon will, just like Nancy Kerrigan, face a reckoning. As the book's golden boy, though, I don't think his misfortune will be too terrible or last too long. He'll probably rebound alright (as long as he isn't killed off), and maybe he'll even win the silver medal.
If I assume Henchard's fate will align with Tonya's, I'm left with an image that is not necessarily uplifting, but is also not as terrible as it could be. Though Tonya wasn't allowed to skate again after the incident, though she had no family that loved her, and though she was for quite some time forced into a life as a professional wrestler and punchline; it could be believed that she found at least some solace after all the hurlyburly (@Macbeth) had calmed down. Michael, we know, is going to die. Tonya Harding is today mostly obsolete. Despite this, Tonya (I hope) has found some sort of redemption; if not from I, Tonya, which tells her story in a way that garners honest sympathy, then from the fact that she is now a good mother to a son she loves. Henchard might not find such literal salvation, since he will be dead, but I do hope that Hardy will allow Elizabeth-Jane to be happy in his stead, or perhaps make it so Henchard is remembered not by all of his mistakes, but by some final good deed.
As far as themes go, I think it is easy to find overlaps between the lessons learned from Tonya Harding's story and the trials and tribulations faced by the characters in The Mayor of Casterbridge.
From Tonya and Michael, we learn that mistakes we make in our youth can haunt us forever. Tonya should probably have never married Jeff. Michael probably should never have sold his wife and daughter. I'm sure neither Tonya or Michael knew the exact implications of these choices when they made them. Unfortunately, past choices can not be taken back, even if they lead to the unthinkable.
Love is also something that has so far played a major role in The Mayor of Casterbridge, and something that also seems to have played a pretty important role in Tonya Harding's life. In both stories, love is represented as something that is not easy to define, something that is fickle, and something that can cause just as much pain as it does joy. Tonya and Jeff Gillooly's romance is wrought with violence, strife, and anger just as intensely as the relationships between Michael, Donald, Lucetta, and Susan are with secrets, lies, misunderstandings, and regret. Although, love isn't represented in either story as only the feeling between lovers, but also the feeling between those who are family. Michael is often abhorrently rude to Elizabeth, just like Tonya's mother was to her throughout her childhood. This creates a divide between parent (or not-really-parent) and child that seems pretty impossible to stitch together.
All this points the reader to a pretty abysmal outlook on love. In Hardy's case, though, I think he makes the reader feel that way for a reason. He wants to emphasize again what I think the meaning of the work as a whole might be: that mistakes can not be undone and will continue to have a powerful impact on the future of your life. Unfortunately, Tonya Harding is an all-too-real example of Hardy's thesis about human nature coming true.
Next week, I plan on revisiting my predictions as far as plot and theme, as well as evaluating the worthiness of this book as a choice for future AP classes. Until then! xoxo
That's not to say that Henchard's friend has hired bumbling criminals to smash in Farfrae's knee (at least not yet). I do, however, see some similar tension between these two sets of rivals.
Tonya Harding was an underdog; raised in a poor family that was not a representation of what figure skating judges wanted their winners to embody, with a troubled past and present. Michael Henchard is a character with a just as troubled past who, like Tonya, tries to redeem himself in the eyes of society with only short-lived success. Also like Tonya, he has some raw talent that is eventually sabotaged by his past choices.
Nancy Kerrigan was America's sweetheart; a perfect representation of what the country wanted to believe it was. Donald Farfrae is a charming Scottsman who easily worms his way into the hearts of Casterbridge's citizens, who climbs the ladder of success with little difficulty, and who seems to take everything away from Henchard.
 |
| Everything's going pretty well for Farfrae... for now. |
What does all this mean (other than the fact that I saw I, Tonya last weekend and enjoy making strenuous connections feel very legitimate)?
Well, I think this comparison might help me to predict what might be in store for my characters as well as to gain access to some themes that will become clear by the end of the text.
I am aware that Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan are really people while Henchard, Farfrae, Lucetta, and Elizabeth-Jane are not; but that doesn't necessarily mean that the tensions that exist between both sets of people won't result in similar outcomes.
If I know Thomas Hardy (and I know Thomas Hardy), tragedy will certainly befall both Henchard and Farfrae in varying degrees by the end of the novel, just as tragedy struck Nancy Kerrigan with a retractable baton and Tonya Harding with an entire lifetime worth of misfortune.
