Mayor of Casterbridge Question 9

The town is, on face value, welcoming and friendly to newcomers. Obviously the area enjoys many social gatherings and finds them a pleasant escape from the usual tempest of everyday life. In essence, sociality is everything to these people. They tend to lean towards the pleasant overtones of inclusiveness rather than the harboring shade of elusiveness. The party scene for example showed how even though Henchard's party was ruined, the villagers, still in the mood for fun, quickly proceeded over to Farfrae's tent, so to continue the festivities. On a more simple level, houses, gathering spots and the like simply insinuate that it is at least a moderately populated town. The three hotels show that it is also a place where people stop to rest, or maybe even to visit due to its so easily implicated social life. If one built three inns in a town obviously there was a demand for more. In this respect, the hotels show a need for housing. In essence, the town is growing and the need for more inns constitutes a need for more permanent residence in the future. Perhaps these hints from the author even foreshadow some future events to come, despite how awfully analytical one may be to think that, it is in analysis that we find the truth. So, in a sense, places of dwelling represent a changing future for the town, as they would for any place that had the same attributes.