Both ‘Of Mice And Men’ and ‘The Mayor Of Casterbridge’ end in Tragedy Essay

Both ‘Of Mice And Men’ and ‘The Mayor Of Casterbridge’ end in Tragedy. In what ways and to what extent do the characters in the novels contribute to their own downfall? Discuss the importance of dreams In this essay I intend to explore the ways in which each main protagonist contributes to their own downfall. Both Michael Henchard and Lennie Small were the main focus in each novel, and both had a major dream, this was obvious from the outset. As well as dreams, I believe that fate had a large role to play in both the novels. It known that Thomas Hardy already explored the idea of fate and wrote this. â€Å"It is not the improbabilities of incident that matter, but the improbabilities of character that matter.† He explains in this quote that the fate of that person is what changes future occurrences, and that this is the overriding factor. I believe that Hardy in particular used these ideas in his novel, I will explore fully whether Steinbeck used these ideas aswell. Steinbeck’s novel was set in the great depression, and this is noticeable throughout the story. And is set at a time when ‘The Great American Dream’ was prevalent in society, Lennies dreams represent those of the American public at the time. Lennies major dream is not only to own a ranch in the country, but to tend rabbits in the garden. â€Å"I’d wish’t we’d get the rabbits pretty soon† Lennies dream is very simple. This is for a variety of reasons. The main one being that he is mentally handicapped, and knew not of what life could hold for him. In contrast to this, The Mayor of Casterbridge offers a more complex view to a dream. The chapter when Henchard sells to wife to the sailor makes Henchard make a solemn vow to never drink again, and also to make something better of himself. This is his dream. A difference between the two novels is that Henchards dream is realised whereas Lennies is not. Henchard manages to relieve himself of alcohol for twenty-one years and becomes The Mayor of Casterbridge. Lennie on the other hand has an unrealistic aim in life; to own the rabbits in such a state was unreachable. We can look at many downfalls. I feel that the major contribution is the death of the main woman in each novel. Lennie kills Curley’s wife, who remains nameless throughout the novel, in a panic. Her death directly leads to Lennies death. Whereas Henchards death is a slow gradual process caused for many reasons affecting him. It is however similar in the way that both protagonists cause or contribute to the two women’s deaths. â€Å"Lennie was in a panic. His face was contorted, she screamed then, and Lennies hand closed over her mouth and nose.† Lennies lack of control of himself was directly responsible for his death. Henchard died because of a death also, this time a seizure to his love Lucetta, which was also involving Henchard. Lucetta’s death was the final blow to Henchard’s deteriorating life. â€Å"Tis me, A procession – a scandal – an effigy of me, and him!† Lucetta and Henchard already had a relationship before their second encounter in Casterbridge. This where the idea of fate is introduced. It was this earlier encounter that persuaded Henchard to pursue an interest in Lucetta. I believe that this was fate, and Hardy suggests this very strongly. It is easy to mix fate with irony and I believe that this is relevant to ‘Of Mice and Men’. I believe that the coincidental meeting of Curley’s wife and Lennie can be related to the encounter of Lucetta and Henchard. I also believe that this is Steinbeck using dramatic irony and not him exploring fate. We can also look at the style of each novelist. Thomas Hardy goes into great detail in all of the events in the book, and includes much deeper descriptions of happenings within the novel. He also explored many more with ideas to do with fate. In contrast to this, Steinbeck’s style contains fewer descriptive sentences, and tells things like they are, In fact he originally named the novel ‘†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.’. The book is also far shorter and has less space to analyse situations in as much detail as Hardy does. In each case, there was deciding factor that sped up the rate of their downfall. It was Lennie’s lack of ability to control his temperament, which, when provoked could lead to him causing terrible injury to his ‘opponent’ as it were in Curley’s case. George however held the ability to counteract Lennies temper. â€Å"Leggo his hand Lennie, Leggo†¦ Suddenly Lennie let go his hand.