The Indelibility Of The Past By Thomas Hardy

The themes of this novel are the indelibility of the past and the importance of character. Henchard tried to make all the wrongs of the past right. He succeeded but ended up just making more horrible mistakes. Henchard also doesn’t have the values of honor and moral righteousness but Hardy insists that Henchard was a worthy man. All of Henchard’s worth was in his determination to suffer and in his ability to endure a lot of pain. Henchard carried the burden of of his mistakes such as, selling his family and mismanaging his business. The indelibility of the past is a really good theme in this novel. The novel is haunted by the past. Henchard’s decision to sell both his wife and his child at Weydon- Priors still affected him eighteen years later. Every farmer that tilled a field turned up the remains of long-dead Roman soldiers. The ring, which was an ancient Roman amphitheater that took over Casterbridge and provided a forum for the secret meetings of its citizen, is a symbol of the indelibility of a past that can’t be escaped. The horrible events that happened for the …show more content…
With these themes Hardy is teaching how not everyone has the qualities to make them honorable but they might have the qualities to make the really worthy. Hardy is teaching how everyone is determined to do something in there life whether it be try to make their mistakes better or just live with the mistakes they have made. The first theme is the indelibility of the past. The second theme of The Mayor of Casterbridge is the importance of character. Henchard tried to turn all the wrongs into rights from long ago and he succeeded but just made a lot more horrible mistakes. Henchard doesn’t have the values of honor and moral value. Henchard does have the qualities of a worthy man. All Henchard’s worth was in his determination to suffer and in his ability to endure a lot of pain. Henchard carried the burden of his own