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Oops, I Sold My Wife!!

Works Cited

Hardy, Thomas. The Mayor of Casterbridge. A. A. Knopf, 1993

Comments

@thomas.hardly.happy

When I began forcing my friend Cooper to agree to read a Thomas Hardy book with me, I believe his exact reaction was "Ullchgghh." You see, someone had once told Cooper that Hardy specialized in depressive and tragic turns of event. This person wasn't wrong, really, because it is definitely true that tragedy has had (and Hardy's often fatalistic and foreboding tone promises that it will continue to have) a major presence in the novel. However, I do think this evaluation is shallow, as it is definitely missing an important facet of the tragedies Hardy chooses to incorporate. Though he certainly does torture his characters (see Tess of the D'Urbervilles , whose title character is ' a victim of her own provocative beauty '), the sadness the characters experience is still evocative of beautiful, tender feelings; perhaps because of the way they, and many other elements of the novel, are exaggerated to a point just shy of surrealism. Hardy cultivates scene...

Michael Henchard, Superstar! (Michael Henchard is not a Christ figure or a superstar I just wanted to make that reference)

If you've been keeping up with my comments (which I really doubt you have), or even with my posts, you'll have sensed a certain yearning within me to discuss a certain element of Thomas Hardy's writing. In the comments on this post, I said, "I've been thinking a lot about the way religion is tied to redemption, forgiveness, etc. in literature of this era. So far, god has not played a big part in this book (the only time I can think of is when Henchard swears off alcohol). If Hardy does decide to redeem Henchard during his life, it will be interesting to see if religion is involved or not." In the comments on this post, a week later, I said, "I am still fascinated by the way Hardy employs religious themes and ideas without much religion at all. . . According to some quick research, Hardy was raised a Christian but as he got older tended toward agnosticism. I guess this makes sense, considering the way religion is used in this novel: Hardy uses it...

Honey, I Sold the Kid (And You): An Introduction to Characters

Michael Henchard (also known as the Mayor of Casterbridge) Michael Henchard is a pretty ordinary guy. He's a hay trusser, which means he ties hay into bundles for a living. He's described as swarthy and fine figured, and has a wife named Susan and a newborn daughter named Elizabeth-Jane. He's also a bit of a drunkard, which leads him into a little bit of trouble. You see, he sells his wife. The reader when Henchard sells his wife It's not really a big deal to him, in the moment, because Susan has been annoying him, and this sailor offers him 5 guineas, which translates to about 700 current US dollars. The going price for mail order brides these days is $1,000 to $15,000 (according to BroBible.com ). Apparently, the sailor got a pretty good deal. The next morning, Michael deeply regrets this decision and swears off drinking for the next twenty-one years. Surprisingly, he's been pretty successful in this so far! We catch up with him nineteen years later, and h...