The Mayor of Casterbridge | Literary Precedents
The Mayor of Casterbridge has many affinities with the serialized novels that were so very popular in Victorian England. An equally important debt, to the classic and Shakespearian tragedies of which Hardy was so very fond, may help to account for the continued appeal of this novel.
The essence of tragic fiction involves the relative isolation of the hero, who deals uncompromisingly with forces that threaten and ultimately intimidate ordinary people. To give Henchard this tragic posture, Hardy closely follows the advice Aristotle offered in the Poetics, to deal with...
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