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Into the wild character analysis
Into the wild character analysis
Into the wild character analysis
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Why did Michael Henchard fail? The Mayor of Casterbridge is a novel about the rise and fall of a mercurial man called Michael Henchard. The book takes us through his life when he is twenty-one and outlines his ascent and descent in society. Michael Henchard is a man of many characteristics. Amongst his characteristics he has a kind, honest and determined personality along with a cold, ruthless, and stubborn personality. Henchard's impulsiveness, aggressive attitude, self-centredness made failure inevitable in his life. We first meet Henchard a disconsolate twenty-one year old hay-trusser, he is married with a young daughter. We see Henchard sell his wife and daughter in a drunken rage in furmity tent at a county fair. At first it was a bit of a joke, a friendly banter but then it turned nasty. The two main reasons for Henchard not backing down from his offer of a wife and daughter this was alcohol and his pride. Alcohol played a big part in Henchard's mistakes in life. He often regrets things after he does them, and suffers the consequences like the fact that he sold his wife and daughter to a sailor whom he had not known, a complete stranger for five guineas. It stays on his conscience and haunts him. Henchard was young and naive and felt that his wife and daughter were a burden upon him, and he felt he needed a new start. The sale of his wife and daughter suggests Henchard is childish and stubborn. It is almost as if when Henchard is under the influence of alcohol he turns into a aggressive child saying ''No I said I will sell my wife and daughter, I don't care what happens I said i will and I will!'' The next morning Henchard knows that he has committed a terrible sin, but the fact that Hencha... ... middle of paper ... ...hard is now declared bankrupt and in front of the creditors throws down his gold watch rather childishly. He would do this because he is a very proud man and he wants nothing. ''He had used his one talent of energy to create a position of affluence out of absolutely nothing.'' One thing about Michael Henchard is that you have to admire him for what he has achieved in his life, his energy, aspirations and determination allowed him to do this. But the only problem is that Henchard is too impulsive and acts n emotions, and does not think before he acts. That is why he failed in life. I also believe that fate played a big part in his failure. For example the weather forecast, he acted on impulsion and he did not think about the accuracy of the reading. So overall I think that Michael Henchard's character contributed to his failure along with pure fate.
He hadn't been able to live his life the way he wanted and only
far this time and knew that he had no other choice. Also he did not
Secondly, he was in debt over his head. His desire to acquire the American Dream left him with a lot of things he couldn't afford and not enough money to pay for them. Without a job, all of these things became a pit he couldn't crawl out of, and in his own words,"you end up worth more dead than alive."
of his father and his father before him. He came to a certain point in his life where one
for him to live on. Therefore gambling was the only way to survive. I think
enjoy to be laughed at, but there is only so much one person can take.
everything he owned. He took refuge in criminal activity, and was sent to prison. His
raising them on his own was too much for him and soon began looking for a
would have usually been a man in his youth) a sense of security, as he
took it as a compliment and used it in his defense. He used these accusations
what he was going to get, and he is not responsible for his fate, he
pursuit of wealth and a life with Daisy, but how does this show up his
then, As a result, He gave up on his father and began to live his life completely separated from
doubted himself more and began to make bad decisions also had took a wrong turn in his life that