A Comparison between the Withered Arm by Thomas Hardy and Odour of Chrysanthemums by DH Lawrence

Hayley McKenna

Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 in Higher Bockhampton in Rural Wessex; he died in 1928. David Herbert Lawrence was born in 1885 in Eastwood near Industrial Nottingham, he died in 1930. Both Hardy and Lawrence wrote Novels, Short Stories and Poems frequently about lonely individuals, especially women. Lawrence’s work illustrates what he was like as a person, deep-minded and genuine with extraordinary views to life. Hardy’s work is often about troubled relationships between men and women which is also what a lot of Lawrence’s work is based around.

Both writers fell in love during their lives, Hardy married Emma Lovinia Gifford who unfortunately died suddenly in 1912, although Hardy married again in 1914 to Florence Dugdale, Gifford was the love of his life and he had his heart buried in her grave when he died. Lawrence fell in love with a woman named Jessie Chambers, he did not marry her though probably because of the dominating influence that his mother had over him. He eventually did marry, his wife was a German lady named Frieda von Richthofen.

Another similarity is that both Hardy and Lawrence’s work was heavily criticised. Critics said that Hardy’s work was “pessimistic” with an “earthy realism” and “abstract philophizing”. This resulted in Hardy to concentrate on writing poems instead of novels. In Lawrence’s case, he was criticised for including a lot of graphic sex in his work and 1000 copies of one piece called “The Rainbow” was burnt in front of the magistrate. Soon after this he left England and became a wanderer for the rest of his life. Hardy came from a more stable background than Lawrence with his father being a stone mason and his parents caring for him, where as Lawrence’s Father had the stressful and dangerous job of working down the mines and he also drank heavily.

Thomas Hardy wrote “The Withered Arm” which is about a lonely woman named Rhoda Brook who has a disturbing dream about her intense jealously of her friend Gertrude Lodge, “the figure thrust forward its left hand mockingly, so as to make the wedding ring it wore glitter in Rhoda’s eyes”. In Rhoda’s dream, she “seized the confronting spectre by its obtrusive left arm, and whirled it backwards to the floor…” this results in Gertrude having a withered arm, which she refuses to tell her husband about. She tries all sorts of treatment to cure it and nothing works, so she goes to Conjuror Trendle who tells her to put the arms on the neck of a freshly hung person. When Gertrude enters the room to do this, Rhoda is in there with her husband Farmer Lodge, it was her unwanted son that was hung. Gertrude and Farmer Lodge both die also.

D.H. Lawrence wrote “Odour of Chrysanthemums” which is about a lonely woman named Elizabeth Bates. In this story Elisabeth feels trapped in her marriage as her husband, Walter Bates is always out either working down the mines or drinking whilst she is left looking after their two young children. One day when Walter does not return home, she presumes that he is drinking “They’ll bring him when he does come – like a log.” But in the back of her mind she is also worried about what will happen to her if he does not return or if he is dead, she worries about how will she get an income and look after the children, “Elizabeth’s thoughts were busy elsewhere. If he was killed – would she be able to manage on the little pension and what she could earn?” She is later told that Walter was smothered to death down the mine.

Immediately we can see that both writers have similarly revolved their stories around lonely women even though it was a male dominated society at the time. Both writers also try to switch the reader’s attentions between characters, this way the reader can sense how each character is feeling, which makes the stories more captivating. One of the main differences is that Hardy’s work is harder than Lawrence’s to relate to because he has included such a super natural creation, which, of course, is the withered arm itself.

Another similarity is that Lawrence and Hardy set their stories in very similar places to what they were brought up in that is to articulate that Hardy set “The Withered Arm” in Wessex and Lawrence set “Odour of Chrysanthemums” in an industrial area near Nottinghamshire, this could also be classed as a difference though because Lawrence’s work was set in an industrial area where as Hardy’s was a lot more rural.

Lawrence creates a sense of place by using very descriptive words; the afternoon light is "stagnant" and “…across the darkness of the lines. All was deserted: she could not ...

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Lawrence creates a sense of place by using very descriptive words; the afternoon light is "stagnant" and “…across the darkness of the lines. All was deserted: she could not hear the winding-engines”. Hardy mainly focuses on his description of places to portray loneliness. When describing where Rhoda and her boy live he sets a scene of a miserable, lonely landscape “a lonely spot” with a “dark countenance”. Lawrence also creates a sense of place by using a lot of local dialect “You needn’t ‘a’ brought me bread ‘n’ butter”, Hardy also uses local dialect to convey a sense of place “ ‘A was born before our Great Weir was builded, and I hadn’t man’s wages when I laved water there.”.

Lawrence creates an atmosphere in the kitchen when we can feel the Elizabeth’s tension and uneasiness in the kitchen when it seems to take on a life of its own, due to the fire. At first, "all the life of the room" seems in the hearth but the longer we wait for Walter Bates to return, the more daunting and neglected the Kitchen and the atmosphere within it becomes, "The room [was] dark red." and “...the fire red, the shadows fell on the walls, till the room was almost in total darkness.”. Hardy creates an atmosphere, also by the use of descriptive language, particularly when he is describing the journey to Casterbridge as well as to Conjuror Trendle, - it was a “solemn country” with a “dark atmosphere” where the “wind howled dismally”. The depressing picture that he forms here in the readers mind helps to emphasise the loneliness within the atmosphere.

