The Mayor of Casterbridge Chapter 30 Summary

  • Farfrae is moving into Lucetta's house.
  • Lucetta meets him there and tells him that she hasn't had a chance yet to tell Elizabeth-Jane that they're married.
  • She goes upstairs to tell her.
  • She reminds Elizabeth-Jane of the story about the "friend" who had promised to marry one man but was prevented from it, then fell in love with someone else.
  • Elizabeth-Jane remembers very well and drops the charade – she knows Lucetta was talking about herself.
  • She has also figured out that the men were Henchard and Farfrae.
  • Without telling Elizabeth-Jane that she has just gotten hitched to Farfrae, Lucetta asks her what she should do now that she knows Henchard wasn't exactly a model husband.
  • Elizabeth-Jane says the only honest thing to do is not to marry either of them and to stay single.
  • Wrong answer!
  • When Lucetta reacts badly, at first Elizabeth-Jane thinks it's because she married Henchard. She's delighted that Lucetta did the honest thing and kept her promise.
  • But of course, Lucetta married Farfrae.
  • When Elizabeth-Jane finds out the truth, she is disappointed – both because she secretly loved Farfrae and because she thinks Lucetta did something dishonest by breaking her word to Henchard.
  • Lucetta insists that Elizabeth-Jane should stay and live with them, but of course Elizabeth-Jane doesn't want to.
  • She leaves almost immediately, rents a small apartment, and moves into it that very night.