“It was built of mud-walls, the surface of which had been washed by many rains” this description of Rhoda’s house resembles the way that Rhoda’s skin has become wrinkled with aging, “….many rains” could also be metaphorical for Rhoda having gone through some very hard times.
“While here and there in the thatch above a rafter showed like a bone protruding through the skin.” Again this resembles Rhoda in the way that it getting more and more derelict with age.
“….her dark eyes, that had once been handsome” this shows that Rhoda was once beautiful and we learn that she took great pride in her looks which is why she is so bitter as she has lost her beauty. Now that Gertrude is married to Farmer Lodge she feels inferior and she feels that she has been replaced by Gertrude. We are shown this in the way that Rhoda continuously asks her son to go out and observe the new bride
“Well, did you see her?” Rhoda is so eager to hear of the new wife that she does not let her son come in through the door before she starts to question him. She becomes obsessed with trying to compare herself to Gertrude. Rhoda does not want to believe that Gertrude is younger prettier and wealthier than her so she is happy to be taller than Gertrude because her height is the only thing that she has which is better in comparison to Gertrude’s.
Rhoda eventually becomes so obsessed with the new wife that she conjures up a dream of her. In the dream we are shown just how jealous Rhoda is as she dreams of the new wife coming into her bedroom and showing off her new ring. Rhoda is so upset that she violently grabs the manifestation of Gertrude and throws her across the room.
“….swung out her right hand, seized the confronting spectre by its obtrusive left arm, and whirled it backward to the floor”. We have to sympathise for Rhoda as she thought the dream was real and was actually being attacked by Farmer Lodge’s new wife.
The next day Rhoda is visited by Gertrude and Rhoda tries to hide because she is so scared after the vision. Gertrude befriends Rhoda and reveals the injury to her left arm. At this point we feel sorry for both women as Gertrude has been physically injured and cursed, and Rhoda is feeling a tremendous amount of guilt for cursing Gertrude as she finds out how naive and caring Gertrude is.
“This innocent young thing should have her blessing and not her curse”.
“One night when I was sound asleep, dreaming I was away in some strange place, a pain suddenly shot into my arm there, and was so keen as to awaken me”. Rhoda starts to believe that the villagers were right in saying the she was a witch.
“0, can it be,' she said to herself, when her visitor had departed, 'that I exercise a malignant power over people against my own will?” Rhoda does not want to believe that she has caused the hideous disfiguration to her new friends arm. This shows that even though Rhoda disliked and envied Gertrude first of all, she would never want to bring harm to her. Rhoda is stunned and is deeply horrified that she is capable of doing such things, this is shown in the way that Hardy uses words such as “ghastly” and “startled”.
We can gather that the villagers think Rhoda is a witch when Gertrude comes to Rhoda to ask of the whereabouts of Conjurer Trendle as she has heard the villagers say that there is a connection between Rhoda and this wizard. “….it makes my husband -dislike me no, love me less.” This is where Gertrude starts to become obsessed with the disfigurement as she thinks her husband starts to dislike her, and this is the point where we start to sympathise with Gertrude more as her best friend is the cause of the curse and she came into the novel as a very young and innocent woman.
“The place on my arm seems worse, and troubles me!? the young farmer's wife went on…. I have again been thinking of what they said about Conjuror Trendle.” Rhoda is horrified to here of the idea as she fears that the Conjurer might reveal that Rhoda is the cause of the worsening arm. Rhoda takes Gertrude to the conjurer knowing that it could end their friendship but save her friends arm.
When the two friends journey to visit the conjurer we feel sorry for Gertrude as she has to endure an agonising five mile journey with an injured arm. Rhoda is so riddled with guilt that she cannot look at Gertrude. Rhoda assumes that the image in the glass bowl was of her and the two women have to walk home in silence.
After a few years Gertrude’s arm becomes worse and we feel even more sympathetic because Farmer Lodge rejects her and starts to think of Rhoda and her son, maybe regretting leaving them
“He thought of Rhoda Brook and her son; and feared this might be a judgement from heaven upon him”. As a result of Farmer Lodges loss of interest in Gertrude, Gertrude becomes increasingly obsessed with finding a cure for her withering arm. Gertrude’s personality changes as well as her physical looks
“Her closet was lined with bottles, packets, and ointments-pots of every description – nay, bunches of mystic herbs, charms, and books of necromancy, which in her schoolgirl time she would have ridiculed as folly”. This shows just how desperate she is to gain Farmer Lodge’s love as she is willing to try anything to cure her arm, even things she does not believe in. Gertrude is now so desperate that she will try anything even if another person has to die
“O, Lord, hang some guilty or innocent person soon”.
When Gertrude realises that the corpse is Rhoda and Farmer Lodge’s son she is shocked to the point where she can no longer take the stress “She never reached home alive”. This is the point where we feel most sympathy for Gertrude but the novel end with the death of every one that Rhoda had ever cared about; her son, Farmer Lodge and Gertrude. I think that Rhoda is the one that suffers the most because she has to live the rest of her life completely on her own and with the anger of her son dying, the guilt of cursing her only friend and the feeling of rejection from Farmer Lodge.
