Hardy often uses allusions to classical stories to place various situations within a wider literary context and provide further historical background for his books. In Chapter 12, the author describes the difference between Henchard's haphazard method of keeping his books of accounts and Donald Farfrae's more exacting and modern techniques:
The corn-factor’s mien was half admiring, and yet it was not without a dash of pity for the tastes of any one who could care to give his mind to such finnikin details. Henchard himself was mentally and physically unfit for grubbing subtleties from soiled paper; he had in a modern sense received the education of Achilles, and found penmanship a tantalizing art.
This esoteric allusion refers to the education of the Greek hero Achilles by his tutor Chiron, which comprised the study of the arts, riding, poetry, and music. Hardy implies here that Henchard's education has been a practical and general one and that he lacks expertise in the "finnikin details" of book-keeping and mathematics.
This classical reference is tongue-in-cheek, as the comparison between even the reformed Henchard and the heroic Achilles is somewhat ridiculous. Hardy adds another level of comedy when he mentions "grubbing subtleties from soiled paper." He is referring to Farfrae's expertise with the accounting books, but he's also referring to writing in general. The narrator's voice in this section picks up on the thoughts and feelings of Henchard, and its critical tone displays the Mayor's own inclinations towards scholarly people. The reader could safely assume, however, that "grubbing subtleties" and "soiled paper" are actually both quite important things to the author of a nuanced psychological novel concerned with modernization and new agricultural techniques.
Hardy uses simile to liken Lucetta to the moon when Henchard begins seriously courting her, as he realizes the emotional power she holds over him in Chapter 25. Previously, Lucetta's influence over him wasn't particularly strong, but when he turns his "sun"-like warmth and attention to her, he realizes that she is actually not an object of pity but "the very being to make him satisfied with life":
He crossed the room to her with a heavy tread of some awkwardness, his strong, warm gaze upon her—like the sun beside the moon in comparison with Farfrae’s modest look—and with something of a hail-fellow bearing, as, indeed, was not unnatural. But she seemed so transubstantiated by her change of position, and held out her hand to him in such cool friendship, that he became deferential, and sat down with a perceptible loss of power.
This passage contains a combination of several other literary devices the book contains. Henchard is again characterized by sun-like "warmth," his intensity is compared to Farfrae's reticence and "modesty," and a biblical allusion to transubstantiation (the transformation of bread and wine into blood and flesh) is made. The imagery of the sun that Hardy so often links to Henchard makes Lucetta his matched pair, the "sun beside the moon" as she reflects and changes his "light." When she behaves in an un-moon-like way and outmatches the "sun's" power, Henchard is dejected and sits down, his "light" diminished.
Women in literature are often aligned with the moon, as men are aligned with the sun. Lucetta has now "grown up" and become an attractive prospect in Henchard's eyes. He has developed "smoldering sentiments" toward her, as she is now no longer a girlish figure but a "more matured beauty." Because of this new womanliness, the moon simile suddenly applies to her from this point onward. For example, when Henchard is describing Lucetta's marriage to Farfrae later in the book, he also "reflects" this simile, as he has a "new-moon-shaped-grin" when she comes up.
In Chapter 30, Hardy makes several biblical allusions that emphasize the drama and importance of the situations in which his characters find themselves. For example, Mr. Henchard compares himself to Cain when insisting that he deserves to be punished for his actions in early life:
“If I had only got her with me—if I only had!” he said. “Hard work would be nothing to me then! But that was not to be. I—Cain—go alone as I deserve—an outcast and a vagabond. But my punishment is not greater than I can bear!”
References like these would have opened up the significance of such biblical stories to Hardy's predominantly Christian readership. Because many readers at the time would have been very familiar with the stories and parables of the Bible, Hardy's allusions to it provide valuable framing for a Victorian audience. Henchard's self-comparison here refers to the biblical figure Cain's punishment for killing his brother Abel. In the Bible, after Cain kills Abel unprovoked as a result of his jealousy, he is punished by God to "wander" the earth as an outcast. Hardy suggests here that Henchard is only now reaping the "punishment" of selling his wife and daughter for a pittance, and that he must "go alone" as a result, "an outcast and a vagabond." Henchard believes that he is being punished by God for his actions, and that the unexpected return of Richard Newson is proof of this.
