Henchard is probably the greatest example of masculine character in Hardy’s fiction. The Mayor of Casterbridge contains some fine descriptions of rural surroundings, depiction of touching scenes and situations, and, above all, a skillful portrayal of a clearly conceived and competently delineated character of the central figure, Henchard. He leaves Casterbridge and goes to work in another town where he dies. He comes to attend their wedding, and is scolded by Elizabeth-Jane for not having told her that Newson, and not he, is her real father. Henchard is left alone and sick, and is nursed and taken care of by his stepdaughter, Elizabeth-Jane, and allows her to marry Farfrae. Hurt by scandals about her former affair with Henchard, Lucetta dies too. Susan, whom he has remarried, dies, and Henchard tries to renew his affair with Lucetta who is won by Farfrae. Rivalry with his own employee, Donald Farfrae, brings about his ruin. He has an affair with Lucetta Le Sueur during the absence of his wife, but abandons her when the wife comes back, eighteen years later, with a daughter born by Newson. He settles down at Casterbridge, prospers in grain-business, and becomes the Mayor of the town. In a moment of despair and under the effect of drink, he sells his wife Susan and his small daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, to a sailor Richard Newson, and later he repents for what he has done.
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