† Lennie’s inability to remove himself from his panicked state of mind by himself causes Curley’s wife’s death, and his own demise. The Factor that sped up Henchard’s downfall was when the townspeople of Casterbridge found out about his ‘drunkard’ past. As the old Furmity woman told the townspeople everything while being at a trial which Henchard was acting as judge. Henchard could only agree with the woman’s words, and try and cope with the lack of respect that was placed by the townspeople. The obvious main downfall of Lennie was that he killed a Curley’s wife, even though it was not what he meant to do, while in The Mayor of Casterbridge, the obvious main contributor to Henchard’s down fall was his terrible past. From the exact moment when the townspeople found out he had sold his wife and daughter in a drunken rage, they lost all trust in him, and his reputation was left in shatters. In Of Mice and Men, Lennie’s great strength causes him problems, as he uses it in the wrong way. In Weed the town he had worked in before, he had been hunted down for molesting a woman, but all he was doing was ‘petting’ her dress because it felt good to him. When she tried to get away he ‘petted’ harder and became panicked and angry, luckily for her she did manage to escape his innocent grasp; and luckily for Lennie and George they managed to escape the ranch workers: â€Å"An you ain’t gonna do no bad things like you did in Weed, neither† â€Å"They run us outa Weed† Lennie also forgets the bad things he has done in the past. George had to remind that he had done ‘a bad thing’ in Weed, so any anger or panic that he has is soon forgotten. When Curley’s wife walked in to talk to him, just before her death, he had just accidentally killed his puppy. All the panic and anger was still in his mind when she walked in, so when he started ‘petting’ her hair and she wanted him to stop. He was panicking even more than he would have been, as a direct result of the frustration of killing the puppy. So the death of the dog being so close to when he was panicking over Curley’s wife’s hair, contributes to the panic and anger, which caused him to kill her, and cause his own demise. Yet again we find out that Lennies mental state and how he loves to pet things contributes to his downfall, it is also his strength that kills the puppy itself. However in The Mayor of Casterbridge it is not Henchard’s strength that is a problem, but his decision to hire Donald Farfrae, who was on his way to America. Henchard quickly changed his mind and employed him, as he was an excellent businessman. The rewards of his work soon came through, but after Henchards past was brought to public attention, the townspeople looked to Farfrae to become Mayor and gain their trust. If Henchard had not employed Farfrae, then the townspeople would have no one to look to place their trust and respect. So by employing Farfrae he had given himself an enemy, without him the townspeople would not have found a better man than Henchard to be Mayor. When Susan and Elizabeth Jane return to Weydon-Priors, and ask the furmity woman if she knows where Michael Henchard went after he sold them in the drunken auction, this conversation leads to Henchards past leaking out. As it is ironic how at this point she does not know much about his whereabouts or stature, but soon she causes him to lose his reputation and position within Casterbridge. If Susan had stayed with the sailor Newson and not tried to find Henchard, then his past may have stayed secret for a longer time if not forever. So what seemed to be a good event to Henchard did indeed come at the price of revealing his past, which lead to his tragedy Another one of Lennie’s downfalls is inability to stand up for himself. This is illustrated by George and the way he stands up for him in front of any with authority. â€Å"Well, I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy. I just like to know what your interest is† I believe that George’s Commandment over Lennie disables Lennies right to stand up for himself, thus leading to Lennie’s inability to stand up to Curly which is also one of his downfalls. A comparison to this can be made to ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’ in the way that Farfrae’s superiority cripples Henchard. This is true even though Farfrae holds great respect for Henchard at the beginning; much like George does for Lennie. In Of Mice and Men, the character Candy gave Lennie and George false hope; as they dreamed to work on and own their own ranch, Candy offered to pay a great deal of money towards it. The reason for doing this was that his dog was shot because it was too old to work, and he feared that the same fate was to be given to him. He tried to counteract this fate by taking part in what he had already called an unrealistic dream. Every damn one of ’em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of ’em ever gets it. This seemed to be his only way out of the situation. This false hope gave George less money to earn to accomplish his dream and so less working time on Curley’s dad’s ranch, he also gave Lennie