Shobhana Singh

Resonance of Female’s Struggle in The Mayor of Casterbridge

Shobhana Singh

Abstract

The Mayor of Casterbridge interrupts a custom that has typically assigned that role to a man. In The Mayor of Casterbridge, Hardy boons to the Victorian society that in how difficult situations women faced in the patriarchal society. Hardy firmly pointed out that the only way for a woman to achieve deliverance and contentment in the outmoded world was to be

independent. Of all the women in The Mayor of Casterbridge, only Elizabeth Jane meet the requirement of being an independent woman: which was challenging for the male based society of the time combined with her unique upbringing with independent education, the continual pursuit of knowledge and persistent fighting spirit for happy life.

Keywords: society, ritual, remarriage, feminism, custom.

Elizabeth-Jane was the child of Michael Henchard and Susan, when Henchard sold his wife at Weydon-Priors. She took Elizabeth-Jane with her and immigrated to Canada with Newson. The child died three months after the sale. She is a part of the tragic irony of the story, and of Henchard‘s nemesis, that his affection for the second Elizabeth-Jane is rooted in the assumption that she was his daughter. He did not discover that she was Newson‘s daughter until after Susan‘s death. On her first appearance she appeared as a well-formed young woman of eighteen, completely possessed of that ephemeral precious essence, youth, which is itself beauty, irrespective of complexion or contour. She was almost look-alike of her mother, Susan

A glance was sufficient to inform the eye that this was Susan Henchard‘s grown-up daughter. While life‘s middle summer had set its hardening mark on the mother‘s face, her former spring-like specialities were transferred so dexterously by Time to the second figure, her child, that the absence of certain facts within her mother‘s knowledge from the girl‘s mind would have seemed for the moment, to one reflecting on those facts, to be a curious imperfection in Nature‘s powers of continuity.(MC- 24-25)

She was devoted to mother and showed a strong respectable-complex. Accustomed to hard work, she did not hesitate to serve at the Three Mariners, where she felt her mother could ill afford to stay. She had learnt from experience and anxiety not to be light-hearted. She was reasonable in everything and especially in her dress and appearance when she enjoyed relative affluence, after her mother‘s remarriage to Henchard. She possessed natural insight but lacked accomplishments, which she tried to gain by discipline study, only to earn Henchard‘s illtempered disapproval after he had discovered that she was Newson‘s daughter. Before her death, Susan had done her simple best to bring Elizabeth and Farfrae together, but Henchard‘s jealousy and folly were such that he forbade their meeting. Though Henchard had informed her that she was his daughter before he learnt the truth, and chose not to undeceive her, he treated her with such intolerance and disapproval after learning that she had humiliated herself by serving at the Three mariners that she chose to live with the lady Lucetta, who had come to live at High-Place hall. He had relented appropriately, however, to allow Farfrae to renew his courtship, but the girl knew intuitively how swift the course of love was between Lucetta and Farfrae.

The subtle-souled girl asking herself why she was born, why sitting in a room, and blinking at the candle; why things around her had taken the shape they wore in preference to every other possible shape. Why they stared at her so helplessly, as if waiting for the touch of some wand that should release them from terrestrial constraint; what that chaos called consciousness, which spun in her at this moment like a top, tended to, and began in. Her eyes fell together; she was awake, yet she was asleep. (MC-132)

When she knew that she had lost Farfrae to Lucetta, she left high-Place hall and considered how she could earn an independent living. It was her stuff to look after Henchard in his humiliation, to warn Farfrae of his threats, and to try to spare Lucetta the sight of the skimmington-ride. After Lucetta‘s death, she and her stepfather lived together for a period, and Henchard‘s affection for her grew until he could not bear to part with her. It was this that had prompted him to tell Newson his daughter was dead, and reawakened his jealous possessiveness when he discovered that Farfrae was courting her again. Newson‘s return completely unmanned him, and he left Casterbridge. Elizabeth and Farfrae were married, and Henchard returned in the hope of forgiveness, but Elizabeth reprimanded him for having kept her from her father for five years. When she discovered his wedding-present, with the

goldfinch starved in the cage in the garden where Henchard had left it, her heart softened and she could not rest until she had found him and reached reconciliation. It was too late. Hardy writes:

All was over at last, even her regrets for having misunderstood him on his last visit, for not having searched him out sooner, though these were deep and sharp for a good while. From this time forward Elizabeth-Jane found herself in a latitude of calm weather, kindly and grateful in itself, and doubly so after the Capharnaum in which some of her preceding years had been spent. As the lively and sparkling emotions of her early married life cohered into an equable serenity (MC-367)

