Farmer Lodge left Rhoda a £100 annual payment a year but however Rhoda did not accept his money even though she was poor. The reason I feel she did not accept the money was
because of the way he treated her and her son. This shows Rhoda is a very proud woman.
Gertrude Lodge is a kind, friendly, polite and pleasant person.
“Ah, the way the boy stared as if we might relieve him of his heavy load.”
This shows Gertrude is warm hearted.
When Gertrude saw Rhoda’s son she decided he needed new boots so she went and bought them for him.
This proves to me she is also thoughtful.
Gertrude hurt her arm one night in her bed, which left her with a big wound on her arm. As the week went on Farmer Lodge began to care and love her less.
“If I hadn’t a notion that makes that it makes my husband dislike me - no, love me less.”
This shows Mr Lodge only cares about appearance.
Gertrude was getting so desperate to heal her arm she started to believe in quack meredy (nonesence) and doctors who are not qualified. This shows in those days a lot of people believed in superstition cures.
I feel Farmer Lodge is an inconsiderate, nasty and insensitive person. Farmer Lodge has a son but he denies him to people.
“ Who is that?”
“ I think he lives with his mother a mile or 2 off.”
Farmer Lodge also gives his wife less attention because of the wound on her arm.
This shows Framer Lodge is a nasty person.
Mr Lodge changes but however it is too late because his son is dead and now he starts to feel remorse towards his son’s death. I think the death of Farmer Lodge’s son was Mr Lodge’s own fault because if he had supported him more may be he would not have committed a crime and would not of got hanged dead.
I feel this made Farmer Lodge think about his actions, which made him turn from being an insensitive person to a sensitive person. He felt so much remorse he decided to build a place for young boys to go when they have committed a crime.
The son is a very quiet character. I believe he has a hard life because he is poor and when he needs to get food he has to walk miles to poach for some food. Then he has Farmer Lodge who is meant to be his father but doesn’t act like it.
The son doesn’t have any friends so this is why I feel his life’s a struggle.
I feel the superstitions are unrealistic and nothing like this could ever happen.
I feel the vision Rhoda had about Gertrude was very harsh on Gertrude. I feel the wound on Gertrude’s arm was not Gertrude’s fault or Rhoda’s fault because Rhoda was tiring to get her of her chest and she held her nails into her arm to get her off in self defence but Gertrude was a sleep and she just felt this pain go through her arm. I feel this is very unrealistic and would never happen because they were both a sleep in their beds and they live miles away from each other.
There was someone called Conjuror Trendle who had special powers to cure people but he wasn’t proud of his powers. He believed in white wizard cures. There are other people still around these days who have the same type of powers as Conjuror Trendle. Blood turning was one of the superstitions that were in the book. This is one of the cures Gertrude tried to cure her arm. When Conjuror Trendle told her to put her arm across a hanged person’s neck and then her blood would be turned and the wound will vanish. I feel to put Gertrude’s arm across a hanged man’s body is too much of a quinsidents that it was Rhoda’s son.
I enjoyed this book a lot because it had lots of twists and turns to the story and I learnt a lot from the 19th century.