once a prosperous sales woman, the furmity seller witnesses Henchard’s cruel choice to sell his wife and daughter for five guineas in her tent at the Weydon-Priors fair. The woman grows poorer as her business declines. Eighteen years later, at the Weydon-Priors fair, she directs Susan toward Casterbridge, as the place she knows Michael Henchard is currently living. Eventually, she travels to Casterbridge and is arrested there. During her trial, she reveals Henchard’s secret past.
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The furmity-woman Character Timeline in The Mayor of Casterbridge
The timeline below shows where the character The furmity-woman appears in The Mayor of Casterbridge. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...tent selling “furmity”: a mixture of corn, milk, raisins, and currants. Michael discovers that the furmity-woman serving is lacing some bowls with rum, and pays her extra to slip rum into...
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...with her. As the other customers depart, Michael falls asleep at a table, and the furmity-woman leaves him there for the night.
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Chapter 3
At the fair, Susan spots the same furmity-woman, now grown old and poor. Her furmity pot is outside, without the grand tent it...
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The furmity-woman does remember Henchard, but only because, she says, he returned to the fair the following...
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Chapter 28
The other members of the court protest, but the furmity-woman says the story shows that Henchard is no better than she, and therefore unfit to...
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Chapter 31
The story about Henchard’s sale of his wife and child revealed by the furmity-woman spreads throughout town, and from that day onward Henchard’s reputation rapidly declines. An incident of...
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Chapter 36
Among the mixed company at Peter’s Finger, where Jopp and his companions arrive, is the furmity-woman, lately settled in that area. Charl tells an animated story about his fight with another...
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As the letters are read, the identities of the main players are revealed. The furmity-woman feels she has saved Lucetta from a bad marriage. Nance Mockridge says the letters are...
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