Summary:
Discusses the Thomas Hardy novel, Michael Henchard. Describes the novel's plot and examines Henchard's tragic life. Explores the morality of the character.
This novel written by Thomas Hardy is about a man called Michael Henchard who sold his wife and daughter for 5 guineas unconsciously at a market and had them back unexpectedly 18 years later when he was the Mayor of Casterbridge, then had a chain of frustrations and died in unhappiness at length. The character's life is really full of rises and falls,,Ÿ,,Ÿsometimes he had such happiness as reuniting his long-lost family; sometimes he also had such distress as knowing the girl in front of him wasnft his real daughter. What made his life so different from othersf"
As we all know, being a mayor needs good qualities and morality. Now that Henchard was a mayor, which means his behaviour and morality was widely accept, how could he have done such shameful things as selling his wife? Thatfs right, itfs because he was drunk then. It doesnft seem to be a serious mistake, yet on numbers of occasions it becomes the main cause of unhappiness and misery. Moreover, alcohol doesnft merely do this harm. It now and then makes a person say or do something unintentionally that he himself doesnft mean to do and it doesnft give him a chance to take back his words or regret at that very moment. Senseless things like that have always been taking place around us. In newspapers you can often see news about drunks hurting others or crashing their cars. Sometimes people like to do something for their pleasure at one moment that they donft consider what will happen next. Therefore, such matters happen on addicted ones especially frequently. So, donft be fond of something addictive. That might do no good to you.
We say that alcohol made Henchard sell his wife. But why did Henchard then lose Lucetta and the title of mayor? Obviously that's another reason rather than alcohol and itfs mentioned several times in the novel,,Ÿ,,Ÿjealousy. It is jealousy that made Henchard leaves Farfrae and was replaced by his former companion. It is again jealousy that made Farfrae turn into an enemy of Henchard, which made him prohibit her daughter from meeting Farfrae. Think over, if Henchard hadnft made this decision, then Farfrae would have married Elizabeth-Jane, and that Henchard wouldnft have lost Lucetta, that there wouldnft be a skimmity-ride, that Lucetta wouldnft have died,,Ÿ,,Ÿall because of jealousy! The harm of jealousy is thoroughly shown, even if itfs only the plot of a made-up story. Now that Henchard is that envious, why could he possibly be elected mayor who needs good qualities? Thatfs because not only the character of jealousy, but also many other characters such as hatred and the desire to rule are hidden in the deepest part of onefs mind. A person with these characters looks normal in most of the time, but when something arouses his characters, his mind may be out of control and he will be very unreasonable, but he might regret very soon. Acting totally different in a moment, such people are often referred to as eeccentricf, but actually they have little control of themselves, which is just their misery.
Since the aforesaid character is oppositely different from alcohol or anything addictive that you can oblige yourself to reject them, methinks alcohol, thatfs outside, and jealousy, thatfs inside, caused Michael Henchardfs tragic life.
This is the complete article, containing 548 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
