Fate In Mayor Of Casterbridge
Many believe that a human's personality determines their place in life. In the Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy explores the role of character in determining fate. He uses a character's personality flaws to determine their fate. Hardy utilizes such traits as temper, naivety, control problems, and shyness. Hardy takes his character and places them in a situation where their personalities usually make the situation worse. Throughout the novel the character, Lucetta, is portrayed as a spoiled child. She likes things to be the best for herself. She comes to Casterbridge in order to finish what she and Henchard proposed to do earlier, that is, marry one another. When she refuses to see him, because she likes Farfrae, she is intentionally provoking him. Henchard confronts her about this matter and he marriage to him. Lucetta refuses to marry until Henchard threatens to black mail her. He intends to black mail her with the love letters she wrote him earlier. She agrees to the marriage. Lucetta, however, marries Farfrae. She does this because he is good looking, better off than Henchard, and totally infatuated with her. This course was the best for her at the moment. She knew of Henchard's past, she had experienced his temper, and was afraid he would ruin her. Lucetta also puts a great deal of emphasis on looks. Earlier in the story, she had fallen in love with Henchard. After he left Jersey, Lucetta wrote Henchard love letters. These letters would become her down fall. She died of shock (or possibly miscarriage) after the skimmity ride. The only reason the townsfolk knew about her past with Henchard were these love letters. She had trustingly asked Henchard to deliver them back to her keeping so that she could destroy them. If she had trusted him enough to return the letters, why couldn't she trust him to destroy them? Henchard's fate was strongly rooted in his character. He has several character flaws that contributed to the break down of every relationship he had....
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