Key Facts
full title · The Life and Death of the Mayor of Casterbridge:
A Story of a Man of Character
author · Thomas Hardy
type of work · Novel
genre · Tragedy; naturalism; Bildungsroman (a novel that charts
the protagonist's moral and psychological development)
language · English
time and place written · 1885–1886,
Dorchester, England
date of first publication · The novel appeared in serial form concurrently in Graphic magazine
in England and in Harper's Weekly in the United
States from January to May 1886. It was first
published in book form in 1886.
publisher · Smith, Elder (in England); Henry Holt (in America)
narrator · The anonymous narrator speaks in the third person.
point of view · The point of view is, for the most part, limited to
observations concerning the external world of the characters: how
they act, what they see, and what they say. Occasionally an omniscient narrator
breaks in to provide necessary information or back story, as in
Chapter XXII where the narrator breaks the chronological flow of
the story in order to provide essential information about events
that occurred the previous night.
tone · Tragic, melodramatic, naturalistic
tense · Past
setting (time) · Mid-1800s
setting (place) · Casterbridge, England (a fictional town based on the
city of Dorchester)
protagonist · Michael Henchard
major conflict · Wracked with guilt over selling his wife and child,
Henchard tries to escape from the shadow of his past and his overwhelming
need to punish himself for it.
rising action · Henchard arranges to remarry Susan.
climax · The furmity-woman, recognizing Henchard as the man
who sold his wife and child at a fair in Weydon-Priors, divulges
his shameful secret to the town of Casterbridge.
falling action · Having fallen out with Elizabeth-Jane, his only hope
for a renewed life, Henchard slinks off to a humble country cottage
to die.
themes · The importance of character; the value of a good name;
the indelibility of the past
motifs · Coincidence; the tension between tradition and innovation;
the tension between public life and private life
symbols · The caged goldfinch; the bull; the collision of the
wagons
foreshadowing · Farfrae's accumulation of Henchard's business, social
position, and family is first foreshadowed by Henchard's failed
day of celebration, which takes place alongside the Scotchman's successful
party.
