Fate and coincidence in thomas hardy s the mayor

Bridge, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy

The question of fate is definitely one that have been posed by human beings throughout the age groups. Are existence determined by what is “bound” to happen, or is it by simply random probability? Thomas Sturdy addresses this question in the poem “Hap, ” which expresses the fact that life’s misery, woe, anguish is simply due to chance, and that a vengeful God can be preferable to this state of existence. This idea that existence are reigned over by arbitrary chance is also woven through Thomas Hardy’s novel, The Mayor of Casterbridge, which in turn follows a man named Jordan Henchard through his successes and failures in the little town of Casterbridge, beginning with the drunken sale of his wife and child. Hardy’s characters generate reference in many points throughout the novel to chance as the reason for their bad luck, and in this, they do not recognize that such misfortunes are due almost entirely towards the choices and failures of characters themselves.

The poem “Hap”explores two possibilities”the first being there is a vicious and “vengeful God” (line 1) at the root of the speaker’s suffering, plus the second being everything in every area of your life is remaining to opportunity. The latter is the one that Hardy’s composition ultimately identifies as “true”, however , in any case, the discussion of those two options completely ignores the existence of decision and totally free will. In the poem, the speaker says that “Crass Casualty hinders the sun and rain” (line 11), personifying the concept of choice of the purpose of getting blame to it. Hardy’s characters in The Mayor of Casterbridge generally display similar belief, that attributed their sorrows to a push outside themselves or their very own fellow individuals, and thus screwing up to realize that it must be their own options that are the driving force behind almost every key event through the course of the novel.

At the incredibly start of the story, Susan creates this issue of the role of opportunity in her own life. The narrator remarks of her that, “When [Susan] plodded on in the color of the hedge, silently pondering, she got the hard, half-apathetic expression of one who believes anything likely at the hands of Time and Chance, apart from, perhaps, fair-play. ” Here, Susan can be expressing a pessimistic look at not simply of life, but specifically of chance, which in turn she feels brings her anything but happiness. She fails to realize that her sadness comes mainly not through random happening, but as a direct result of the choices that she and her husband make. Your trials that she himself is not in control of are certainly not due to probability, but to Henchard.

Henchard is perhaps the prime example of the denial with the importance of decision and personal agency. This is apparent in your narrator’s statement that, “The movements of [Henchard’s] brain seemed to usually the thought that some electricity was functioning against him”. Here, Henchard is looking for an explanation for his misfortune, never considering that probably his present situation is merely a result of his own conduct. That Henchard fails to consider responsibility for his activities, looking rather to outside forces on which to place blame, is even more evident in Henchard’s individual pondering that, I wonder if it can be that somebody has been roasting a waxen picture of me, or perhaps stirring an unholy brew to mistake me! My spouse and i dont trust in such electricity, and yet ” what if they need to ha been doing it! ” Though Henchard is certainly not blaming chance in these situations, opting instead for the view of a “vengeful God” presented in “Hap, ” the very fact remains that he has not yet reached the understanding that his own alternatives have had tremendous consequences in the life and also the lives of these around him.

This is not to say that chance takes on no role in the fate’s of the heroes in the story. For instance, probability plays a role in the meeting of Lucetta and Farfrae, yet , it is eventually their choice that allows this kind of chance encounter to transform into a relationship. Put simply, it is possibility which supplied the opportunity, plus the free will of both equally characters which will led these to use this opportunity in the way that they did. Maybe more importantly, it truly is chance that the furmity-woman who also witnessed Henchard’s drunken sale of his wife remained in Casterbridge and was given the ability through her presence inside the court to accuse Henchard. The narrator recounts that, “the retort of the furmity-woman before the magistrates had pass on, and in four-and-twenty hours there were not a person in Casterbridge who continued to be unacquainted with the story of Henchards mad freak at Weydon Priors Fair, very long years just before, attributing the effects that follow as to the is undoubtedly a result of mere opportunity. However , implementing such a view obscures the truth of the circumstance: that Henchard’s misfortune arrives first and foremost to the fact that he offered his better half. Regardless of the existence of the furmity-woman, Henchard chose to sell his wife, and so the consequences of this action, regardless of many years after, are entirely his fault.

In this manner, even the possibility occurrences which in turn influence the novel’s major events usually do not leave the characters totally powerless, actually their own selections serve as the driving force inside the novel from beginning to end. Henchard’s personality in particular, nevertheless he generally attempts to look somewhere else for a power on which to set blame, is liable for nearly all of the misfortune that he plus the other characters suffer throughout the novel. Though the question Hardy poses in Hap””How arrives it pleasure lies slain, / And why unblooms the best expect ever sown? ” (line 9-10)”is intended to underscore the failure of time and opportunity to bring about happiness, when it comes to the Mayor of Casterbridge, perhaps the most obvious answer lies in the actions of the heroes themselves.