Donald Farfrae has been a pretty lucky duck up to this point in the novel. He waltzed into town, made a lot of money, married a rich and beautiful woman, and is soon to become the mayor. If that means anything, it means that things will soon turn downhill for him. Whether his downfall will be at the hands of Henchard (either directly or indirectly), or some other force, I think Donald soon will, just like Nancy Kerrigan, face a reckoning. As the book's golden boy, though, I don't think his misfortune will be too terrible or last too long. He'll probably rebound alright (as long as he isn't killed off), and maybe he'll even win the silver medal.
If I assume Henchard's fate will align with Tonya's, I'm left with an image that is not necessarily uplifting, but is also not as terrible as it could be. Though Tonya wasn't allowed to skate again after the incident, though she had no family that loved her, and though she was for quite some time forced into a life as a professional wrestler and punchline; it could be believed that she found at least some solace after all the hurlyburly (@Macbeth) had calmed down. Michael, we know, is going to die. Tonya Harding is today mostly obsolete. Despite this, Tonya (I hope) has found some sort of redemption; if not from I, Tonya, which tells her story in a way that garners honest sympathy, then from the fact that she is now a good mother to a son she loves. Henchard might not find such literal salvation, since he will be dead, but I do hope that Hardy will allow Elizabeth-Jane to be happy in his stead, or perhaps make it so Henchard is remembered not by all of his mistakes, but by some final good deed.
 |
| Redemption? Maybe. Trip axel? Probably not. |
As far as themes go, I think it is easy to find overlaps between the lessons learned from Tonya Harding's story and the trials and tribulations faced by the characters in The Mayor of Casterbridge.
From Tonya and Michael, we learn that mistakes we make in our youth can haunt us forever. Tonya should probably have never married Jeff. Michael probably should never have sold his wife and daughter. I'm sure neither Tonya or Michael knew the exact implications of these choices when they made them. Unfortunately, past choices can not be taken back, even if they lead to the unthinkable.
Love is also something that has so far played a major role in The Mayor of Casterbridge, and something that also seems to have played a pretty important role in Tonya Harding's life. In both stories, love is represented as something that is not easy to define, something that is fickle, and something that can cause just as much pain as it does joy. Tonya and Jeff Gillooly's romance is wrought with violence, strife, and anger just as intensely as the relationships between Michael, Donald, Lucetta, and Susan are with secrets, lies, misunderstandings, and regret. Although, love isn't represented in either story as only the feeling between lovers, but also the feeling between those who are family. Michael is often abhorrently rude to Elizabeth, just like Tonya's mother was to her throughout her childhood. This creates a divide between parent (or not-really-parent) and child that seems pretty impossible to stitch together.
All this points the reader to a pretty abysmal outlook on love. In Hardy's case, though, I think he makes the reader feel that way for a reason. He wants to emphasize again what I think the meaning of the work as a whole might be: that mistakes can not be undone and will continue to have a powerful impact on the future of your life. Unfortunately, Tonya Harding is an all-too-real example of Hardy's thesis about human nature coming true.
Next week, I plan on revisiting my predictions as far as plot and theme, as well as evaluating the worthiness of this book as a choice for future AP classes. Until then! xoxo
I enjoyed your tenuous connection between Tonya Harding and the novel, as I vividly remember the news coverage of "the incident" (man, I'm feeling old). I do feel a bit lost about the book, though, but maybe I'm just not remembering details from the previous post. Who did Donald marry? And how do we know Michael is going to die? Is it just because it's Hardy and he, like Shakespeare, loves tragic characters?
ReplyDeleteHi! We know Michael is going to die because few the subtitle of the novel, "The Life and Death of a Man of Character," something I believe I have mentioned in previous posts (also because it is Hardy). Donald married Lucetta, who is a woman who played a complicated role in Henchard's own past. I'll admit I omitted this detail, as I didn't want to verge too far into the land of summaries and make the post even longer than it already was, especially since I didn't feel that detail had a huge impact on the content of this post.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciated your use of an analogy to connect the book's events to Tonya Harding's life story in order to keep your writing interesting and comprehensible for readers like me who are unfamiliar with the book. Furthermore, while I originally worried that your use of this analogy would end up seriously limiting the depth and comprehensiveness of your analysis I instead ended up finishing reading this post with what I felt was a reasonable understanding of at least the book's events. Granted, the fact that I haven't read the book does leave me in a strange predicament where I don't really know how much I actually do or don't know about the book based on your analysis but job well done nonetheless.
DeleteNice post, Fiona. You've almost convinced me to check out I, Tonya. It's pretty cool to see how differently you and Cooper approach your blogs. You both do seem to share a belief in a tragic ending, though. Like you, I'm holding out hope that, somewhere in the bleakness, there will be some positive mitigating factor. I guess we'll see...
ReplyDelete