Mathews 1 Joshua Mathews Mr. Delnea ENG2DN – 03 January 23, 2018 The Mayor of Casterbridge: Photography Essay The scene that we chose to create a photograph for was a scene from chapter 26 – the scene in which Farfrae and Henchard took the same slice of bread, from the plateful that Lucetta had offered them, and tore it in two. I played the role of Mr. Henchard in the scene and the caption that we chose was “Henchard took a slice by one end and Donald by the other; each feeling certain he was the man meant; neither let go, and the slice came in two,” (Hardy 181). We chose this quote as our caption because it describes both the actions and the emotions of Henchard and Farfrae in the scene that we also tried to portray in our photograph. This scene played quite a big part in the progression of the novel. In terms of the plot, leading up to this scene, Henchard’s relationship with Farfrae had already started to diminish after the phase of Farfrae reminding Henchard of his brother. Prior to this scene, Henchard and Farfrae had already started to build up a rivalry. This is shown when Henchard tried organizing a festival of his own after hearing Farfrae was doing one, however in the end “the sky […] was overcast, and […] by three o’clock, Henchard discerned that his project was doomed to end in failure,” (102). This rivalry was strengthened when Henchard told the townsmen at Farfrae’s festival that “[Farfrae] is shortly going to leave [him]” (108), implying that he was no longer going to have Farfrae work for him. The encounter at Lucetta’s house provided another large Mathews 2 step in their rivalry because it was there where the idea that something might be going on between Farfrae and Lucetta was bolstered. This affected Henchard quite severely as we know that Henchard values love a lot and Lucetta was supposed to be his wife but Farfrae is taking her away from him. An aspect of character development that we can observe in this scene is Henchard’s confused state. This confusion, after a while, led to Henchard suffering and eventually taking his life. A theme that could be recognized in the scene was anger. Even after both noticed that the other was holding the same slice, neither even hesitated but rather wanted to show that the offer was meant for themselves. Henchard is mad because Farfrae is getting everything he wants, namely success and now his “supposed to be” future wife. Finally, a major symbol in this scene was the slice of bread. This bread, to me, represents the friendship between Henchard and Farfrae, and as it was broken, the complete end of the friendship was represented. In the photograph, as stated before, I represent Henchard. For my clothes, I decided to keep it a bit casual with a maroon sweater and black pants. Maroon is a shade of red and red is the colour of desire and love representing Henchard’s love for Lucetta. Black is a shade that represents power as Henchard is trying to show Farfrae and Lucetta that he still has power. For physical appearance, I wore 4 hoodies underneath the sweater to duplicate Henchard’s large body structure. When it came to facial expressions, I tried to portray anger towards Farfrae and finally, for body language, I was slouching a bit to show that the confidence levels are no longer at an all-time high, and contrary to the past, my life is diminishing in quality.
