Book Club Guide

The Mayor of Casterbridge

Key themes

Self-made ruin — the man who destroys what he builds
Fortune's wheel and the return of the buried past
Masculinity, pride and the failure to change

About this book

Michael Henchard, a hay-trusser who in a drunken auction sells his wife and daughter to a sailor, rises to become the Mayor of Casterbridge — only to see his reputation, business and relationships destroyed by the return of the man he sold her to, now his business partner. Hardy's study of self-destruction and the remorselessness of consequence is among the most dramatically compelling of his novels.

Published serially in 1886, The Mayor of Casterbridge draws on Hardy's deep knowledge of Dorchester (the novel's Casterbridge). It is considered among the most tightly constructed of his novels.

Discussion questions

Henchard sells his wife and daughter at a fair when drunk. How does Hardy prepare us for this act — and how does he sustain our sympathy for a character capable of it?
The arrival of Farfrae represents a different kind of man — practical, adaptable, modern. How does Hardy use this contrast to comment on the transition from old to new England?
Henchard's self-destructiveness seems almost deliberate — he consistently acts against his own interests. Is this a psychological portrait of a specific kind of character, or does the novel suggest that fate is also at work?
Elizabeth-Jane is the novel's most stable figure — patient, observant, unglamorous. How does Hardy use her perspective to frame Henchard's story?
Hardy said he intended the novel to be a tragedy in the classical sense. How far does it succeed — and what specifically tragic pattern does Henchard's story follow?