The mayor of Casterbridge is a powerful man, one who vows to change his life, and in doing so attempts to control his own fate. The tragedy of Henchard's choices lead him down a road toward exile and despair. This message of a hero full of pride and desire is not a new one. Aristotle writes at length regarding the need for tragic heroes to follow a specific pattern which will incite feelings of empathy from the audience.
Critic Frederick Karl interprets the role of Michael Henchard as being similar to Oedipus in the Sophocles Trilogy, or Shakespeare's King Lear. Karl sees Henchard as a man beset by pride, desiring influence and control over all aspects of his life, but especially over those close to him, his family.Follow the links on these two great dramatic pieces and research them for information to support Karl's interpretation.
I can see many similarities between Henchard and Oedipus. At the beginning of both of their stories, they were low on the social scale; Henchard was a hay-trusser and Oedipus was raised in a poor family. Then both of their lives got shook up; Henchard sold his wife when he was drunk and Oedipus was told that he didn't know who his real parents were, and it filled him with doubt. Some time passed, and both of them reached the top of the social scale; Henchard became the mayor of Casterbridge and Oedipus became king of Thebes. After some time of the top, their past lives comes back to haunt them and begins their downward spiral; Lucetta comes back for Henchard which begins to cause problems and Oedipus finds out that he killed his father, married his mother, and is the reason for the plague in Thebes. Finally, they have to leave to better the lives of others; Henchard leaves for Elizabeth-Jane's sake and Oedipus leaves Thebes to rid the city of the plague.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with all of this. But couldn't this theme be found in nearly every piece of writing out there? There is the basic structure of a novel that Mayor follows with a problem, a rise, a climax, a fall, and an ending. Whether or not this is a negative or positive theme is completely up to the author, but I do think we could relate Mayor to more than just King Lear and Oedipus and move on to more modern works, dare I say, the Harry Potter series.
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