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

Both Of Mice And moots and The mayor Of Casterbridge land up in Tragedy. In what ways and to what extent do the characters in the refreshfuls contri preciselye to their own declension? Discuss the importance of dreamsIn this essay I in play to explore the ways in which individually primary(prenominal) protagonist contri hardlyes to their own downfall. Both Michael Henchard and Lennie Small were the m ain think in each novel, and both had a study dream, this was obvious from the knocked out(p)set. As well as dreams, I debate that fate had a boastful role to play in both the novels. It known that Thomas braw already explored the idea of fate and wrote this.It is non 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 r everse factor. I believe that Hardy in expoundicular used these ideas in his novel, I will explore fully whether Steinbeck used these ideas aswell.Steinbecks novel was set in the great depression, and this is noniceable 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 non only to own a ranch in the country, but to tend rabbits in the garden.Id wisht wed get along the rabbits pretty presentlyLennies dream is rattling simple. This is for a variety of reasons. The main iodine being that he is intellectually handicapped, and knew not of what breeding could live for him. In contrast to this, The Mayor of Casterbridge offers a more complex great deal to a dream. The chapter when Henchard sells to married cleaning woman to the sailor films Henchard make a solemn adjuration to never drink again, and to a fault to make something better of himself. This is his dream. A discrepancy between the two novels is that Henchards dream is realis ed whereas Lennies is not. Henchard manages to relieve himself of alcohol for blackjack oak years and becomes The Mayor of Casterbridge.Lennie on the other hand has an unrealistic cultivate in biography to own the rabbits in such a kingdom was unreachable. We can olfactory sensation at m both downfalls. I feel that the major contribution is the death of the main woman in each novel. Lennie seat to deaths Curleys married woman, who remains name slight throughout the novel, in a panic. Her death presently gos to Lennies death. Whereas Henchards death is a slow gradual process caused for m both reasons touching him. It is however similar in the way that both protagonists cause or contribute to the two womens deaths.Lennie was in a panic. His face was contorted, she screamed thusly, and Lennies hand miserlyd everywhere her mouth and nose.Lennies lack of control of himself was directly responsible for(p) for his death. Henchard died because of a death besides, this time a s eizure to his love Lucetta, which was also involving Henchard. Lucettas death was the final blow to Henchards deteriorating life.Tis me, A ascent a scandal an effigy of me, and himLucetta and Henchard already had a relationship forwards their second arrest in Casterbridge. This where the idea of fate is introduced. It was this earlier encounter that persuaded Henchard to pursue an touch on 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 applicable to Of Mice and work force. I believe that the coincidental meeting of Curleys 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 bear at the call of each novelist. Thomas Hardy goes into great detail in all of the events in the book, and includes a lot deeper descriptions of happenings within the novel. He also explo red m any(prenominal) more with ideas to do with fate. In contrast to this, Steinbecks style contains fewer descriptive sentences, and tells things like they are, In fact he earlier named the novel .. The book is also far shorter and has less space to hit the books situations in as more than detail as Hardy does.In each case, there was deciding factor that sped up the rate of their downfall. It was Lennies lack of expertness to control his temperament, which, when provoked could lead to him causing fearsome injury to his opponent as it were in Curleys case. George however held the ability to counteract Lennies temper.Leggo his hand Lennie, Leggo Suddenly Lennie let go his hand.Lennies unfitness to remove himself from his panicked state of mind by himself causes Curleys wifes death, and his own demise. The Factor that sped up Henchards downfall was when the town of Casterbridge put together out about his drunkard knightly. As the old Furmity woman told the town everything wh ile being at a trial which Henchard was acting as judge. Henchard could only agree with the womans words, and try and cover with the lack of respect that was placed by the townsfolk.The obvious main downfall of Lennie was that he killed a Curleys wife, even though it was not what he meant to do, while in The Mayor of Casterbridge, the obvious main contributor to Henchards 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 go out in shatters. In Of Mice and Men, Lennies great strength causes him problems, as he uses it in the wrong way. In rat 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 right(a) to him. When she try to get away he petted harder and became panicked and angry, luckily for her she did manage to escape his innocent mountain range a nd luckily for Lennie and George they managed to escape the ranch workersAn you aint gonna do no enceinte things like you did in Weed, neitherThey run us outa WeedLennie also forgets the bad things he has make 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 Curleys 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 overhear 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 Curleys wifes 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 affable state and how he loves to pet things contributes to his downfall, it is also his strength that kills the puppy itself. even so in The Mayor of Casterbridge it is not Henchards 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 active him, as he was an excellent businessman. The rewards of his work soon came through, but later 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 habituated 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 demonstrate 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 tragedyAnother one of Lennies downfalls is inability to weather up for himself. This is illustrated by George and the way he stands up for him in front of any with authority.Well, I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy. I just like to know what your interest isI believe that Georges Commandment over Lennie disables Lennies right to stand up for himself, thus leading to Lennies 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 Farfraes superiority cripples Henchard. This is unbent even though Farfrae clutchs 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 make a great deal of money towards it. The reason for doing this was that his dog was breeze 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 ems 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 works time on Curleys dads ranch, he also gave Lennie more freedom and didnt watch him as closely as he should have. As one day when out Lennie almost killed Crooks, the invariable buck, because he said something bad concerning George. This is how fragile Lennies temperament was, and so George should have been more responsible and watched him closely, if he had Curleys wife would not have died, as George would have been there to stop it happening.Lennie is so certified on Georges every word that he cannot do anything without Georges 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 garner 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 let. Unfortunately while mourning at her bring forths 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 Henchards life.Henchard then ran into Newson the sailor, who was Elizabeth Janes 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 Janes 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 tapes no guilt in killing Curleys wife as after he has done it all he cares about is not that he has just killed someone, but that he wont be able to tend to his rabbits any longerGeorge gonna say I done a bad thing. He aint gonna let me tend no rabbits.Lennie is handicapped, so instead of mentation 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 happenedAn he saidan continue 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 Georges 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 isA lastingness that predetermines eventsIn both novels fate played its part, for instance if Henchard had not unbroken 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 Curleys 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? II 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 Curleys wife went to see Lennie, and stop any da nger. 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 idea 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 nonsocial man. I have shown how both characters contribute to their own tragedy, and how Lennie held an unrealistic dream, which he couldnt 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 everyones 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.