Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), a native of Dorchester, England, was a novelist and poet who spent most of his life as a career writer. His crowning achievement was The Mayor of Casterbridge, which he wrote in 1886; it highlighted his tragic style and his indifference towards his main characters. He spent his entire childhood and most of his adult life in his private office due to recurring and unknown illnesses. He thus observes the landscape that surrounds him and implants it in the geography of his novels and poems. Most researchers believe that the Mayor of Casterbridge's setting was a recreation of his hometown, Dorchester. Hardy also had an exclusive circle of friends and family who strongly influenced his writing, such as his mother, who taught him the difficulties of life in the lower classes. His knowledge influenced him so much that the story of the Mayor of Casterbridge parallels his own life, particularly the rags-to-riches story of his main character, Michael Henchard. Societal influences, such as class barriers and emerging secular ideas, including Darwin's theory of evolution, became an essential part of his writing style during the second half of his life. These ideas led him to write about a world that was indifferent, demystified and distant from its inhabitants. In The Mayor of Casterbridge, Hardy's writing style was greatly influenced by his illness, his friends and family, and a changing society. Hardy's unstable health prompted him to write The Mayor of Casterbridge from a particularly observant point of view. As a newborn he was so ill that he had to die, only to be saved by the midwife (Millgate). His early education was marked by illnesses that forced him to stay in the middle of a newspaper and conspire against it. Hardy's writing style, however, was not devoid of human connections; his friends and family taught him about contemporary society – its difficulties as well as its luxuries. His lifelong lessons are reflected in the story of Michael Henchard, whose character development parallels his (Hardy's) own life. Both started life as poor village boys, only to become the richest men in their respective communities. Unfortunately, like Henchard, Hardy's success eventually waned due to recurring illnesses. He became a hypochondriac in the second half of his life, and the indifferent tone of his writing style began to overwhelm his works. It is quite evident that the influences of Hardy's life had an extreme effect on his writing; nevertheless, it was to his advantage as he became famous for his tragic and cursed stories..