Essay on Fate and Chance in The Mayor of Casterbridge -- Mayor of Cast

Fate and Chance in The Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardys disillusionment over religion was a major theme in both his reinvigorateds and his poetry. In his mind there was a conflict over whether fate or chance command us. He explores this dilemma in the meters I Look Into My Glass and Going and Staying. Each poem takes a different stance on the matter. It is up to the novel The Mayor of Casterbridge to illuminate which position he ultimately adopts. The poem I Look Into My Glass is similar to Going and Staying in many ways. Both poems chaw with the effects of time. I Look Into My Glass is narrated by a person (I picture a man, although it could really be either) who is very old and looking at his wasted frame in a mirror. The bank clerk is grieving, not because he is old, but because his midsection is still strong and full of feelings. He cravinges that his heart had wither like his skin so that he woulnt have to feel the loss of all his loved ones, the hearts grown cold to me he mentions in the poem (ILIMG, line 6). The narrator blames a personification of time for this, saying Time, to make me grieve,/Part steals, part lets abide (ILIMG, lines 9, 10). Strength and vitality have been stolen from him while his heart has remained youthful. Emphasis in this poem is on the emotional rather than on the physical because the narrator values his emotions over his physical state. This does not mean that the narrator is indifferent to his condition. Just as a good deal as he wishes his heart could be as frail as his frame, so does he also wish that his frame were a match for his heart. When he says time shakes this fragile frame at eve/ With the throbs of noontide he means that his heart is still throbbing with the desir... ...ur own fate. Henchard dies friendless and alone not because it was part of Gods plan, but because he cannot see that he operates under his own free will. Hardys loss of faith in his own life is apparent in all of his writing, especi ally in the poems I Look Into My Glass and Going and Staying and the novel The Mayor of Casterbridge. Here he explores his ideas about chance and fate and ultimately comes up with the conviction that each man controls himself. It can be surmised that this was a frightening thought for Hardy since much of his work deals with his disillusionment over religion. Whether Hardy wanted to enlighten the multitudes with his writing, or if he just wanted them to see his suffering and pity him is a enquire only he can answer. Works CitedHardy, Thomas. The Mayor of Casterbridge. Ed. Phillip Mallett. New York W. W. Norton, 2001.