While Henchard has grown to hate Farfrae, he has grown closer to Elizabeth-Jane. Lucetta faints upon seeing the spectacle and becomes very ill. The event takes place one afternoon when Farfrae is away. Discovering that Lucetta and Henchard have been romantically involved, the peasants decide to hold a “skimmity-ride,” a humiliating parade portraying Lucetta and Henchard together. The peasants there convince him to open and read the letters aloud. On his way to deliver the letters, the messenger, Jopp, stops at an inn. Lucetta asks Henchard to return to her all the letters she has sent him. The two hit it off and are eventually married. While Lucetta is waiting for Henchard to call on her, she meets Farfrae, who has come to call on Elizabeth-Jane. This lady turns out to be Lucetta Templeman, a woman with whom Henchard was involved during Susan’s absence having learned of Susan’s death, Lucetta has come to Casterbridge to marry Henchard. Elizabeth-Jane then decides to leave Henchard’s house and live with a lady who has just arrived in town. After discovering that Elizabeth-Jane is not his own daughter, but Newson’s, Henchard becomes increasingly cold toward her. Susan falls ill and dies soon after her remarriage to Henchard. He asks Farfrae to leave his business and to stop courting Elizabeth-Jane. Henchard becomes alienated from Farfrae, however, as the younger man consistently outdoes Henchard in every respect. Elizabeth-Jane is intrigued by Farfrae, and the two begin to spend time together. Meanwhile, Henchard has hired Donald Farfrae, a young Scotchman, as the new manager of his corn business. The parents meet and decide that in order to prevent Elizabeth-Jane from learning of their disgrace, Henchard will court and remarry Susan as though they had met only recently. They arrive in Casterbridge and learn that Henchard is the mayor. Unable to find them, he goes into a church and swears an oath that he will not drink alcohol for twenty-one years, the same number of years he has been alive.Īfter the sailor’s death, eighteen years later, Susan and Elizabeth-Jane seek Henchard Elizabeth-Jane believes he is merely a long-lost relative.

In the morning, Henchard regrets what he has done and searches the town for his wife and daughter.

When they stop to eat, Henchard gets drunk, and in an auction that begins as a joke but turns serious, he sells his wife and their baby daughter, -Elizabeth-Jane, to Newson, a sailor, for five guineas. Michael Henchard is traveling with his wife, Susan, looking for employment as a hay-trusser.

The mayor of casterbridge novel