Thomas Hardy was an English man, who lived in England near Dorchester

big thing back then, there-for Dr.grove wants Humphrey to marry Phyllis, and in the withered arm Rhoda could marry farmer lodge but he does not want to as it is seen as a disgrace. Also the stigma of being an unmarried mother is tough for Rhoda and her son. Farmer lodge does not even acknowledge him where he is with Gertrude on the horse and carriage because it is a disgrace. And also if Gertrude found out about Rhoda and her husband she may leave him incase the same happens to her I think he avoids any acknowledgement of his son, and he should have told Gertrude who would have been angry. In The Withered Arm you can see the way you the villagers look or speak about Rhoda because of farmer lodge Rhoda might have been able to live a normal life with other people in the town if farmer lodge didn’t leave her.In The Melancholy Hussar Dr.grove does not want any foreigners going near his daughter he does not mind them camping near by but when he finds out about Mathus he tries to send Phyllis to her aunts house to get her away from him. As her dad probably sees Humphrey as a more suitable man that comes from a good family. But Dr.grove does not know anything about mathus; he is prejudging him just because he is from a different country. If people break the lines of social restriction it is seen as usually unforgivable so this made the characters feel very lonely and sad. For example comparing both stories to each other usually there are no happy endings. Maybe because Thomas Hardy did not like happy endings. (Rhoda and Gertrude both women which Hardy seemed to concentrate on the social aspects of them.) Gertrude dies and Rhoda just seems to die off even farmer Lodge gets no-son and looses his land, which has been in his family for years the only one in both stories that seems to be happy is Humphrey who gets married, Mathus and his friend are called back to the army camp and killed for leaveing the army for only wanting to go back home to see his mother. And Phyllis seems to be left in to sit in the house for the rest of her life and dies alone. Farmer Lodge in The Withered Arm seems to have got the “best” out of all of the characters he did not die, although he still is left alone with the boys home, unlike Rhoda who just dies off. In The Melancholy Hussar I am surprised that Phyllis did not break up with humprey   before hand while he was away for a year. It is probably because she is isolated and will not find another man out in the countryside. Through out both stories there seems to be quite dull moods between the characters as in for example in The Withered Arm, in the work place and village Rhoda gets talked about by nearly everyone and if she where to go to the town people would probably not speak to her much when Gertrude asks for a cure she even goes to conjuror Trundle even though she does not believe in superstitions which shows she is desperate for a cure for her arm she even has to go to Rhoda and ask her where he lives.Both of these stories seems to be quite dull and have no happy ending to them as this may have been because of the social rules or “regulations” that people put in society.