Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Book Reports Redemption and Reconciliation in The Mayor of Casterbridge Redemption and Reconciliation in The Mayor of Casterbridge In Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge, rejection and reconciliation is a consistent theme. During the Victorian era, Michael Henchard, a common hat trusser, becomes Mayor of the town of Casterbridge, Wessex. However, his position does not prevent him from making a series of mistakes that ultimately lead to his downfall. Henchard’s daughter, Elizabeth Jane Newson, is affected by her father’s choices and is not spared any disappointing consequences. In the novel, the characters of Henchard and Elizabeth Jane both experience the pain of rejection in its different forms and discover reconciliation from that rejection. Henchard and Elizabeth-Jane similarly endure rejection from those they have deemed important figures in their lives. Lucetta loses her feelings for Henchard and he takes second place to Farfrae. Henchard confronts Lucetta at her home regarding her intention to marry him. After the encounter, Lucetta rebelliously cries, “[H]e’s hot-tempered and stern, and it would be madness to bind myself to him knowing that. I won’t be a slave to the past—I’ll love where I choose!”(Hardy 250). Similarly, Elizabeth-Jane, upon seeing Farfrae in the churchyard, notices that she has lost his attention. “[W]hether or not he saw her he took no notice, and disappeared. Unduly depressed by a sense of her own superfluity she thought he probably scorned her”(207). Through the rejection Henchard and Elizabeth-Jane suffered from Lucetta and Farfrae, the father and daughter are communally bound in their care for the happiness of the two lovers but they also feel hurt and rejected by the marriage. More important than Henchard and Elizabeth-Jane’s rejection by their friends, is their rejection of each other. When Elizabeth-Jane and Farfrae are courting, Henchard foresees his stepdaughter easily leaving him under the influence of Farfrae. Henchard admits that “Farfrae would never recognize him more than superciliously; his poverty ensured that, no less than his past conduct. And so Elizabeth would grow to be a stranger to him, and the end of his life would be a friendless solitude”(381). However, Elizabeth-Jane is not influenced negatively by Farfrae. Henchard is rejected only when Elizabeth-Jane discovers the selfish lie her stepfather had told to keep Newson from her. Elizabeth-Jane is also rejected by Henchard after he discovers that she is not his real daughter. Henchard is angered when Elizabeth-Jane thanks the parlour maid for everything and it is here that she realizes that “[t]he increasing frequency of the latter mood told her the sad news that he disliked her with a growing dislike”(202). Upon Newson’s quiet arrival, Henchard announces that he is leaving Casterbridge which makes Elizabeth-Jane feel rejected all over again. Noticing the treatment she receives from Henchard compared to the treatment Lucetta receives “she could not help asking what she had done to be neglected so, after the professions of solicitude he [Henchard] had made”(250). Elizabeth’s question is a legitimate one. It must be acknowledged that, when contrasting the two characters, Elizabeth does no wrong to deserve rejection whereas Henchard wrongs his daughter and deserves the rejection he receives. Henchard and Elizabeth-Jane feel pain because of rejection by others; however, that pain isn’t lessened when they do the rejecting. In the opening of the novel, Henchard rejects Susan and his responsibility to the child. However, this rejection is unintentional because he is under the influence of alcohol. We can see that Henchard regrets his actions when he searches for his wife and daughter. Later, Henchard regrets his actions when he searches for his wife and daughter. Later, Henchard rejects Elizabeth-Jane because his parental pride is hurt when he finds out, through a letter from Susan that he was not meant to read until Elizabeth-Jane’s wedding day, that she is not his real daughter. “It is . . . Henchard’s ignorance and pseudogenteel hypocrisy that make him subsequently estrange himself from Elizabeth-Jane”(Seymour-Smith 42). The roles take a turn from Henchard doing the rejecting to Henchard being the rejected. Elizabeth-Jane rejects Henchard after she discovers the deceit Henchard put between her and Newson. She is torn between the love that she has acquired for Henchard and the anger she feels toward him. “I said I would never forget him. But O! I think I ought to forget him now!”