Role of ‘FATE’ in Mayor of

Casterbridge
The idea of fate is one of the
most prominent themes in
tragic writing. Sophocles,
Euripides, Seneca, Shakespeare
and many others wrote about the
extent to which our actions are
predetermined by divine
providence, one of the many
forms of what we now call
‘fate’. This idea is summed up
by Gloucester’s oft-quoted
reflection, “As flies to
wanton boys are we to th’gods.”
But Thomas Hardy lived in the
early twentieth century in a
world that doubted
providential action, so for
him, fate was more a question
of fortune than celestial
foreknowledge. Hardy’s
reflections on the perils of
fortune and fate reach their
pinnacle in his novel The Mayor
of Casterbridge , novel that
also question the roles of
society and personal autonomy
in our lives.
Michael Henchard is a complex
character from Thomas Hardy’s
The Mayor of Casterbridge. His
actions are equally complex
and it is why he defies being
understood. Hardy was a
determinist who believed that
external forces affected human
lives deeply. Determinists
hold that everything is
caused. In Henchard’s
character Hardy has tried to
prove the same belief. Hardy’s
words are true to an extent but
the plot of Mayor of
Casterbridge shows that a
man’s own will and character
also affect his fate. However,
that does not mean he can
control everything, otherwise
things like society, fate and
chance would have had no
meaning. Every man has
somewhere been forced to
change his course for the
external forces have made him
do so. There are forces that
can alter the course of
people’s lives and events can
take someone to the top and
another to the bottom. This is
true in the case of Michael
Henchard and Donald Farfrae.
Even a hard-willed person may
come across situations where
his best efforts cannot bring
things under control.
Life changing events may occur
by chance. Hardy has shown in
his novel, how important role
these forces play in human
life. The hand of fate pulls
Henchard out of the pit he has
been lying in since he
abandoned his wife and
daughter. It rewards him and
makes him the Mayor and a
wealthy person. A chain of
punishing experiences again
begins thereafter when his
wife returns. Henchard is
basically a good man and a poor
but honest hay-trusser at the
beginning. He gets drunk at the
fair and sells away his wife
and daughter to a sailor for a
paltry sum. He laments and
decides to mend his mistake.
Several years later, fate
brings him face to face with
his wife and grown up daughter.
Henchard thinks his days of
punishment are over and God has
pardoned his sin. He decides to
get married to his ex-wife
Susan once again. Susan is a
passive and submissive woman.
She must not have forgotten how
Henchard had treated her and
her child at the fair. She has
known him well and his
weaknesses too. Still, Susan
pardons him for he can give her
and her daughter a better life.
So, fate has reunited them but
the reunion disrupts
everything that Henchard has
built in the meantime.
While on the one hand, it all
may seem to be the game of
fate, on the other, it also
appears like these characters
affect their fate by their
strengths and weaknesses.
Their personal traits also
play a role in deciding the
course of their life. Had not
Henchard’s wife been so meek
and submissive things might
have gone another way. Had not
Henchard been such a boor and
drunkard, he would not have
sold his wife and daughter off
to another man. He pledges not
to drink again after he has
incurred the loss. Many things
might have been different had
Henchard been in control of his
temper and his glass at the
fair. However, they happened
because they were bound to
happen. There is a central role
of the person in his own life
but there are other forces too
which affect people and
circumstances. If Henchard was
not as poor, he might not have
been as frustrated that night
and not committed the vice he
did. His poverty was his fate
and he did not have any control
over it. Whatever fortune he
has made is by dint of his will
and hard work. He also lacks
foresight and therefore Donald
Farfrae proves to be a tough
competitor to whom he loses
everything.
It is the irony of his fate
that he has let everything he
has acquired go, just to escape
the punishment for his one
abominable sin. Hardy shows
that there are forces like fate
or chance that affect us at
every turn of life. It is not
always that the expected
happens. Henchard never
expected to become a mayor
someday and neither did his
daughter and wife. His meeting
with Farfrae and then his
family is all ordained by fate.
So, in this way, Hardy is right
that our lives are affected by
forces outside our control.
However, it is equally true
that we can affect things
around us by our will,
intention and hardwork. If
Henchard becomes successful
then it is for he is
hardworking and intelligent.
The same is true about Farfrae.
His rise becomes Henchard’s
fall and all that the Mayor
had gained is lost. It is
because Farfrae can see
farther than Henchard.
This may also look like a
coincidence but The Mayor of
Casterbridge is full of
coincidences. If Farfrae has
gained and Henchard lost, then
it is because Farfrae is
innovative and relies on new
ideas. He does not tread the
wrong path and is more caring
and flexible towards people
around him. He provides
Elizabeth Jane with the space
that Henchard could not. It is
not a doing of fate entirely
that his fortune has changed.
Henchard has lost because he
made poor calculations and
depended on outdated ideas in
his business. It always
happens that new things
disrupt the old norms.
Henchard’s loss also seems to
arise from his inflexibility.
So, while forces like fate and
chance play a role in human
life, there are things that
are still within human control
and humans can shape their own
fate by their intelligence and
foresight.