The mood of the book varies widely, as it has so many ups and downs of plot, but for the most part it provokes dramatic and sorrowful feelings in the reader. In the same way that many Victorian writers used their stories to earn money, Hardy wrote this novel in installments (short sections that were published weekly.) This meant that the segments had to be exciting and leave the reader wanting more after each section was written. In order to keep things interesting and keep readers engaged, Hardy fills The Mayor of Casterbridge with lots of highs and lows of emotion and action.
This back-and-forth is very effective in provoking extremes of mood for the reader. The book’s happy moments seem more exciting and intense because of the extremity of its lows. For instance, the female heroine Elizabeth-Jane’s marriage to the energetic and successful Donald Farfrae contains some of the happiest moments of the novel, as do her other friendships and relationships. These are cheerful in mood by themselves but seem even brighter in comparison to the somber events that surround them. It’s important to note that interactions between women in The Mayor of Casterbridge are often happier and lighter in mood for the reader than those between men, which is unusual in a Hardy novel.
The protagonist and antihero Michael Henchard’s story begins and finishes sadly, as he moves from personal debauchery as an itinerant drunk to great success as the eponymous “Mayor of Casterbridge,” and then back to obscurity and misery by the end. The reader feels hopeful that he has changed, but those hopes are dashed when it becomes clear he hasn’t. Large sections of the book also take on an amplified sense of seriousness for the reader, as they refer to legal and social issues (like grain laws, gendered violence, and class disparity) that the narrator makes clear cannot be “solved” within the novel. Overall, Hardy makes the reader feel the weight of societal expectation and the sadness of unrealized ambition throughout the book, occasionally lightened by moments of success and levity.