more freedom and didn’t watch him as closely as he should have. As one day when out Lennie almost killed Crooks, the stable buck, because he said something bad concerning George. This is how fragile Lennie’s temperament was, and so George should have been more responsible and watched him closely, if he had Curley’s wife would not have died, as George would have been there to stop it happening. Lennie is so dependent on George’s every word that he cannot do anything without George’s approval. Henchard tells Elizabeth Jane that she is his daughter, which he knows not to be true, as Susan had told him this in a letter after she had died. Having Elizabeth Jane believing this meant that she was more affectionate towards him, and tried to win over his love as her father. Unfortunately while mourning at her mother’s grave she met Lucetta, who employed her, and also tried to restart the past relationship with Henchard. If Elizabeth Jane had not met Lucetta then Lucetta would not have met Henchard again, meaning that she would not have died and caused more tragedy in Henchard’s life. Henchard then ran into Newson the sailor, who was Elizabeth Jane’s father, and told him that she was dead. The guilt of telling this lies hung over him, and by this time he was bankrupt, Lucetta was dead, Susan was dead, and he had almost lost Elizabeth Jane. This guilt becomes much worse as on Farfrae and Elizabeth Jane’s wedding day Newson is there and has told her the truth about which her father was. Michael having been on bad terms with her anyway, realises what has happened, so instead of trying to make peace with her he leaves. In Of Mice and Men Lennie shows no guilt in killing Curley’s wife as after he has done it all he cares about is not that he has just killed someone, but that he won’t be able to tend to his rabbits anymore: â€Å"George gonna say I done a bad thing. He ain’t gonna let me tend no rabbits.† Lennie is handicapped, so instead of thinking about what he has done he cares more about not being able to tend to his rabbits. Further more all he thinks about after this is what George told him to do if anything bad happened: â€Å"An he said†¦an hide in the brush till he come.† Lennie is unable to deal with any ‘bad things’ which he has done, and he has to rely on George’s every word to get him out of a mess, these two factors contribute greatly to why his life ended in tragedy. Fate could be seen to have much to do with both of the novels, firstly the definition is: â€Å"A force that predetermines events† In both novels fate played its part, for instance if Henchard had not kept Farfrae in Casterbridge, but let him go to America, would Henchard have failed so badly, or at all. This rivalry is a key part of the novel. If Curley’s wife had not gone to see Lennie in the barn that day, she would have lived. If Elizabeth Jane had not bumped into Lucetta, would the relationship with Henchard have occurred? I I believe that we can put all these happenings down to the responsibility of the individual. for example if George had been more responsible for Lennie, then he would have been there when Curley’s wife went to see Lennie, and stopped any danger. I will repeat my previous statement in saying that the writing style suggests that only ‘The Mayor Of Casterbridge’ contained a fate, I believe that ‘Of Mice and Men’ purely contained dramatic irony. When Henchard made Farfrae stay in Casterbridge, he helped the town out of the crisis they were in. Henchard just made the mistake of thinking he was above Farfrae as the Mayor, but as it shows the mob rules, and the townspeople over through Henchard for the better businessman. In conclusion both novels show us two characters with dreams and hopes, which are in the end unfulfilled, but they go about striving for these dreams, because of many reasons, in very different ways. Of Mice and Men tells of the American depression and a simple migrant worker called Lennie, whose strength, mental disability, dependence on his friend and lack of ability to deal with the ‘bad things’ he has done cause his life to end in Tragedy. The Mayor of Casterbridge is set in the fictional town of Casterbridge and tells of a man who worked himself out of his terrible drunkard state and made something of himself, only to in the end have lost the people he loved, become bankrupt, and died a lonely man. I have shown how both characters contribute to their own tragedy, and how Lennie held an unrealistic dream, which he couldn’t achieve, while Henchard accomplished his dream but was unable to hold onto it. Finally I believe that if fate is blamed for the characters lives, and that if everyone’s life is predetermined, then any responsibility is taken off the person whose life it is; blaming fate is taking the easy way out and people should take responsibility for their actions.