The Mayor of Casterbridge

Lucetta is a mile away from Casterbridge. She is waiting on the road that runs to Port-Bredy, expecting to meet Farfrae. Instead, Elizabeth-Jane joins her. The two women are shocked when a giant, “savage” bull confronts them (153). The bull chases the women into a barn. Henchard arrives and calms the bull, saving the women. Lucetta is badly shaken by the incident, and Henchard escorts her home. Elizabeth-Jane returns to the barn to collect an item of Lucetta’s clothing that was dropped. She runs into Farfrae, who had been expecting to meet Lucetta in his carriage. Elizabeth-Jane tells Farfrae what happened. He uses his judgment and suggests that he should not intervene between Henchard and Lucetta at this difficult time. He gives Elizabeth-Jane a ride back to town in his carriage and then returns home, where his servants are packing his possessions as he prepares to move.

Henchard escorts Lucetta home. He agrees to delay their engagement “for a year or two” (155). As a way to thank him for saving her, she announces that she wishes to pay him from her aunt’s inheritance as a repayment of the money he once lent to her when she was faced with financial difficulties. Henchard refuses her offer. Instead, he asks her to lie to a man named Mr. Grower. Henchard explains that he owes a large sum of money to Mr. Grower. By telling Mr. Grower that she will soon marry Henchard, Lucetta will help Henchard avoid the debt being called in too soon. In the meantime, he will raise his own money. Lucetta refuses. She cannot lie to Mr. Grower, she explains, as she married Farfrae during her brief trip to Port-Bredy. Mr. Grower himself witnessed the marriage. Henchard is angry, accusing Lucetta of being “a false woman” (157). He believes that Lucetta has broken her word to him. Since she made the promise under threat, she says, she does not believe that it was valid. At the time, she did not know that he had sold his first wife. Lucetta pleads with Henchard to keep her past a secret. Henchard launches into a rage and threatens to reveal her shame to the world.

Farfrae arranges for his possessions to be moved into High-Place Hall. When he speaks to Lucetta, she asks him whether Elizabeth-Jane can be permitted to remain. She agrees. Elizabeth-Jane explains to Lucetta that she was able to understand the subtle meaning of her story about the woman with a complicated past. She understands Lucetta’s relationship with Henchard. According to Elizabeth-Jane, Lucetta should marry Henchard. Lucetta tells her side of the story, explaining that her engagement to Henchard was made under duress. She reveals that she and Farfrae are now married, so she cannot marry Henchard. Elizabeth-Jane immediately knows that she cannot continue in the house as she still loves Farfrae. However, she asks Lucetta whether she can delay her decision whether or not to stay. In the evening, Elizabeth-Jane takes her possessions. She goes across the street from High-Place Hall, in a property opposite the one where Henchard once lived. Elizabeth-Jane writes a note to Lucetta, explaining why she must leave. She thinks about her future and her independence. The town is already awash with rumors about Farfrae’s marriage to Lucetta. They wonder whether he will continue to work or whether he will live off his wife’s inheritance.

Henchard’s reputation and fortune fall apart after the truth about his past spreads around the town. He loses money in a series of badly managed business matters. His creditors begin bankruptcy proceedings to acquire his properties. Feeling lower than ever before, his hair begins to turn grey. He gives up everything, including his gold watch and whatever loose change he has about his person. The creditors praise his “honorable” behavior (163), returning the watch and the change. Henchard departs the meeting and sells the gold watch. He takes the money directly to another creditor and then moves into a cottage near Priory Mill that is owned by Jopp. Elizabeth-Jane is moved by Henchard’s fall from grace. She tries to meet with him but he wants to see no one, not even Elizabeth-Jane. Following one failed attempt to see him, she passes Henchard’s offices. There, she learns from Abel Whittle that the entire business has been bought by Farfrae. He employs the same people. They are happy to be working for Farfrae instead of the difficult Henchard, even though their salaries are slightly lower than before. Farfrae has set about modernizing the business and its practices.

Near Casterbridge are two bridges with a tragic reputation as favored spots for those who want to end their lives. Henchard spends an increasing amount of time near the bridge which draws “all the failures of the town” (166). Jopp himself once visited often. One day, Jopp finds Henchard there and reveals that Farfrae and Lucetta are now moving into Henchard’s old home. Farfrae bid at the auctions through a third party. Jopp leaves, pleased that he has made Henchard feel even worse. Henchard reflects on his bitter existence as Farfrae arrives in a carriage. According to rumor, Farfrae says, Henchard is planning to travel abroad. Farfrae asks Henchard to stay in Casterbridge. He offers him the chance to live in his old house with his old belongings, though he would need to live alongside Farfrae and Lucetta. Henchard loathes this idea. He rejects the offer. Farfrae then offers Henchard any of his old furniture that might have a special meaning. This offer strikes Henchard, who realizes that Farfrae is a good-natured, magnanimous man.

Later, word reaches Elizabeth-Jane that Henchard is confined to his quarters with a cold. She goes to visit and insists on entering, even though he does not wish to see her. She takes care of him, as she does on repeated visits. Through her continued care, he makes a “rapid recovery” (169). When he is well enough, he asks Farfrae to hire him as a farm laborer. Farfrae agrees but takes care that all his orders are relayed through someone else first. Henchard sets about manual labor in old clothes on the properties which he once owned. As the days pass, he keeps a close eye on Lucetta and Farfrae. His jealousy is rekindled, particularly by the possibility that Farfrae might one day become the mayor of the town. Sometime later, Elizabeth-Jane hears a rumor that Henchard has started drinking again. His oath has come to an end after 21 years. Elizabeth-Jane goes to find Henchard.

