The Function of Natural Imagery as Applied to Henchard in Hardy's Mayor of Casterbridge
The Mayor of Casterbridge, the second of Hardy's four great Wessex novels, concentrates almost exclusively on Michael Henchard, "a man of character," whose impulsiveness, which is, perhaps, his dominant personality trait, catapults much of the action in the book and leads to his downfall, in The Mayor, as in many of his other novels. Hardy reveals an awareness of the natural elements and patterns of nature whose manifestations he constantly interweaves with the threads of his plots and the intricacies of his characters. Since Hardy's use of natural imagery in The Mayor of Casterbridge has nowhere, to my knowledge, been fully treated, it is the purpose of this paper to trace and to discuss the role of natural imagery as it appears in relation to Henchard throughout the novel. The function of natural imagery as applied to Henchard appears to be three-fold 1) to portray his violent and impulsive nature, 2) to indicate his progressive decline, and 3) to define the terms of his alienation from society. All three of these functions, in addition, help to build up the Mayor as a figure of heroic dimensions. The natural imagery relating to Henchard under point one falls into three types: animal, fire and elemental imagery. Each type of image in this classification, moreover, forms an imagistic pattern or de- sign throughout the novel by mirroring Henchard’s rise and fall. The imagery under point two has mostly to do with the natural settings associated with Henchard, and the imagery under point three pertains generally to the type of weather with which he is linked. All three functions, however, are more or less inter-related, as will be observed. The rem imagery, furthermore is to be understood throughout this paper in its border meaning to include metaphor, simile and symbol, as well as sensuous descriptions.
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations