Henchard is very competitive because, in the book, he was constantly fighting something; most of the time it was Donald Farfrae, his main rival. Donald had been working for Henchard, and after Henchard cancelled his services, he went out on his own. People began to turn to Farfrae in favor of Henchard, so he felt like he had to fight back. There were many instances in the book where Henchard's competitive nature came out. For example, he was fighting with Farfrae over Lucetta, who eventually chose the latter over Henchard. He also tried to make a fair that was better than Farfrae's fair.

     Michael Henchard is also the victim of cruel acts of fate throughout the book. As luck would have it, the rain cancelled out his fair, whereas Farfrae had been smart enough to use tents to cover his. Also, when he bought a lot of corn, the weater was wrong and it didn't turn out as well as he would have liked. Probably the most horrible thing that happened was due to luck, also; that the sailor Newson woudl show up to claim his wife in the beginning when he was too drunk to know what was going on. If no one had bid on his wife Susan when he was trying to sell her, she still would have been there in the morning. And his punishment, eventually, was a lonesome death.

     In this novel, Henchard was a character with a very competitive nature and, seemingly, very bad luck. Had Henchard not been portrayed as a competitive person, there would be almost no conflict whatsoever. And, if he had had good luck, the book would have ended very differently. Therefore, these two aspects of Henchard's character are critical to the plot of the story.

[My comment: I got a 98 on this, but I'm kind of surprised. It's very roundabout.]