At The King of Prussia, Elizabeth-Jane volunteers as a waitress in order to help pay for their stay. Susan is reluctant to approach her husband, and she and Elizabeth-Jane spend the night at another hotel in town: The King of Prussia. The townsfolk are complaining about a crop of bad wheat, when a stranger passes a note to Henchard at the door. They learn that Henchard is now the mayor of Casterbridge. Susan and Elizabeth-Jane arrive in Casterbridge and find a group of the local residents gathered outside The Golden Crown Hotel where they see Henchard occupied inside at a grand meal. The poor, old woman directs Susan to Casterbridge. At the fair, Susan finds the furmity-woman who had once run the tent at the fair. For years she believed herself bound to him, until a neighbor in whom she had confided the story told her that the transaction could not be valid: Michael Henchard is her one true husband. Susan has recently realized her foolish commitment to Newson. Elizabeth-Jane has grown up with Richard Newson as her father, and only his recent death at sea has caused Susan to decide to attempt to find her long-lost first husband. She is accompanied by her grown daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, who is unaware of her parents’ history.
He travels south to settle in the town of Casterbridge.Įighteen years later, Susan Henchard arrives in Weydon-Priors at the time of the annual fair. He vows to not drink again for twenty-years. Henchard attempts to track down his wife and daughter, but eventually must give up the search. He knows that she must believe the transaction to be valid. The next day, Henchard is furious with his wife for her simple-minded agreement to her own sale. Henchard, drunk and somewhat confused by the outcome of events, falls asleep in the furmity tent. Susan leaves with the sailor with an angry pronouncement to her husband that she will try for happiness with a different man. A sailor named Richard Newson appears in the doorway of the furmity tent and offers five guineas for Susan and Elizabeth-Jane. Eventually he, half-jokingly, decides to auction off his wife to any other man. Henchard takes servings of alcohol from the furmity-woman, and, as he becomes drunk, he loudly proclaims his unhappiness with his wife and his foolish decision to marry young. Michael Henchard seeks work as a hay-trusser, but he and his wife Susan, who carries their small daughter Elizabeth-Jane, stop for food at the furmity tent at the local fair. On a September day in the 1820s, the Henchard family arrives on foot at the village of Weydon-Priors.
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