After a lovely vacation with the family in which I did a lot of reading, I am home again. The house is relatively clean, so I can sit down and blog again. Let me just say that riding on trains and planes are great for reading, but I still can't read in the car.
While I was gone, I finished The Mayor of Casterbridge and I have to say that I absolutely loved that book! There is so much to say about it, but I think I will start with some of the themes. Hardy seemed to have a lot to say about marriage, respect/respectability, consequences of a person's actions (that one could branch off into half a dozen conversations). But I believe that the most intriguing concept for me was Hardy's commentary on what happens when a person tries to push bad behavior under the rug. He seems to be saying the same old thing that I have told my children and my students for years - just own the blasted mistake and move on. Let's begin: (Spoiler alert! If you plan to read the book, I might spoil a few things in the next couple of paragraphs, but I will NOT tell the ending.)
Michael Henchard sold his wife and child at an auction while in a drunken stupor. Bad mistake. So he did the right thing by falling on his knees before God and swearing off liquour for the next 21 years. He also tried to find Susan and Elizabeth Jane, but the reader gets the idea that his search was not an open one - making quiet inquiries, etc. Also, when he comes into his position as the Mayor of the city, he never discloses his past (obviously because it would have hindered getting/keeping the position - that idea of respectability) and this is his fatal flaw (or one of them). Again, when Susan and Elizabeth Jane return to him, he keeps the truth from Elizabeth Jane by covering up with a lie. He asks her to take his name - sort of an adoption situation. She doesn't buy it (out of respect for her father - Mr. Newsom) until her mother dies and Henchard finally tells her the truth. Devastating!
Susan Henchard never tells her daughter any fragment of the truth and it makes Elizabeth Jane's life extremely difficult. There are a few things she doesn't tell Michale Henchard whens she returns to Casterbridge. Namely (and here is a spoiler) that the original Elizabeth Jane - Henchard's child - died a few months after they were sold, and Susan had another daughter by Newsom, whom she named Elizabeth Jane to ease the pain of the loss of the first. Susan allowed Henchard to believe that the current EJ is the former EJ, and she never tells the current EJ that there was a former EJ. Yipes! When Henchard finds this information, his feelings for the current EJ change dramatically.
Another character tries to sweep some messy information out of the way as well. Lucetta is new to the city of Casterbridge, but an old hook-up for Henchard. In fact, they had a tryst that ruined her reputation and Michael had promised to marry her. With Lucetta, Michael straight up told the truth. He told her about his former wife, how he treated her, and there was a possibility that she might come back to the picture. The ONLY person in the book with whom Michael is completely truthful. Actually, Donald Farfrae gets a pretty accurate picture of Michael Henchard's life, but Henchard puts a bit of gloss on it for Donald to maintain a modicum of respectability. Anyway, when Lucetta enters Casterbridge, she creates a veneer of respectability and is about to "court" Michael Henchard again when she meets his friend Mr. Farfrae. Sparks start a-flying! Lucetta also befriends Elizabeth Jane and tells EJ her life story, but couches it as the story of a friend. EJ sees through that one, but doesn't realize who the male players are. Once Lucetta's story is revealed through an act of revenge on the part of a disgruntled townsman, Lucetta's veneer shatters, her life is ruined and she suffers a terrible fate.
In this book, the truth will always find you out; hiding it only leads to pain and suffering. Hardy allows his characters plenty of pain and heartbreak, but he always rewards those who try to cover up their sins in order to be more respectable with a painful unveiling - one that flings suffering farther than the character ever thought it would go. Better to own the past and live with it than try to sweep it under the rug.
So much more could be said about this book, but I'm ready to head to the pool with the next one. I'm about 2/3 of the way finished with Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Very interesting read. More on that later on.
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