This is by no means the only biblical reference in The Mayor of Casterbridge, as the novel is full of them. Another pertinent example of a biblical allusion happens when Lucetta is forced to admit her marriage to Farfrae to Elizabeth-Jane in Chapter 31. Elizabeth-Jane reacts in horrified, "Nathan" tones to this devastating news:
“O, my Elizabeth-Jane!” cried Lucetta distressfully. “’Tis somebody else that I have married! I was so desperate—so afraid of being forced to anything else—so afraid of revelations that would quench his love for me, that I resolved to do it offhand, come what might, and purchase a week of happiness at any cost!” “You—have—married Mr. Farfrae!” cried Elizabeth-Jane, in Nathan tones Lucetta bowed. She had recovered herself.
Elizabeth-Jane refers to Lucetta's actions in the same way that the biblical figure Nathan condemned the "adulterous" marriage between King David and Bathsheba in the Bible (2 Samuel 12). Elizabeth-Jane believes Lucetta to have made both a sinful and a cruel decision: she herself has deep feelings for Farfrae, and she believes that Lucetta is obligated to "marry Mr. Henchard or nobody!" because of her previous relationship with him. There is biblical precedent, Hardy tells the reader, for a betrayal this horrible and a match this unsuitable, and Elizabeth-Jane sees and despairs of it.
In Chapter 30, Hardy makes several biblical allusions that emphasize the drama and importance of the situations in which his characters find themselves. For example, Mr. Henchard compares himself to Cain when insisting that he deserves to be punished for his actions in early life:
“If I had only got her with me—if I only had!” he said. “Hard work would be nothing to me then! But that was not to be. I—Cain—go alone as I deserve—an outcast and a vagabond. But my punishment is not greater than I can bear!”
References like these would have opened up the significance of such biblical stories to Hardy's predominantly Christian readership. Because many readers at the time would have been very familiar with the stories and parables of the Bible, Hardy's allusions to it provide valuable framing for a Victorian audience. Henchard's self-comparison here refers to the biblical figure Cain's punishment for killing his brother Abel. In the Bible, after Cain kills Abel unprovoked as a result of his jealousy, he is punished by God to "wander" the earth as an outcast. Hardy suggests here that Henchard is only now reaping the "punishment" of selling his wife and daughter for a pittance, and that he must "go alone" as a result, "an outcast and a vagabond." Henchard believes that he is being punished by God for his actions, and that the unexpected return of Richard Newson is proof of this.
This is by no means the only biblical reference in The Mayor of Casterbridge, as the novel is full of them. Another pertinent example of a biblical allusion happens when Lucetta is forced to admit her marriage to Farfrae to Elizabeth-Jane in Chapter 31. Elizabeth-Jane reacts in horrified, "Nathan" tones to this devastating news:
“O, my Elizabeth-Jane!” cried Lucetta distressfully. “’Tis somebody else that I have married! I was so desperate—so afraid of being forced to anything else—so afraid of revelations that would quench his love for me, that I resolved to do it offhand, come what might, and purchase a week of happiness at any cost!” “You—have—married Mr. Farfrae!” cried Elizabeth-Jane, in Nathan tones Lucetta bowed. She had recovered herself.
Elizabeth-Jane refers to Lucetta's actions in the same way that the biblical figure Nathan condemned the "adulterous" marriage between King David and Bathsheba in the Bible (2 Samuel 12). Elizabeth-Jane believes Lucetta to have made both a sinful and a cruel decision: she herself has deep feelings for Farfrae, and she believes that Lucetta is obligated to "marry Mr. Henchard or nobody!" because of her previous relationship with him. There is biblical precedent, Hardy tells the reader, for a betrayal this horrible and a match this unsuitable, and Elizabeth-Jane sees and despairs of it.
