An Ecofeminist Reading Of Thomas Hardy's The Mayor Of Casterbridge

Thomas Hardy,in his Wessex novel,expressed his pessimistic view of man's nature and destiny in a rural setting,and created some famous tragic heroes and heroines.Among them,the most distinguished hero is Michael Henchard in The Mayor of Casterbridge. Also,Thomas Hardy is a master of portraying female images and his glittering tragic figure have kept their artistic charm till now.For example,Tess sacrifices her happiness for the sake of her family responsibility.Eustacia is implicated by her character,and Sue is compelled by the environment.The Mayor of Casterbridge has never ceased to draw attention,favorable or unfavorable,from critic.Mostly,these researches focus on the themes,tragic elements, religion,marriage,modernity,plot and structure,archetypes,character analysis and so on. Ecofeminist literary criticism emerged on the basis of ecocriticism and feminist literary criticism.It is the study of the relationship between literature and nature and woman;it explores the connection between the oppression of women and oppression of nature, reevaluates the traditional literary works according to the value standard of ecofeminism.Ecofeminism is an effective and perhaps at this time the most appropriate critical strategy for considering Hardy's novels because ecocriticism ranges from cultural feminism's return to Gaia(Mother Nature) to Deep Ecology's rejection of an anthropocentric world view(both of which have their place in Hardy's novels).But till now,ecofeminist literary criticism has only been used to interpret Tess of the d'Urbervilles. In my opinion,the ecofeminist reading of The Mayor of Casterbridge is also available. There are three main female characters in The Mayor of Casterbridge Henchard's wife, daughter and lover.They are the reason and result of Henchard's tragedy.Or,more specifically,their miserable life is caused by Henchard.Henchard is defeated by Farfrae or industry.And both of them caused the tragedy of those women.That is why this paper interprets The Mayor of Casterbridge by the approach of ecofeminist.The first part is a brief introduction of ecofeminism and The Mayor of Casterbridge. The second chapter is about the oppression of women and oppression of nature both by men.The third part is focused on the typical woman in Victorian Age and Hardy's ecologic and attitude towards women on a whole.The forth chapter is mainly about the ecofeminist analysis of Hardy,Henchard and other characters in The Mayor of Casterbridge.The last part is the conclusion.