Like Matthew Pires (Letters, 24 April), I too studied The Mayor of Casterbridge for O-level and incidentally hated it until I had to reread it a couple of years ago while doing research for a production of it by the New Hardy Players in Dorchester.
While I agree that Michael Henchard is a misogynist, I would argue that the novel does not share Henchard’s worldview, and in fact Henchard isn’t the focus of the novel. Thomas Hardy, despite his own problematic relationships with women, was a champion of women’s rights. His novel The Woodlanders, for instance, tackled the unfairness of divorce law at the time.
