Wednesday, October 29, 2008
So You Say I have a Chance?
A belief in determinism engenders a lack of chance in life. Things happen for a reason to determinists. There are no coincidences or random occurrences. We just finished reading Hardy’s poem, “Hap,” which personifies the idea of Chance. The character rails against god (line 1) and Fate (Casualty, line 11) who are making his life miserable. Find some examples of “chance” or happenstance that occur in The Mayor of Casterbridge. Post them here for all to see.
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Some things that occur by chance are that the salior was there to buy her from her husband when no one else in the tent would take the offer. Also by chance is when the salior dies and leaves the henchards wife alone. Also by chance the fair is still held and the lady from the furmity tent is still there and she remembers the message given to her by the henchard to tell the henchards wife all this led to the henchards wife going to casterbridge!
Chance happens all the time in this book so far. At first chance and fate is not on Henchred's side but then when he stops drinking things change and he seems to have fate working with him. So some instances of chance well you see....
* the sailor being there at the furmity tent and actually buying Henchred's wife
*Mr.Newson dying when Henchred's life is together.
*Mr. Newson dying leaving Heanchred's wife a widow and still in love with Henchred(i think)
*The furmity tent still being there after all those years
* Henchred's wife thinks to go to the tent
* The furmity women remembers after 18 years.
* The two men or people wer etalking about mayor Henchred of casterbridge leading His wife to him in Casterbridge.
Definatly a lucky man.
I absolutely wholeheartedly agree with genni and lacie, i believe them so much... Hardy wrote this book by chance... ok maybe not that far. But the book is filled to the brim with chance. The sailor there to buy the wife, him dyeing and leaving the wife, the beer tent still being there( with THE SAME LADY), and that lady remembering what happened that day. Also it is just by happenstance that those two men that Suze and "EJ" walk by were talking about Henchard. And My personal favorite... Farfrae... he literally just happens to be walking by the dinner at the King's Arms inn hears Henchard reassuring the crowd and saying "If anybody will tell me how to turn grown wheat into wholesome wheat," then says, "i'll take it back with pleasure. But it can't be done." Farfrae hears that and is like... heck yeah i can do that... the next thing you know... Henchard and farfrae are meeting and just as farfrae is about to leave town... Henchard makes an offer he cannot refuse.
The story is full of events that seem to occur by chance, convenient happenings that move the story along in the right direction (or at least the direction that Hardy wants). I would like to highlight two main examples.
First, just as Susan has her “awakening” and decides that she can no longer stay with Newson, he dies. How convenient! What a lovely coincidence that just when she is looking to leave the sailor, he is lost at sea, leaving Susan free to go find Michael. (“The vague news of his loss at sea a little later on solved a problem which had become torture to her meek conscience.” pg. 23)
Second, it seems by chance that Fanfrae was strolling by when the wheat discussion occurred, which intrigued him enough that he decided to stay in Casterbridge (and later stir up some conflict). He just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Hardy writes on page 35, “He might possibly have passed by without stopping at all, or at most for half a minute to glance in at the scene, had not his advent coincided with the discussion on corn and bread, in which event this history had never been enacted.” This quote is evidence that had it not been for chance, Fanfrae may not even have been a part of the story.
I haven't read this book but it sounds like there may have been a moment of chance within the first few pages of the story when the man sells his wife and children to the sailor. In order to do that though, the sailor would have had to have been at the bar when the main character gets drunk and bets his family away. If the sailor had not been there, the story would be slightly different.
I agree with everyone who has gave examples of chance. This whole book is based on chance. Susan never would have been sold if the sailor hadn't been there and if Susan and Elizabeth-Jane hadn't heard the people talking about Henchard then they would have never found him. Henchard also would havenever found out that Elizabeth-Jane wasn't his daughter if it wasn't for Susan's death.
I believe that one of the main focuses in this book is fate. I agree with all the examples listed above, therefore i'm not going to waste my time re-typing them. But i think that we will see many more examples of fate in the future.
Everyone else's examples are great points and I agree with them all. I also have one of my own, found a bit later in the novel. after susan dies Henchard tells EJ that she is his daughter and requests that she changes her last name. He then opens the letter Susan gave him to open at EJ's wedding day, it says that their daughter actually died and EJ is in fact the sailors daughter.
The many coincidences in Henchard's life serve an important function in that they confirm Hardy's bleak conception of the world. In each of his major novels, Hardy makes his characters suffer in unbearable circumstances and, as a result, learn their true place in the universe. As he begins to lose the comforts and position of mayor and businessman, Henchard moves more steadily toward an understanding of life's harshness. In Chapter XIX, he muses, “I am to suffer, I perceive. This much scourging, then, is it for me?” attempting to understand the reality of his emotional pain. As life presents unpleasant obstacles, Henchard becomes convinced there is “some sinister intelligence bent on punishing” him. His acceptance of suffering—“misery taught him nothing more than defiant endurance of it”—illustrates his bleak and fatalistic outlook. The twists and turns of the novel's plot, each of which serves to tighten the screws on Henchard's misery, derive from Hardy's belief that the universe is designed to create human suffering.
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