In most literary work, the relationship between the characters has their own different significance from relationships between other characters. In The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy integrates male and female characters, which are opposites and compliment each other at the same time. In this case, the two opposing characters are Michael Henchard and Donald Farfrae, whose relationship has an important and intriguing significance.
Henchard and Farfrae's relationship is important and interesting and it may be for different reasons. However, perhaps the general is what Penny Boumelha explained in her article. She gives a description of the type of relationship two different social classes may have with each other.
Miss Boumelha explained that, “Relationships of class alliance and antagonism […] takes the form of relations of employer and employee, landlord and tenant, workmates and traders.”1 This is a good description of Michael Henchard and Donald Farfrae's relationship. These two characters have a relationship as employer and employee, as antagonists, as foils, and even for a brief space of time, as friends.
First, they have a working relationship, an employer/employee relationship. Not only is Michael Henchard Mayor of Casterbridge, but he also owns his own company. This establishes his power in the readers mind. After coming back after twenty years, Henchard meets Donald Farfrae, who at this time wants to go to America. However, the Mayor of Casterbridge, a wealthy and powerful man, offers him a job as manager of his company and Farfrae, this poor Scotsman, accepts the job. One has power and status in this community and the other doesn't.
Henchard and Farfrae's relationship begins amicably. Hardy gives somewhat of a description of their relationship through the eyes of Elizabeth-Jane, in the early chapter of the Newsom women's return. On page 87 of the novel, the narrator says that, “She [Elizabeth-Jane] that Donald [Farfrae] and Mr. Henchard were inseparables.” The narrator goes on to say that at times, while walking, Henchard would put his arm on Farfrae's shoulder, as though the Mayor considered him a younger brother.
However, all of this amicability and inseparability would come to an abrupt end and take a sudden turn. They would soon become a little unfriendly to each other, which may be partly explained to Henchard's terrible and dreadful temper.
This leads to their second type of relationship. Their relationship would become that of antagonists and foils. It may be thought that it began in Chapter 15, when Henchard was taking care of an employee, named Abel, who was late for work on more than one occasion. As opposed to deal with this matter calmly and rationally, Henchard looses his temper and becomes violent towards Abel. This employee meets with Farfrae, who has just come out of Henchard's house to see their employer.
Farfrae is told what has just happened. This Scotsman was appalled and went to confront Henchard. In these three or four pages of arguments between manager and his employer, the readers may see that the two characters see things differently. They have different perspective on this matter.
It is in this scene that the readers may see that Farfrae and Henchard represent two different social classes, even though they both get the opportunity to see both worlds. However, during a large portion of the novel, Farfrae represents more the lower class, and Henchard represents the upper class.
These social classes may also be seen in the main street or road of the town of Casterbridge. One side of this street is known as the high class and the other side is known as the lower class. In their own way, Henchard and Farfrae also represent these ends of streets.
Though more importantly, both these characters have the values that they share with the class they represent and belong to. A good example of this may be seen in the scene between Henchard and Farfrae, involving Abel. They view their behavior differently. There is a sense that Henchard enjoys his high status and his power, and perhaps even the fact that he enjoys looking down on people and giving orders. Farfrae, on the other hand, believes they should be helping each other and that Henchard's violent behavior, partly due to his power, was wrong. It almost seems that Farfrae believes in second chances and helping people.
Behavior is perhaps one of the key aspects that go hand in hand with the situation between Henchard and Farfrae. In the social class, Henchard is from high class, and Farfrae from the lower class. However, when it comes to behavior, Henchard appears to be part of the lower class and Farfrae of the higher class. Farfrae seems to care a lot more about others than Henchard. This difference may be seen throughout most of the novel, if not all the novel.
An example of this behavior occurs just after Susan Henchard dies. Henchard tells Elizabeth-Jane that he is her biological father, as it is what he believes, but then he reads the letter Susan wrote to him before she died that tells him their Elizabeth-Jane died three months after she left. The Elizabeth-Jane in the later story is the daughter she had with Newsom. When Henchard discovered this, he became furious and chose to ignore her. Henchard wrote a letter to Farfrae, telling him that he may continue to court Elizabeth-Jane, after Henchard told the Scotsman that he had to stop seeing Elizabeth-Jane. This is very contradictory.
This also shows that Henchard seems to want things that can only or primarily be to his advantage. If it does, he goes along with it. Otherwise, he does appear to want to have anything to with it. On the other hand, Farfrae is a whole different matter. Farfrae does what he thinks is right, what he thinks is the right thing to do, no matter what. He doesn't really seem to think too much about what would serve him best, or give too much attention to this aspect. Farfrae would much rather help and give whatever he can to help others around him.
Farfrae and Henchard have a very interesting relationship. There are very few people in real life or characters in literature have the same type of relationship as they do. It is most likely because of the type of people that these two men are.