In Lawrence’s “Odour of Chrysanthemums”, the main character is Elizabeth Bates, we know that she is an determined women who will not let her husband smother her, she has pride and dignity in herself and even thought she feels that she is unimportant “She stood insignificantly”, she would not let herself go into the public house to see if her husband was in there, as she felt that this would be lowering her standards to his level “She had never yet been to fetch him, and she would never go.”. We know Elizabeth cares deeply for the safety of her children “I thought you were down at that wet brook – and you remember what I told you.” . It is not until the last sentence of Part I that we realise that there is more than anger in her mind. She is afraid. Lawrence portrays the weariness that worrying brings to her by making her mind jump from one problem to another - how will she manage on the pension if he is dead? - will they get on better if he was wounded and kept away from the drink?

In Hardy’s “The Withered Arm”, he chooses to constantly switch your attention by not concentrating on one characters lonely portrayal, but on four, they are the four main characters, Rhoda Brook, Gertrude Lodge, the boy and Farmer Lodge. Rhoda Brook is the main character in the first three chapters, the reader instantly recognises how emotionally isolated she is. The others chat to one another but she does not join in, you see how she is different and lonely from the rest “He hadn’t spoke to Rhoda Brook for years”. We also see that she does not respond to others comments “She knew she had been silly called a witch”, this aids to the isolation that she is feeling. Physical loneliness is also develops “milked somewhat apart from the rest”, and through the description of where she lives “their course lay apart from that of the others”. We also realise that she is extremely jealously of Gertrude Lodge “the figure thrust forward it’s left hand mockingly, so as to make the wedding ring it wore glitter in Rhoda’s eyes”, the jealously is likely to be caused by Farmer Lodge whom Gertrude is married to, but he had a child with Rhoda.

I personally feel more sympathetic towards Rhoda Brook rather than Elizabeth Bates, mainly because of the way that Hardy has portrayed her, and controlled the reader’s emotions. Immediately we can see that Rhoda Brook is a lonely woman, but Hardy’s skill makes us want to know more about her and why she is lonely when the other milkers refer to her. The reader constantly wants to find out more about this mysterious character. Hardy changes things around in the second section, so the reader now sees the story from Rhoda’s perspective. Clues about Rhoda Brook’s relationship with farmer Lodge are suggested in an oblique way, so we only have partial knowledge. The way Hardy withholds information is part of his skill, it makes the reader wonder and want to know more about their relationship, making Rhoda a very intriguing character which the reader sympathises with increasingly throughout the story.

The relationship in “Odour of Chrysanthemums” between Elizabeth Bates and her husband, Walter Bates is not very satisfactory. The reader, along with Elizabeth herself, realises as the story goes on that there was in fact no love in the relationship and they did not ever really know each other. There was simply a mechanical love, for the sake of the children. Walters’s death allows her to finally see the true state of affairs: “There had been nothing between them, and yet they had come together, exchanging nakedness repeatedly…For as she looked at the dead man, her mind, cold and detached…I have been fighting a husband who did not exist.” Her realisation of her marriage causes her to feel differently about her children, who she describes as “like ice in her womb”. Elizabeth had to put up with the domestic work whilst her husband was enjoying himself in the pub and she particularly resented this, “She worked at her sewing with energy, listening to the children, and her anger wearied itself.” She is proud and dominant, determined to never to lower her standards to accommodate him “What a fool she had been to imagine that anything had happened to him! He was merely drinking over there at the ‘Prince of Wales’. She faltered. She had never yet been to fetch him, and she never would go.”

In “Odour of Chrysanthemums” There are definite contrasts between Elizabeth and her daughter, which results in a close relationship between the mother and daughter. This can simply be seen when the innocent child says “You’ve got a flower in your apron!’ said the child, in a litter rapture at this unusual event.” She shows genuine delight in the flower and its smell, which Elizabeth rejects; this is later explained because of the fact that chrysanthemums have been present at all the significant, times in her life. We see Annie's nature and love of beauty through her delight at the flowers and we are led to believe that Elizabeth was once as receptive to beauty as this little girl.

Not only is there the relationship of Elizabeth’s children and husband, but also her father who appears on the train. This appears an awkward relationship with little communication and warmth. The father tries to keep the conversation light, “’Have you got a cup of tea?’ he said in a cheery, hearty fashion” but she does not seem entirely friendly, because of his recent and, in her view, hasty marriage “I think it is soon enough”. This causes an uneasy situation. There is no evidence of the history between the father and daughter, but we get the impression that they do not have a very close relationship because of the way that Elizabeth rejected her father for his behaviour.