Accustomed to hard work, she did not hesitate to serve at the Three Mariners, where she felt her mother could ill afford to stay. She had learnt from experience and anxiety not to be lighthearted. She was reasonable in everything and especially in her dress and appearance when she enjoyed relative affluence, after her mother‘s remarriage to Henchard. Her condition echoes Catherine Belsey‘s, findings,

Femininity is the criterion which Cixous uses to define the ‗otherness‘ and femininity is not gendered in anatomy. On the contrary, it is situated in language and culture. The difficulty, then, is not with individual men or women but with patriarchy. It is patriarchy that imposes male privilege. (10)

She possessed natural insight but lacked accomplishments, which she tried to gain by discipline study, only to earn Henchard‘s ill-tempered disapproval after he had discovered that she was Newson‘s daughter. Before her death, Susan had done her simple best to bring Elizabeth and Farfrae together, but Henchard‘s jealousy and folly were such that he forbade their meeting.

Though Henchard had informed her that she was his daughter before he learnt the truth, and chose not to undeceive her, he treated her with such impatience and disapproval after learning that she had demeaned herself by serving at the three mariners that she chose to live with the lady Lucetta, who had come to live at High-Place hall. He had relented sufficiently, however, to allow Farfrae to renew his courtship, but the ‗subtle-souled‘ girl knew intuitively how swift

was the course of love between Lucetta and Farfrae. She endured stoically, isolated in her suffering, just as Henchard was at this time. ‗

She had learnt the lesson of renunciation, and was as familiar with the wreck of each day‘s wishes as with the diurnal setting of the sun. (MC-197)

When she knew that she had lost Farfrae to Lucetta, she left high-Place hall and considered how she could earn an independent living. It was her stuff to look after Henchard in his humiliation, to warn Farfrae of his threats, and to try to spare Lucetta the sight of the skimmington-ride. After Lucetta‘s death, she and her stepfather lived together for a period, and Henchard‘s affection for her grew until he could not bear to part with her. It was this that had prompted him to tell Newson his daughter was dead, and reawakened his jealous possessiveness when he discovered that Farfrae was courting her again. Newson‘s return completely unmanned him, and he left Casterbridge. Elizabeth and Farfrae were married, and Henchard returned in the hope of forgiveness, but Elizabeth reprimanded him for having kept her from her father for five years. When she discovered his wedding-present, with the goldfinch starved in the cage in the garden where Henchard had left it, her heart softened and she could not rest until she had found him and reached reconciliation. Elizabeth-Jane is

somewhat insecure about her own beauty and intelligence. Although she is admired by nearly everyone in town for her beauty, she feels that she is not smart enough to be the object of their admiration. She is happy with her new condition and shows a love of fine clothes that enhance her beauty, but still feels inadequate.

Thus she lived on, a dumb, deep-feeling, great-eyed creature, construed by not a single contiguous being; quenching with patient fortitude her incipient interest in Farfrae, because it seemed to be one-sided, unmaidenly, and unwise. True, that for reasons best known to herself, she had, since Farfrae‘s dismissal, shifted her quarters from the back room affording a view of the yard (which she had occupied with such zest) to a front chamber overlooking the street; but as for the young man, whenever he passed the house he seldom or never turned his head.(MC-148)

She was, or became, a little philosopher, learning to accept life‘s habit of substituting for the deeply-desired the not-desired-so-much. Her secret lies perhaps in her possession of a sense of humour: she is able to note with amusement that when Lucetta had pricked her finger they were as deeply concerned as if she were dying; when she herself had been seriously sick or in danger they uttered a conventional word of sympathy at the news, and forgot all about it immediately.

Nietzsche believed that the feminine power submits to the will and desire of the masculine. Nietzsche restores the image of the cat to define the feminine trait, he says, Woman‘s great art is lie; her highest concern is mere appearance and beauty…..Woman has much reason for shame; so much pedantry, superficiality, petty licentiousness and immodest lies concealed in woman. (qtd Burgard 1) . To her stepfather, she is kind and caring, she used to change herself to meet his requirement, but failed to satisfy him when he knew her true identity, and she was brave to revolt against Henchard when she got the chance.

Mike Featherstone writes: ―While cultural integration processes are taking place on a global level, the situation is becoming increasingly pluralistic. (Undoing Culture: Globalization, Postmodernism and Identity, p.13)

The first fight happened when she was going to leave Henchard‘s house to live with Lucetta, Henchard asked her to stay, but to his disappointment, she refused for her liberty, she did not want to stay in the awkward and unbearable situation at the sacrifice of her own freedom.

She is brought up in poverty and has passed through vicissitudes of fortune ordinarily difficult to endure. She loses her father first, and her mother soon afterwards. Henchard‘s affection is as moodily withdrawn as earlier it was lavished upon her. In Farfrae‘s marriage with Lucetta she loses not only her lover, but also the only home she then had under Lucetta‘s roof. All these events and the absolute loneliness of this quasi-orphan girl are more heart-breaking in the objective sense than those which Henchard suffered. Yet, while Henchard is broken she lives with firm strength. positively helps and consoles her better-placed friends—Henchard, Lucetta, Farfrae—in their troubles.

