Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the contemporary meaning of Henchard and Bokman’s Wife-Sale in Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge and Kim-youjeong’s Fall. Henchard’s ‘wife-selling’ is considered a tragic error amounting to Bokman’s ‘wife-selling’ that causes their final fall. With Henchard’s death Casterbridge regains the order, but it signifies not so much the restoration of the old order as the establishment of a new civilization. This new civilization records the actual change of patriarchal society in the Wessex country and reveals the earnest value for happiness of the contemporary family through Henchard’s tragedy. The same meaning goes for Bokman’s tragedy. This dissertation makes us realize that the source of power to keep our family happy consists in wife’s role as well as in husband’s role for the harmony of family through peculiar action of Henchard and Bokman’s Wife-Sale.
Published Version
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