The study employs a qualitative interpretative research strategy divided into five chapters. Chapter I focuses on the introduction, background of the novel, The Mayor of Casterbridge, objectives of the study, research questions, research methodology, and research plan for warming up the reader to know the fundamental questions raised. Chapter II reviews the critical studies on and about the novel to clarify how my approach differs from others, and opens a new avenue of discourse on Hardy and his work. My focus in Chapter III is on Hardy's philosophy of life and its details. Chapter IV deals...