Why did Michael Henchard fail? Essay -- English Literature

Why did Michael Henchard fail?The Mayor of Casterbridge is a novel about the rise and fall of amercurial man called Michael Henchard. The book takes us through hislife when he is twenty-one and outlines his ascent and descent insociety.Michael Henchard is a man of many officeistics. Amongst hischaracteristics he has a kind, honest and determined personality alongwith a cold, ruthless, and stubborn personality. Henchardsimpulsiveness, aggressive attitude, self-centredness made failureinevitable in his life.We first meet Henchard a disconsolate twenty-one year old hay-trusser,he is married with a young fille. We see Henchard trade his wife anddaughter in a drunken rage in furmity tent at a county fair. At firstit was a bit of a joke, a comradely banter but then it turned nasty.The two main reasons for Henchard non backing down from his offer of awife and daughter this was alcohol and his pride. alcoholic beverage played a bigpart in Henchards mistakes in life. He often regrets th ings after hedoes them, and suffers the consequences like the fact that he exchange hiswife and daughter to a sailor whom he had not known, a completestranger for five guineas. It stays on his conscience and haunts him.Henchard was young and aboveboard and felt that his wife and daughter werea burden upon him, and he felt he needed a new start. The sale of hiswife and daughter suggests Henchard is puerile and stubborn. It isalmost as if when Henchard is under the influence of alcohol he turnsinto a aggressive child saying No I said I will sell my wife anddaughter, I dont care what happens I said i will and I willThe next morning Henchard knows that he has committed a solemn sin,but the fact that Hencha... ...hard is now declared bankrupt and in front of the creditors throwsdown his gold watch rather childishly. He would do this because he isa very proud man and he wants nothing.He had used his one talent of energy to create a position ofaffluence out of absolutely nothing. unit y thing about Michael Henchard is that you have to admire him forwhat he has achieved in his life, his energy, aspirations anddetermination allowed him to do this. But the only problem is thatHenchard is too impulsive and acts n emotions, and does not thinkbefore he acts. That is why he failed in life. I also believe thatfate played a big part in his failure. For example the weatherforecast, he acted on impulsion and he did not think about theaccuracy of the reading.So overall I think that Michael Henchards character contributed tohis failure along with pure fate.