Compare & contrast the differences between the middle and peasant classes, village life and town life, men and women and the way in which religion was observed during the Victorian era - using Thomas Hardy's
Compare & contrast the differences between the middle and peasant classes, village life and town life, men and women and the way in which religion was observed during the Victorian era - the setting for Thomas Hardy's "The Withered Arm and other Wessex Tales"
In the following essay I seek to show evidence of how Thomas Hardy was acutely aware of the social status of people, how village and town life was conducted, how men and women reacted to their own sex and to each other and the part religion played in people's daily lives.
Social class is raised a lot in Hardy's pieces. Even though these stories were all written at a different time and then put together, you can see it is a strong theme in the book.
In the Withered Arm, there is instantly a strong sense of upper and lower class. You learn of a milkmaid named, Rhoda Brook, and hear of her story among gossipers at the farm. She was once attached to the boss, a Mr. Lodge but because of their differences in class Mr. Lodge ends their relationship, leaving Rhoda with a child. This shows that the upper class can not mix with lower class as it jeopardizes their appearance. This makes the reader feel sympathetic towards Rhoda.
Later on in the same story Rhoda desperately needs to know about Farmer Lodges new wife and sends her son out so he can report back and describe the newly Mrs. Lodge. The wife is described as, "A lady complete," who is more suited to the proud Farmer Lodge. This is a comparison between Rhoda and Mrs. Lodge, and how Mr. Lodge could not bear to be seen with Rhoda, but is very proud of this complete lady. This is an example of vanity.
A comparison between the upper and lower class in this story is the way characters from the lower class believe in superstition and the upper class don't like to be involved in it. An example of this is when people learn of Gertrude's (Mrs. Lodge) disfigurement on her arm, they instantly think Rhoda is responsible, and suggest to the lady a man called Trendle. When Mrs. Lodge next encounters Rhoda, she asks her of this man. When she learns he is not a doctor, but in fact a conjuror she replies, "O, how could my people be so superstitious as to recommend a man of that sort." This shows that higher class people think that they are above that "sort". A point in religion is also raised here. This may also show that the upper class are "less religious" but still attend church for show to the lower class.
Thomas Hardy also shows the vanity of upper class and how important it is to them. We have already seen its importance to Farmer Lodge and his pick of whose hand he took in marriage, but the lengths that Gertrude went to for her looks really emphasize this. Even though higher class people should not mix with the sort of the conjuror, she does. After it is revealed who gave Gertrude the mark, she begs the conjuror for a cure. He eventually gives her the cure: to lay the limb on a broken neck of a freshly hung ...
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Thomas Hardy also shows the vanity of upper class and how important it is to them. We have already seen its importance to Farmer Lodge and his pick of whose hand he took in marriage, but the lengths that Gertrude went to for her looks really emphasize this. Even though higher class people should not mix with the sort of the conjuror, she does. After it is revealed who gave Gertrude the mark, she begs the conjuror for a cure. He eventually gives her the cure: to lay the limb on a broken neck of a freshly hung man. Mrs. Lodge has an "unconscious prayer" that somebody would be hung, innocent or guilty. Even though the cure is so horrific, Mrs. Lodge goes through with it, showing that her vanity is more important than the respect of a dead body, innocent or guilty.
Once again in the same story, it is shown that lower classes have ethics. When Farmer Lodge passes away leaving Rhoda some money she refuses, "...absolutely refusing, however, to have anything to do with the provision made for her." This also shows a strong sense of character and not wanting to be a charity case.
In the Son's Veto, lower class people seem to care more about others than themselves. Sophy marries Mr. Twycott, her master, she does not really love this man but the reason she accepts his proposal is that she thought it would be an insult to reject him, "...Sophy did not exactly love him, but she had respect for him which almost amounted to veneration. Even if she had wished to get away from him she hardly dared refuse a personage so reverend and August in her eyes..." This shows a huge amount of respect for the vicar, showing a religious side to the story about how lower class people are strong believers. This also shows that Mr. Twycott really cares for Sophy, as marrying someone from a lower class is like, "Social suicide."
Sophy and Mr. Twycott move to London where people would not know of their sin, Mr. Twycott dies, leaving Sophy a large sum of money, a son and in a higher class. London is described as a snobbish place and the people living there do not get on with Sophy because of the way she speaks, "...but she still held confused ideas on the use of 'was' and 'were', which did not beget a respect for her among the few acquaintances she made." This shows the city folk to be of a higher class compared to the lower class country folk, and how they are snobbish and vain. In country life it does not matter the way you speak, but who you are inside.
A big comparison has been made in this story between men and women. Even though Sophy was older and the one to inherit her husband's belongings, the son takes charge, "She was left no control over anything that had been her husband's beyond her modest personal income." Her own child would soon take over being the man of the house, "The completion of the boy's course at the public school, to be followed in due time by Oxford and ordination, has been all provisioned and arranged." This shows that in these times a woman's job was none at all, but to eat and drink.
