At the end of the novel, Hardy uses pathos to further persuade the reader that immoral actions like Henchard’s sale of his wife and his alcoholism lead only to ruin. Even the hapless and pathetic worker Abel Whittle feels sorry for him, emphasizing how far Henchard has sunk by Chapter 45. When describing his death to Elizabeth-Jane and Farfrae, Whittle says:
I seed en go down street on the night of your worshipful’s wedding to the lady at yer side, and I thought he looked low and faltering [...] ‘What, Whittle,’ he said, ‘and can ye really be such a poor fond fool as to care for such a wretch as I!’ [...] But he didn’t gain strength, for you see, ma’am, he couldn’t eat—no appetite at all—and he got weaker; and today he died. One of the neighbours have gone to get a man to measure him.
The language used to describe Henchard’s final situation is deeply emotionally provocative, making the reader feel the tragedy of all the lives his bad choices have affected. However, the reader is also made to feel sorry for Henchard himself in this quote, as Henchard is described as “getting weaker” and “low and faltering.” Even Whittle, a hapless employee to whom Henchard had been cruel, is made to feel sorry for him and to care for him by his demise. When he dies, there is nobody to sit with him, and a neighbor has to be summoned to “get a man to measure him”—a Victorian euphemism for choosing grave-clothes and the correct length of coffin. This short speech by Whittle is ultimately a condensed version of Henchard's decline throughout the novel. This provokes pathos in the audience, as they can see a smaller version of Henchard's larger narrative of pitiful failure.