After a Sunday service at the local church, Henchard goes to the Three Mariners. The congregation typically sings songs and discusses the week’s sermon. Outside, having now begun his “era of recklessness” (172), he sees Farfrae and Lucetta. He leads the congregation in a song based on the 109th Psalm which concerns “ill-got riches” (173). He points out the passing Farfrae as the target of the song. Elizabeth-Jane escorts Henchard home, overhearing his continual threats against Farfrae. She decides to warn Farfrae about the threats. Henchard is made all the more miserable when Abel Whittle offers him pity, though Elizabeth-Jane intervenes. She wants to keep a close eye on any time Henchard and Farfrae might come into contact. Sometime later, Farfrae enters the workyard with Lucetta. She parts from him just long enough to bring her accidentally face-to-face with Henchard. He mocks her, feigning a sarcastic kind of servility. The following day, she sends him a critical note, saying that his actions were “too bitter, too unendurable” (176). Henchard thinks that he might be able to use the note against Lucetta. However, he opts to destroy it rather than damage her reputation. Elizabeth-Jane tries to steer Henchard away from alcohol by bringing him tea instead. One day, she spots Farfrae talking to Henchard, who seems to gesture as though he is about to push Farfrae from the top floor of the building. She is so shocked that she resolves to warn Farfrae.

Elizabeth-Jane arranges to meet Farfrae. She warns him that Henchard is in a dangerous state of mind and that he may attempt to “do something” (178) to hurt Farfrae. Though Farfrae dismisses her grave concern, he is told something similar by the town clerk. Secretly, he has been working to find Henchard a job in the town’s seed shop. He begins to adjust these plans. When he cancels a meeting with the shop’s current owner, the man tells Henchard that his possibility of a new start has been cut short by Farfrae. Out of this misunderstanding, an “enmity” (179) festers. This negative atmosphere upsets Farfrae, who confesses as much to his wife. Lucetta suggests that they sell up and move. Though Farfrae ponders the idea, he soon receives news that Mayor Chalkfield is dead. The council wants to make Farfrae the new mayor. He feels obligated to the town, so accepts the position. Farfrae suggests that “the Powers above” (181) demand that he remain in Casterbridge.

One day, Lucetta runs into Henchard in the town market. She asks him to return the incriminating letters which could ruin her reputation. Henchard says that he will consider doing so, but also says that he no longer has the letters. Farfrae is announced as mayor the following evening. Henchard remembers the location of his letters from Lucetta. They are in one of his old safes, still inside his old home. He makes an agreement with Farfrae to visit but he arrives late and drunk. Collecting the letters, he drunkenly reads them to Farfrae with a grim glee. Henchard is pleased to hold the future happiness of the couple in his grasp. Though he reads the letters aloud to Farfrae, he does not tell him who wrote the letters as revealing Lucetta’s past is “beyond the nerve of his enmity” (183).

The narrative skips back to reveal that Lucetta was also in the house. She hears Henchard reading the letters to Farfrae. Fearing the worst, she is shocked to discover that Henchard did not reveal her role in writing the letters. She arranges to meet with Henchard at the Ring and hopes to beg him to return the letters. They meet at sunset, though the atmosphere is gloomy. She dresses in “her poorest, plainest and longest discarded attire” (185). Henchard is reminded of his meeting with Susan in the same place. He realizes that he has wronged Lucetta, just as he wronged Susan. When Lucetta arrives, dressed plainly, he immediately gives himself up. He fears that she has put herself in danger of scandal by agreeing to meet him and he promises to return the letters the following day.

When Lucetta returns to her house, Jopp is waiting. He wants her to speak highly of him to her husband, as he wants a job. Lucetta claims to know very little about Jopp and says that she has nothing to do with her husband’s work. He suggests that she could provide him with a reference as he lived in Jersey and “knew [her] there by sight” (188). She brings the meeting to an abrupt halt, worried that Farfrae will be concerned about her. Jopp goes back to his house where Henchard is now staying. Henchard asks Jopp to take a package to Lucetta, which he agrees to do. When Henchard goes to bed, however, Jopp becomes suspicious. He knows that Henchard and Lucetta knew each other in Jersey. Still annoyed at Lucetta, he opens the package and reads the private letters. Jopp sets off to see Lucetta with the package of letters. On the way, his associates invite him into one of Casterbridge’s less reputable inns. Inside, he meets the woman who served Henchard the alcohol-laced food so many years ago. She asks him about the packages and—due to his bitterness toward Lucetta—he reveals everything about the “love-letters” (192). The patrons of the inn chat and joke about Lucetta not being faithful to Farfrae. This gossip is overheard by a passing stranger who is heading to Casterbridge. He pays them a gold coin to fund a “skimmity-ride” (193), a folk custom in which an unfaithful wife is publicly mocked by a baying crowd. The patrons plan the public procession. The next day, Jopp delivers the letters as asked. Lucetta immediately burns them.