At the start of The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy offers a lucid examination of some of his protagonist's personal weaknesses and the sad ironies that here the failures give way. Michael Henchard's drinking to escape the reality of his unhappy marriage resulted in his wife being sold as Henchard's emotions were heightened by his drunkenness. As Mr. Henchard entered the furmity tent at the fair during the opening pages of Chapter 1, he was calm and level-headed, although silent. As the night progressed and he drank increasing amounts of Furmity Laced, he became increasingly agitated, loud, and argumentative towards his wife, Susan. While Henchard viewed alcohol as a way to break free from his restrictive marriage, his emotions were running high, leading him, against his better judgment, to sell his wife to the sailor, much like horses are sold at auction. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Henchard felt like his family was limiting him and preventing him from succeeding, which led to his excessive drinking. Michael Henchard is introduced to the reader as a man of few words, silently gloomy due to the disappointment in his life and the relative poverty in which he is forced to live in order to support his wife and daughter. To free himself from his pent-up emotions, Henchard turns to alcohol, as demonstrated when he discusses the error of his marriage with the inhabitants of the furmity tent: "'I married at eighteen, like a fool that I was; and this is the consequence of him pointing the finger at himself and his family with a hand gesture intended to highlight the poverty of the exhibition. (9) This quote shows how, as Michael Henchard falls more and more under the influence of alcohol, he also becomes more frank and able to share his emotions, even with complete strangers. Alcohol seems to be the only way out of Henchard's dark and depressed existence, and without it he would be trapped in his self-inflicted silence. After excessive drinking, Michael Henchard's anger, so intense and extreme that it overwhelmed him, caused him to lose control of his actions. In the furmity tent of the fair, the reader witnesses a transformation in Henchard: “At the end of his first pool, the man had ascended to serenity. At the second, he was jovial; to the third argumentative”. (8) Although the rum causes Henchard to become humorous at first, as he continues to drink he becomes furious with his wife and the situation in which he believes she and his daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, are have put. an auctioneer selling horses, Henchard's drunken rage allows him to do the same to his wife. Although the majority of the tent considered the sale a joke, when Henchard finally receives an offer from the sailor for his wife, he is too drunk and overcome by the effects of alcohol rage to refuse the offer, because he believed he could be freed from its restrictions forever without remorse. Although he was unhappy with his marriage, Henchard would not have sold Susan without being heavily under the influence of alcohol. The effects of alcohol on Michael Henchard, mixed with his emotions, caused such an extreme reaction that he was able to sell his wife to a stranger. However, if Michael and Susan Henchard had not entered the furmity tent that night, it can be assumed that Henchard would never have sold it. Without alcohol as a third party in their relationship, the Henchards and their daughter lived an unhappy life in silence, as shown.