Susan When the narrative began, she is Susan Henchard, the wife of ‗the man of character‘. She lived with her sullen, frustrated, irritable and ambitious husband, Michael Henchard, the hay-trusser, until, the worst day of her life, under intoxication; he auctioned her at WeydonPriors Fair. Her endurance had been overtaxed, and she welcomed release from him, and accompanied her purchaser, the sailor Newson, to Canada with her baby daughter ElizabethJane, who soon afterwards died.

Her simplicity was such that she assumed she was Newson‘s legal wife. A daughter was born to them, and also christened Elizabeth-Jane. They came to England and settled at Falmouth. Here Susan began to realise that her marriage had no legal sanction and her husband had been drowned to death. Then Susan with her eighteen-year-old daughter left Falmouth to find her husband Henchard. She found him Mayor of Casterbridge. By this time Susan was weak in health and spirits, but instinctively she sought to secure her daughter‘s future. When Henchard married her, her main aim was to ensure Elizabeth‘s future, and, in her simple-minded way, she endeavoured to bring her and Farfrae together.

Susan and her daughter return eighteen years later to find information about Michael. What is noteworthy is that the passage of time has affected both people and events. Susan is described as looking older, having time's "hardening mark" on her face, and the woman has gone from being old to being ancient. The fair at Weydon Priors has also changed because the growth of urban areas has caused rural fairs to decline in size and reputation. Hardy does not make clear why Susan is looking for Michael, and so the reader is left to assume that she is hoping to preestablish a connection for financial reasons. This is especially hinted at when the Furmity woman remarks that all legitimate business has dwindled – only the "sly" business has flourished in the area.

Hardy portrays his women characters in the perception of a new form of family that inspires success, possession and affordability making family and emotions secondary in front of these things. The novel shows dehumanization of the male world at the beginning of unfamiliar values based on analysing things and not surrendering in the rural world of England. In the male dominated society economic success did affect the relationship between man and woman. Antagonistic Capitalism forces man to consider woman as product and this product is thrown away when it fails to deliver any efficacy to them. In fact, the novel analyses

suppression of women, their subordination to the patriarchal ideology and denial of selfrespect to them. Hardy through Michael Henchard attacks bitterly the tendency of male society to transform woman into a commodity. Dumping loving values of love, affection and care, the society creates a successful business personality who does not identify any other relationships than business. Hardy, though not a 'feminist' in the political sense of the term, shows defeat of patriarchal society's materialistic concept of success to the feminine values of love, affection, pity, and care. Through Henchard's tragic destiny Hardy shows the triumph of feminine values and when Henchard surrenders to love and affection giving up his patriarchal attitude it is too late and he dies like the caged goldfinch starved of affection and love. For the spectators the money represents the stamp of legality upon the auction of Susan, and money transforms the hypothetical incident into reality in the spectators' mind. Richard Carpenter says, The ending of The Mayor of Casterbridge is reminiscent also of the death of Lear, a parallelism which has been noticed‘. The society thinks women merely as a position symbol. Like the domestic articles women are meant to improve the stature and condition of a home. Hardy has shown clearly this condition of women through Susan who holds neither beauty nor money to attract a successful businessman like Henchard.

Hardy presents Susan as powerless typical Victorian mother whose brief presence in the novel is marked by silent suffering and humiliation. because society does not pay attention to the sufferings of a woman. Susan as a traditional Victorian mother is shown with the essence of sacrifice and self-renunciation. The Victorian concept of motherhood implies that a woman should not live for self development but for self- sacrifice. She can only justify her presence in her family by dedicating herself to her husband and her daughter. Through self effacement, duty and sacrifice she discovers her identity as a powerless mother.

Works cited:

 Hardy Thomas. The Mayor of Casterbridge. Noida: Maple Classics,2017. Print  Belsey, Catherine and Jane Moore. ―Introduction: The Story So Far:‖ in The Feminist

Reader. Essays in Gender and the Politics of Literary Criticism. Catherine Belsey and

Jane Moore. Ed. London: Blackwell Publisher, 1989. Print

 Burgard, Peter J. ―Introduction to Nietzsche and the Feminine.‖ in Nietzsche and the

Feminine. Ed. Peter J, Burgard. USA: University Press of Virginia, 1994. Print  Featherstone, Mike. Undoing Culture: Globalization, Postmodernism and Identity.

London: Sage. 1995 Print  Carpenter, Richard. Thomas Hardy. London: The Mac. Press. Ltd, 1976. Print