A Comparison between Thomas Hardy's short story, 'Old Mrs Chundle' and Eudor Welty's 'A visit of Charity'
A COMPARISON BETWEEN TWO SHORT STORIES
In Thomas Hardy's short story, 'Old Mrs Chundle', the Curate is a well-respected, well-mannered and considerate man. He is determined to spread the word of God to Mrs Chundle. Mrs Chundle is also a considerate woman. She does not regularly visit the church and lives alone in South Wales.
At the beginning of the story, the Curate asks for some lunch from Mrs Chundle. At first Mrs Chundle did not hear the Curate, so he has to repeat what he asked earlier. The Curate is an open man; he is not ashamed of asking food from others and is willing to dine with an old woman. This shows that the Curate is a friendly man and he does not judge people.
The Curate strikes up a friendly conversation, which eventually leads to Mrs Chundle lying about visiting the church once a week. Due to this, the Curate thinks he and Mrs Chundle have something in common as ho belongs in the same church, which Mrs Chundle lied about. He hopes to see Mrs Chundle again which shows that the curate has become quite friendly with her and also shows that he is a pleasant man. When the Curate is talking to his rector, he finds out about the lie Mrs Chundle told. His view of Mrs Chundle changes for a short while. He now thinks of her as a wicked woman.
In Eudor Welty's short story, 'A Visit Of Charity', Marian is a typical 14-year-old teenager. She is a campfire girl trying to gain a few points by visiting old ladies in an 'Old Ladies Home'.
At the beginning of the story, Marian, holding a potted plant, jumps off the bus, stops for a moment besides a prickly dark shrub and then proceeds towards the Old Ladies Home. She says to the nurse at the desk, 'I'm a Campfire girl... I have to pay a visit to some old lady'. She uses the term 'some old lady'. This shows that Marian is disrespectful to old people and is not bothered whom she visits, as long as she gets her points.
When asked which old lady she had to visit, Marian answered, 'any of ...
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At the beginning of the story, Marian, holding a potted plant, jumps off the bus, stops for a moment besides a prickly dark shrub and then proceeds towards the Old Ladies Home. She says to the nurse at the desk, 'I'm a Campfire girl... I have to pay a visit to some old lady'. She uses the term 'some old lady'. This shows that Marian is disrespectful to old people and is not bothered whom she visits, as long as she gets her points.
When asked which old lady she had to visit, Marian answered, 'any of them will do'. This again shows that Marian only wanted to visit old ladies for a few points. Behind on of the doors, an old lady coughed, which to Marian seemed like a sheep bleating. Marian refers to old ladies as sheep.
She describes the old ladies room as crowded and dark. She thought the whole room smelt wet. Marian felt she was caught in a robbers cave. She now refers to the old ladies as robbers the first old lady is very kind and welcoming, whilst the other old lady in bed is moody an quite mean.
As a minister of his religion, the curate feels that it his duty to spread the word of God to Mrs Chundle. So instead of leaving the situation as it is, the Curate is determined to change Mrs Chundle's faith more toward God. This is why he got involved with Mrs Chundle.
Next morning the Curate strode across to Mrs Chundle's cottage and confronted her about her lie. He then asked Mrs Chundle to come to church on Sunday and that he would provide an ear trumpet in order for her the hear the service. The Curate had succeeded in persuading Mrs Chundle to come to church. Mrs Chundle came to the service, she sat in front with the ear trumpet, which 'elevated at a high angle, shone and flashed in the sitters' eyes as the chief object in the sacred edifice'. The Curate had not had a chance to talk to Mrs Chundle that day, so he eagerly went the next day to enquire about the result of the experiment.
The Curate was disappointed with the result and suggested a new device, 'the sound device', to Mrs Chundle. This shows that the Curate was still determined and did not give up on Mrs Chundle even though she is an old woman.
He purchased the device at his own expense and fixated it at the church. Since he purchased the device with his own money, it shows that the Curate is kind-hearted.
The following Sunday, Mrs Chundle came to listen to the service taking place. The Curate was very glad to see her and he started the sermon.
The reason why Marian got involved with the old ladies is to gain points Campfire Girls are supposed to do good in society in order to gain points on their score.
Mrs Chundle was breathing through the long sound tube whose other end opened up at the pulpit. The sermon continued and after some while, Mrs Chundle's breath, containing the of odour of onions, cider, pickled cabbages and peppermint, reached the Curate. He had found the smell to be very disturbing and hoped it would stop. The Curate got impatient and blocked the pipe with his thumb, still continuing to preach the word of God. The disturbing breath of Mrs Chundle made the Curate change his outlook on the situation concerning Mrs Chundle's faith.
Marian felt she did not belong in the room with the two old ladies. Both the ladies were fighting with each other and Marian said a lot of things without thinking. She was so scared when with the old ladies that she could not think straight.
Marian did not want to stay any longer with the old ladies. 'I can't stay but a minute-really, I can't. This shows Marian felt out of place and wanted to get out of the room as soon as possible. She did not want her points anymore.
Marian had not had the chance to leave. She started talking about the flowers she had brought and had nearly said, 'if Campfire Girls brought flowers to the old ladies home, the visit would count one extra point'. Marian had only visited the old ladies for points and had only brought flowers for an extra point. The behaviour of the old ladies seemed different to Marian, she felt very out of place. Due to this, Marian did not want her points anymore.
Since the incident last Sunday, the Curate had avoided Mrs Chundle. She had called over to him to come and read the bible to her, at her cottage.
The Curate didn't want to face the problem again next Sunday, so he ordered for the sound tube to be taken down. The nasty odour of Mrs Chundle's breath changed the Curates determination to help her remember God again.
The Curate went to visit Mrs Chundle one day late than expected but when he got there Mrs Chundle had died. He was in shock and went quiet. His eyes were wet. The Curate went to a lonely place and he stood still thinking. He kneeled down with one hand covering his face. He remained for a few minutes got up and walked on.
For the second time, Marian attempted to escape from the room. She was nearly stopped by one of the old ladies but Marian was quick enough to get away.
Outside in the hall, the old lady suddenly clutched Marian from behind and she asked for a penny. She asked eagerly as the old lady wanted to own something. Marian pulled violently, ran down the hall and burst outside ignoring the nurse's invitation of dinner. Marian desperately wanted to get out of the old ladies home. All that time she had felt out of place. She did not care about her points anymore. Marian ran down the steps, stopped for a moment at the prickly shrub and took out her apple, which she had hid earlier. She shouted at the bus 'wait for me', got on it and took a big bite out or her apple as if she had not a care in the world.
