Pain in "The Mayor of Casterbridge" by Thomas Hardy

Pain is a predominant theme throughout Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge. Hardy describes how many of the character's experience pain through relationships and how each of them deal with their suffering. Both Michael Henchard and Elizabeth-Jane Newson experience difficulty with their relationships, which causes them to suffer from painful events in their lives. They are alike in that they both suffer from the "problem of pain" but they differ in the way they choose to view pain and how to cope with it.
Michael Henchard bears a great deal of pain throughout the book. …