Mayor of Casterbridge One of the most striking aspects of the novel, The Mayor of Casterbridge, for example, is the role of festival and the characters' perceptions of, and reactions to, the festive. The novel opens with Henchard, his wife and baby daughter arriving at Weydon-Priors fair. It is a scene of festive holiday in which 'the frivolous contingent of visitors' snatch a respite from labour after the business of the fair has been concluded. …showed first 75 words of 1338 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1338 total…a litany, a silent accusation of Hardy's Godlessness.The more sophisticated York Notes commentaries have a firmer authorial imprint (each being written by a different academic/critic) and perhaps by virtue of their being representative of a point of view rather than a distillation of many points of view they appear to be more authoratitive, more 'critical', less dogmatic. This is because we are moving into a higher and more sophisticated articulation of aesthetic ideology.