(Hardy 391). Elizabeth-Jane feels she must reject Henchard but it hurts her to do so. When comparing the circumstances for rejection, Henchard’s motivation is pride while Elizabeth-Jane’s motivation is confusion and we see that both characters feel pain and remorse because of how they have rejected others. Yet, this novel does not stay in the depths of rejection and Henchard and Elizabeth Jane attempt to reconcile themselves and all of the relationships left broken; however, their methods of reconciliation differ. Henchard’s way of reconciling himself is introverted. Henchard thought that fate didn’t want him to get Susan back. “[H]e never for an instant considers that the matter can be put right”(Seymour-Smith 25). But when his former wife came to Casterbridge he sought to mend things with her again. He sent her five guineas, symbolic of the amount he had received for her purchase many years before. Henchard also asks of Susan to “Judge me by my future works”(Hardy 137). Elizabeth-Jane realizes Henchard’s way of clearing the slate. “He had not expressed . . . any regrets or excuses for what he had done in the past: but it was a part of his nature to extenuate nothing, and live on as one of his own worst accusers”(Hardy 405). Henchard tries to be a better person towards Elizabeth-Jane when she is engaged with Farfrae. Knowing that Newson had come back to Casterbridge, Henchard tells Elizabeth-Jane that she should meet whomever it was that wished to see her. In letting go of his stepdaughter he feels he has reconciled himself. After some time away from Casterbridge, Henchard decides to overcome his pride and return “[t]o make one more attempt to be near her: to go back; to see her, to plead his cause before her, to ask forgiveness for his fraud, to endeavour strenuously to hold his own in her love; it was worth the risk of repulse, ay, of life itself”(397). His trip was unsuccessful, however, because Elizabeth-Jane rejects him. Later, however, when Elizabeth-Jane discovers Henchard’s intended wedding gift, she realizes that Henchard had meant to resolve things when he came to her. “[T]he caged bird had been brought by Henchard for her as a wedding gift and token of repentance”(405). Elizabeth-Jane is characteristic of accepting rejection and moving on. She is rejected by Henchard so she makes a better life for herself by becoming Lucetta’s companion. When she realizes that Farfrae wants Lucetta “she viewed with an approach to equanimity the now cancelled days when Donald had been her undeclared lover, and wondered what unwished-for thing Heaven might send her in place of him”(251). Her outlook is positive and not self-defeated like Henchard's. Seymour-Smith sums up the author’s intentions with how the character of Elizabeth-Jane deals with rejection. “Hardy in this novel is much obsessed by ‘afflictions’: one of his purposes is to demonstrate through Elizabeth-Jane the manner of temperament which seeks not to avoid but to mitigate afflictions, and yet without sacrifice of integrity or destruction of character”(36). When Henchard loses his business, Elizabeth-Jane feels sorry for him and wants to reconcile herself with Henchard. “[S]he wanted to be allowed to forgive him for his roughness to her, and to help him in his trouble”(294). She pushed her way back into Henchard’s life when he fell ill and remained there so that “by the time she went away [she] had reconciled her stepfather to her visiting him”(301). Later in the novel when Elizabeth-Jane discovers Henchard’s good intentions on her wedding day she persuades Farfrae to help her find her stepfather so “that she might make her peace with him; try to do something to render his life less that of an outcast, and more tolerable to him”(405). Elizabeth’s good will shines through despite her earlier rejection of Henchard. Henchard and Elizabeth-Jane encounter many obstacles of rejection yet both characters have the strength to reconcile these situations in some way. Henchard and Elizabeth-Jane are both rejected by those they care about; however, we see that these characters are also capable of rejecting each other. They are the victims as well as the instigators of rejection and in both positions they suffer grief. Both Henchard and Elizabeth-Jane similarly, in an introverted manner, handle and resolve the dereliction that they have experienced. Henchard silently tries to change how others regard him while Elizabeth-Jane reconciles herself without help from anyone. These character’s views on their situation are very different. Henchard wallows in a depressed state even after there is some reconciliation because he fears that he will suffer the same rejection again. Elizabeth-Jane, however, tries to be optimistic and trusts that better things await her. The theme of rejection and reconciliation, although carried through the novel by two very different individuals, follows the same patterns; however, the end results vary distinctly because of the character’s perspective on life. Bibliography: Hardy, Thomas. Mayor of Casterbridge. Word Count: 1501
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