Why is henchard initially attracted to farfrae

Lucetta several times mentions "love" and "lovers" in her conversation with Donald. She is also flighty and deceptive — witness her decision to keep Elizabeth-Jane to fend off Henchard immediately after packing her off so as to encourage Henchard. She is filled with fluctuating emotions: "Her emotions rose, fell, undulated, filled her with wild surmise at their suddenness. With her refusal to admit Henchard, Lucetta appears to have ended all possibility of their marriage. Hardy often adds pleasing strokes of humor, as when Lucetta invites Donald to sit down: "He hesitated, looked at the chair, thought there was no danger in it though there was , and sat down.

Dan Cupid Roman god of love. How may one apply Novalis's aphorism that "Character is fate" to both Farfrae and Henchard? How do allusions to Faust and Bellerophon add tragic dimensions to small-town businessman Michael Henchard? Using the epistolary technique, what does Hardy reveal through the medium of Susan's death-bed letter?

The Henchards had done everything they could to keep Elizabeth-Jane in ignorance of their former history; why after Susan's death does Michael Henchard reveal it? What does the metaphor indicate about Henchard's business and political fortunes? Having forbidden Farfrae "to pay his addresses" to Elizabeth-Jane, why does Henchard now withdraw his letter in a short note?

Why does Lucetta invite Elizabeth-Jane to serve as her companion and housekeeper? What ominous associations does the mask over the archway to High-Place Hall evoke?

Explain the following sentence: "She went to the boot-room where her pattens had hung ever since her apotheosis; took them down,. The phrase "Blood built it, and Wealth enjoys it" Ch. Why has Hardy arranged matters so that Lucetta is the new tenant? What prejudice in his readers is Hardy playing upon when he describes Lucetta as being "of unmistakably French extraction"?

Like Eustacia Vye in The Return of the Native Lucetta is "flighty and unsettled"--what in her upbringing accounts for this disposition? Hardy intervenes to prevent a young couple from being separated: apart from sheer altruism, what other motives might he have?

Why is it appropriate that Lucetta chooses the cherry-coloured ensemble rather than the lighter one? Why does she regard this as an important decision? Another import from outside the narrow confines of Wessex appears just after Lucetta's London dresses--what is the technological innovation for, and who logically has introduced it? The simile "as a flying machine would create at Charing Cross" points to a reader familiar with end-of-the-century scientific innovations--where, significantly, would this reader be located?

What is the purpose of Hardy's adopting the epistolary technique Lucetta's three letters in Chapter 22? How does the close of Chapter 22 exemplify the "cliff-hanger" technique common in Victorian serials? Why does Lucetta give "The neighbourhood of Bath" rather than Jersey as her place of origin in conversation with Donald Farfrae?

In the opening paragraph of Chapter 25, Hardy alludes to the "Protean variety in [Lucetta's] phases, moods, opinions, and also principles. In Chapter 25, how does the relationship between Lucetta and Henchard change?

What motivates this change? What is Hardy implying about Lucetta by indicating she has been "outside this train of sentiment"? What "confession" couched as the story of "a person in whom she was interested much" does Lucetta make to Elizabeth-Jane, and why? Explain whether Victorian readers would find her liberated or immoral in defying social convention.

Why does Henchard suspect someone has been "roasting a waxen image" of him? Note: As late as , at Reigate, Surrey England , a summons was issued against a man of 72, alleging that he had sent a former employee an effigy pierced by a needle, "thereby intimating to him that he had laid a curse on him.

Translate "Zwailing along in such a gawk-hammer way" Ch. Why does Hardy employ dialect rather than standard English here? How in Casterbridge society is such knowledge as Wide-O supposedly possesses the key to economic power?

What simple confidence game does Wide-O play to seduce the gullible into believing in his prophetic powers? Why, despite Wide-O's prognostication, do grain prices now rush down? What effect do these falling prices have on Henchard's business? Goodenough, who providentially returns as Henchard's fortunes are at their ebb. What motivates the furmity vendor to accuse Henchard of selling his wife? What is the result of her accusation?

Who is Lucetta "bounding along" to meet? What has already occurred at this point in her relationship with Farfrae? Why has Hardy kept both the reader and Henchard in the dark?

In the incident with the bull, how do the reactions of the two young women tell us much about their characters? What might the bull symbolize? Henchard needs to assure his chief creditor, Grower, that he and Lucetta are engaged: why? Ironically, Lucetta would like to help Henchard, but cannot: why?

In revising the novel for the volume edition, Hardy changed Elizabeth-Jane's allusion to St. What may have motivated Hardy to make this change? What does reading a Latin author imply about Elizabeth-Jane's intellectual and aesthetic capacities?

Who sees "that she [Lucetta] did not suspect the secret of her more reserved friend" in Chapter 30? What is this "secret"? He tells Farfrae that the Jersey woman now refuses to marry him, and Farfrae states that Henchard has no further obligation to her.

Later, Henchard visits Lucetta and asks if she knows Farfrae. She says that she does, but she downplays the significance of her reply by claiming to know almost everyone in Casterbridge. Just then, someone knocks at the door, and Farfrae enters. Henchard decides to hire Joshua Jopp, the man whose managerial position he had earlier given to Farfrae. He tells Jopp that his primary objective is to cut Farfrae out of the corn and hay business. This man predicts that the harvest will bring rain, so Henchard, trusting that the upcoming crop will be bad, buys a large quantity of corn.

Soon, Farfrae joins the guests and wins them over by singing a song about his homeland. When they learn that Farfrae is just passing through Casterbridge, they express their sorrow over losing such a skilled singer.

Watching from the background, Elizabeth-Jane thinks to herself that she and Farfrae are very similar. She decides that they both view life as essentially tragic. As Farfrae prepares to retire to bed, the landlady asks Elizabeth-Jane to go to his room and turn down his bed. Having completed this task, she passes Farfrae on the stairs, and he smiles at her.

The next morning, Elizabeth-Jane opens her windows to find Henchard talking to Farfrae. Farfrae tells Henchard that he is about to leave, and they decide to walk together to the edge of town. Susan decides to send Elizabeth-Jane to Henchard with a message. The narrator explains that when the two men reached the edge of town, Henchard persuaded Farfrae to stay on and work for him, telling the young man that he could name his own terms.