Guilt and inevitable punishment : a study in Thomas Hardy’s novel the mayor of Casterbridge

Abstract EN

Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1920), English poet and novelist has been regarded by many as one of the greatest figures in English literature.

He is well- known for the readers and students of literature by his masterpieces Far from the Maddingrowd (1874), The Return of the Native(1878) , Jude the Obscure ( 1895) and other novels.

The conflict between Man and the inevitable fate is a recurrent and favorite theme in his fiction.

This study is an attempt to explore this theme in Hardy’s novel The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) through a profound analysis of the central character in the novel: Michael Henchard and some other characters and circumstances around him.

The poor young man Henchard sells , drunkenly, his wife and little daughter in a village fair and although he shows a real repentance and transfers to an honest man and becomes powerful and wealthy, his old sin resurfaces to torture him and cause his downfall in an obvious significance that the guilty Man cannot escape the judgment of fate