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Mayor of Casterbridge Nice to Eat With You
3
The Mayor of Casterbridge
Chapter 2: Nice to Eat With You(Acts of Communion)
How To Read Like A Professor
How to Read Like A Professor Chapter 2 is all about how mealtime is portrayed in novels. Eating, which is not essentially a very fascinating activity to read about, can be intense when written well and with special company.
Highlights
What Chapter 2 Teaches You
Highlights
Commmunion between people can help us see their relationship and how they get along.
Communion is a personal, intimate experience. Mealtime is almost always shared with people you are comfortable with.
Communion can also bring together people who once were not able to break bread with one another.
Quote
1
Peace at the Table
"In the real world, breaking bread
together is an act of sharing and peace, since if you’re breaking bread you’re not breaking heads."
Casterbridge
"Henchard's face had become still more stern at these interuptions, and he drank from his tumbler of water as if to calm himself or gain time...Henchard was not to be drawn again. Having said this, he sat back down."(44)
Commentary
In the context of this quote, Michael Henchard is sitting at a table filled with esteemed upperclassman and business men for supper. They are enjoying food together and having light conversation when someone of a lower class challenges Michael's corn business. The mood becomes tense, but due to the current event, Henchard is forced to let his temper cool. This connects to the idea that mealtime is a time of peace. If they were not having a respectful dinner they may have had a more aggressive interaction.
Quote
2
Dinnermates
"We’re quite particular about those with whom we break bread. We may not, for instance, accept a dinner invitation from someone we don’t care for."
"Henchard showed a positive distaste for the presence of this girl not his own, whenever he encountered her. He mostly dined with the farmers at the market-room of one of the two-chief hotels, leaving her in utter solitude."(149)
Casterbridge
Commentary
In this excerpt, Michael Henchard discovered that Elizabeth was not his blood relative. Devasted, he began to isolate himself from and shun Elizabeth-Jane. The daughter he used to have tea with and eat supper with he then avoided, and went out to eat with people related to his business. As the quote says, not wanting to eat with someone displays how little you care for them, revealing how Henchard no longer cared for her like a father.
Quote
"At the same time, he wants to convey the sense of tension and conflict that has been running through the evening...and this tension will stand at odds with the sharing of this sumptuous and, given the holiday, unifying meal."
Table
Tensions
3
Casterbridge
"The girl noiselessly laid out their little meal, and beckoned her mother to join her, which Mrs. Henchard mechanically did, her attention being fixed on the conversation through the door"(53)
Commentary
In this quote, Elizabeth-Jane and her mother were about to have supper when they realized that Mayor Henchard and the new Scotsman were in the room next to them having a private conversation that they could hear. Susan Newson, having special relations in Mayor Henchard, listened with bated breath as she and her daughter sat down for supper. Similar to how the HTRLP quote expresses how a dinner scene can hold tension, this scene seats the reader in the secretive position of our characters and have them feel the tension of eavesdropping during the meal.
Quote 4
"Writing a meal scene is so difficult, and so
inherently uninteresting, that there really needs to be some compelling reason to include one in the
story. And that reason has to do with how characters are getting along. Or not getting along."
Meaningful
Meal
Casterbridge
"The man finished his basin, and called for another, the rum being signalled for in yet stronger proportion. The effect of it was soon apparent in his manner, and his wife but too sadly percieved that strenuously steering off the rocks if the licensed liquor-tent she had only got into maelstrom depths here amongst the smugglers."(12)
Commentary
In this quote, Michael and Susan Henchard sit down in a tent to have a plate of furmity. The lady selling the dish pours rum into Michael's food, which Michael enjoys a little too much. It is evident in this scenario that Michael's wife is uncomfortable with his behavior, and demonstrates their relationship and how these two characters get along.