The Evolution of Women in The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

The Evolution of Women in The Mayor of Casterbridge

Thomas Hardy’s novel The Mayor of Casterbridge takes place in a pretend town in Victorian England. The characters in his novel highly reflect the ideals and morals of the time period. However, during the Victorian Era, different types of women started to form. Hardy outlines the evolution of women during the Victorian Period through the characterization of Susan Henchard, Lucetta Templeman, and Elizabeth-Jane Newson.

Although her presence in the novel is brief, Susan Henchard represents a subservient Victorian woman. A very simple, plain-looking woman, she allows herself to be classified almost as a second-class citizen. As often thought about woman during this time period, “The woman is the weaker and the fleshlier, and she clings to the stronger and obscures his [man’s] vision” (Brady 97). At the beginning of the novel, Susan agrees to be sold to the sailor. As her husband, Michael Henchard, states, “But she is willing, providing she can have the child. She said so only the other day when I talked o’t” (10). Susan goes along with whatever her husband says, believing she must listen to every word he says. As Dana Allingham describes in her essay about women’s role in the novel, “Henchard’s auctioning off his wife to the highest bidder at Weydon Fair...verifies that in early nineteenth century England women of her in class in rural districts were regarded as little more than stock to be disposed of at their owners’ whims…” (1). Women during this time period were also less educated than men. They did not know any better than the treatment they were receiving. The traditional subordinate woman relied on her husband’s thoughts rather than create her...

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... display the change from simple, obedient women to women who begin to learn to think for themselves. Knowledge is power for these women. The more they know the more independent they can become. Even since the Victorian Period, this has remained true. In the modern world, education is key for the equalization of men and women.

Works Cited

ana E. "The Social Role and Treatment of Women in Thomas Hardy's "The

Mayor of Casterbridge"" The Victorian Web. 17 Sept. 2003. Web. 02 May 2014.

Brady, Kristin. "Thomas Hardy and matters of gender." The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Hardy. Ed. Dale Kramer. New York: Cambridge UP, 2003. 93-111. Print.

Hardy, Thomas. The Mayor of Casterbridge. New York: Bantam, 2005. Print.

Millgate, Michael. "The Role of Elizabeth-Jane." The Mayor of Casterbridge. Ed. Phillip Mallett. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2001. 361-66. Print.