# The Sale of a Wife explained — The Mayor of Casterbridge

> Chapter companion for The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy.

## What happens

In late summer, before the nineteenth century had reached one-third of its span, a young couple—Michael Henchard and his wife Susan—approach the village of Weydon-Priors with their infant daughter. They walk in strained silence, Henchard reading a ballad sheet to avoid conversation. At a furmity tent, Henchard, growing drunk, jokingly offers to sell his wife. The crowd initially treats it as a jest, but when a sailor named Newson appears and offers five guineas, the transaction becomes real. Susan, weary of her husband, agrees, and the sailor pays the money, taking Susan and the child away.

## Themes in this chapter

### Fate and Consequence

Henchard's drunken decision to sell his wife sets in motion a chain of events that will haunt him for the rest of his life, illustrating how a single impulsive act can determine one's fate.

### Deception and Truth

The initial pretense of a joke masks the grim reality of the transaction, highlighting the blurred line between jest and genuine intent.

### Gender and Power

Susan is treated as property, bought and sold by men, reflecting the powerlessness of women in marriage and society at the time.

## Character check-ins

### Michael Henchard

A hay-trusser of fine figure and stern aspect, Henchard is drunk and cynical, offering his wife for sale at the furmity tent.

### Susan Henchard

Henchard's wife, carrying their child, initially implores him to stop but eventually agrees to the sale, showing grim resignation.

### Richard Newson

A sailor who arrives at the tent and purchases Susan for five guineas, taking her and the child away.

### Elizabeth-Jane Newson

The infant daughter carried by Susan, who is taken away with her mother by the sailor.

## Key lines

> I am a good experienced hand in my line. I’d challenge England to beat me in the fodder business; and if I were a free man again I’d be worth a thousand pound before I’d done o’t.

Henchard boasts of his skill as a hay-trusser, claiming he could earn a fortune if he were free from his marriage.

_This early statement reveals Henchard's resentment of his domestic ties and his pride in his trade._

> For my part I don’t see why men who have got wives and don’t want ’em, shouldn’t get rid of ’em as these gipsy fellows do their old horses.

A man in the tent suggests that unwanted wives should be sold like old horses, a sentiment Henchard eagerly adopts.

_This dehumanizing comparison sets the stage for the wife sale and reflects the coarse attitudes of the time._

> Now, who’s auctioneer?

Henchard calls for someone to act as auctioneer for the sale of his wife.

_This marks the transition from drunken jest to a formalized transaction._

> If you touch that money, I and this girl go with the man. Mind, it is a joke no longer.

Susan warns Henchard that accepting the sailor's payment will make the sale real and final.

_Susan's firm declaration underscores her desperation and the irreversible nature of the act._

## Links

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