Thomas Hardy shows that town and upper class life corrupts people, making them have artificial tastes. It even does so to Sophy's own child, Randolph, making him think that his mother's desires were unrealistic. The book drops hints of this in most paragraphs, "...her boy, with his aristocratic school knowledge... He drifted further and further away from her." And "...after her husband's death she soon lost the little artificial tastes she had acquired from him, and became - in her son's eyes - a mother whose mistakes and origin it was his painful lot as a gentleman to blush for." These artificial tastes may even be a metaphor for how the town life is artificial and has no sense of reality, which are consequences from the desire for money. The mother's tastes seem to be the love and friendship from the village life, but compared to the city life of looking good and money grabbing; these tastes are far from artificial.
In this story Hardy raises the point of the importance of social class and how one should not mix classes in a relationship. Sophy loves and wishes to wed a man named Sam Hobson, who is a lower class grocer; Randolph, however is totally against the marriage because of their social differences. When Sam proposes Sophy answers "...Sam, if I could, I would marry you some day." But Sophy instantly is thinking of her son first. Randolph's response to the news that Sophy wishes to get engaged to this man is, "I am ashamed of you! It will ruin me! A miserable boor! A churl! A clown! It will degrade me in the eyes of all gentlemen of England!" This shows that the higher class citizens are selfish and only think of themselves. You can also see from this that the unwritten rule about mixing classes is not as important for the lower classes. Sam feels for Sophy as he can see that she is lonely and unhappy in her current life as she cannot mix well with the people surrounding her in the city.
In the next story, 'Tom Kytes, the Arch-Deceiver', there is instantly a man-woman themed style. Tom Kytes' face is described, "'Twas a little, round, firm, tight face, with a seam here and there left by the smallpox, but not enough to hurt his looks in a woman's eye...He was quite the woman's favorite..." This shows that a woman may not be looking for the appearance of a man, but, presumably, his personality. When you compare the way Tom Kytes is described in this story to the way that the three women are you see that they have been called, "...nice, light, small...a handsome girl," and, "another young beauty." You see that the men are looking at the appearance of a lady. This shows that the men are quite shallow in the story and that the women are more meaningful when it comes to choosing a date.
Both the girls at the end of the story dumped Tom with the hope that he would come after them or ask again later, but in fact he does not. Hannah is said to refuse Tom because of a tantrum, "...partly because her father was there, and partly, too, in a tantrum because of the discovery, and the scratch on her face." Unity though, looked back as she walked away hoping he would follow, "...though she looked back when she'd gone some way to see if he was following her." This shows that both girls were testing Tom to see if he would wait for them to calm down or whether he would just keep asking the next lady along.
Social class is raised once more in Absent-Mindedness in a Parish Choir. When the band woke up and started playing, "The Devil among the Tailors" the upper class attendants at the parish shouted insults, "Never such an insulting, disgraceful thing-never!" as they regarded their performance as improper and unholy, whereas the lower class attendants of the lower gallery liked the dances and tunes.
In the Distracted Preacher, it is shown how in the village, Nether Moyton, certain illegalities were accepted as a way of life. "In Nether-Moyton and its vicinity at this date people always smiled at the sort of sin called in the outside world illicit trading; and these little kegs of gin and brandy were as well known to the inhabitants as turnips." This shows that the villagers regarded smuggling as a way of life and ignored the teachings and city ways of how it is wrong to do so.
A religious matter is raised in the form of the preacher. Although his religion does not except alcohol the preacher is happy in accepting a glass of brandy for his cold, "I will, to oblige you, since you have a right to it." When Lizzy goes to top up the keg with water, diluting the brandy though, Stockdale the preacher says, "I must question the honesty of this proceeding." This is surprising when he himself, Nether-Moyton's religious representative, has just drunk from a smuggled keg of alcohol denied by his religion. This questions his ethics and morality in the book especially with his preacher status.
Men's and women's rights are put forward in this story when Stockdale discovers Lizzy wearing men's clothing. He is shocked and says, "You are in a man's clothes, and I am ashamed of you!" This shows that women are not allowed to wear the clothing of a man and it is deeply shameful. This displays that only a man has the right to wear men's clothing, even though, at theatres in that time, men could wear women's garments when playing women's parts.
In this story people were fickle about where they practiced their religious beliefs. "...the celebrated population-puzzle arose among the denser gentry of the district around Nether-Moyton: how could it be that a parish containing fifteen score of strong full-grown Episcopalians, and nearly thirteen score of well-matured Dissenters, numbered barely two-and-twenty score adults in all?" Sometimes congregation numbers were boosted when the church or chapel held a tea and even the parish clerk used to go to both church and chapel!
I found in these short stories that town and village life, religion and class are all linked. In towns most of the population being of a higher class were snobby but behaved poorly, where in the lower classes of the villages, although they were thought to have lower morals, they acted in a purer way. Religion is linked with this by the way the clergy were higher class and religious and therefore assumed to have higher morals, but they didn't always live by them. In these short stories I have also found that men have been shown to be dominant, but shallower than women.
Thomas Hardy came from a small village and a lower class family but then became skilled and educated. He eventually moved to London and his social class improved. His own experiences and feelings of life were probably used to write these tales.
Josef Jeffrey 5FV
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