In “The Withered Arm” we assume that Rhoda Brook is the rejected lover of Farmer Lodge. We conclude this from the clues in the language used by Hardy as the boy says “Is father married then?” When Rhoda sends her son to spy on Farmer Lodge’s new wife, we begin to see how jealous and rejected she feels. This suggests that she still has feelings for Farmer Lodge, particularly when she wants to know everything about his new wife, Gertrude Lodge “If she’s dark or fair, and if she’s tall – as tall as I. And if she seems like a woman who has ever worked for a living, or one that has always been well off, and has never done anything, and shows marks of the lady on her, as I expect she do.”

Clues about Rhoda Brook’s relationship with farmer Lodge are suggested in an oblique way, so we only have a partial knowledge. In section 6 Hardy abruptly shifts the narrative perspective away from Rhoda Brook to Gertrude Lodge. We are now obliged to share in Gertrude’s feelings of rejection and lack of love form her husband because of her deformity; this shows that their relationship is not very smooth either. As Hardy continues the narrative from Gertrude's perspective, we see how she is determined not to give up her fight to win back her husband’s love, so that they may be happy again.

At the beginning of “The Withered Arm” we know of a boy who is Rhoda and Farmer Lodge’s son, but Hardy chooses to never name the boy to show how insignificant he is to both of his parents, neither, particularly the father tries to form a relationship with the boy. When Rhoda asked the boy “What did he [Farmer Lodge] say or do?...Took no notice of you?” The boy replied “None”

As it can be seen, neither Gertrude Lodge nor Elizabeth Bates had close relationships with their husbands, both felt lonely, afraid and trapped. Neither had any close friends or family to talk to either which both writers chose to do to portray the women’s loneliness even more. One of the main differences was that Annie in “Odour of Chrysanthemums”, was a lot closer to her mother than the boy in “The Withered Arm” was to his mother.

The plot develops a lot quicker in “The Withered Arm” than in “Odour of Chrysanthemums”, with a quick pace and not as much description. Hardy chooses to constantly switch your attention in “The Withered Arm” probably to portray all of characters loneliness as well as permitting the reader to see the situation from each characters perspective. Hardy also changes the perspective of the narrative in the middle of the story where as Lawrence mainly keeps the perspective of the narrative with Rhoda Brook, therefore enabling him to give detailed descriptions, and making the reader really think about Rhoda’s situation and how she is feeling.

Both stories outcomes are sad because people die. In “The Withered Arm”, the boy is hanged, and both Gertrude and Farmer Lodge die leaving Rhoda by herself. Farmer Lodge suffered at the end by way of punishment, for ignoring his son, stopping loving his wife and not helping his ex. He loses everything and dies alone, leaving his property “to a reformatory for boys” to show that he did have thoughts and feelings towards what happened to his son. In “Odour of Chrysanthemums”, Walter Bates dies leaving Elizabeth with two young children and little money to live on. Elizabeth is also left to deal with the fact that she was never in love with her husband and that they never really knew each other, she also realises that she is, powerless to control her own life "Life is her immediate master." And her future? She winces "from death, her ultimate master."

I feel that both writers could have been inspired to write these two particular stories by events from their lives, since both set the stories in very similar areas to which they were brought up in. Lawrence made alcohol a large part of his story with Walter Bates always drinking, this could be due to the fact that his own father drunk heavily. The whole theme of Chrysanthemums could be entirely fictional, but it could also be significant to him personally, therefore resulting in him wanting to produce this story based around them, maybe to get his thoughts onto paper, or to make it personal to someone in his life. Lawrence could have written “Odour of Chrysanthemums” out of anger, maybe at his father’s drinking, or at his mother for making him leave the woman he was in love with, I feel this because he set the story during autumn which was the season that he despised of and he the way that he portrayed the Chrysanthemums made me feel that they provided him with unwanted memories. Hardy’s story was probably not as personal as Lawrence’s may have been because he had such a super natural element to it, but it still could be personal to him since he wrote it not long after the love of his life passed away. The way that so many people around Rhoda die all so close to one another leaving her totally alone could be how he felt when Gifford died.

I do not think that either Hardy nor Lawrence were a product of the time in which they lived, because they were both highly criticised which shows that many people at the time did not like their writing. The main problem here was probably that they both lived in a male-dominating society, but had women as the main characters in their stories. Few people were able to accept this because it was not was expected of them. They both did the contradictory thing of what was expected and ended up paying the consequences when their work was so intensely criticised.

I personally preferred Thomas Hardy’s “The Withered Arm”, because it had a much quicker and exciting pace compared to D.H. Lawrence’s “Odour of Chrysanthemums”. The ending of “Odour of Chrysanthemums” was quite expected but in “The Withered Arm” , Hardy skilfully changed the narrative of the perspective from Rhoda to Gertrude halfway through the story, so that we had almost forgot about Rhoda Brook and her son, because we were busy identifying with Gertrude and her lonely plight. The surprise as the end is totally unpredictable and unanticipated, leaving the reader with the story still in mind for hours after reading it. Personally I did not really find the story line in “Odour of Chrysanthemums” very gripping because it was quite predictable, although I did find that Lawrence handled his characters, particularly Elizabeth Bates, very well albeit I preferred the way that Hardy kept switching the readers attention between the four main characters which really gave me an overview of what each character was feeling. I thought that Lawrence probably created the best sense of place by the use of such descriptive language but the pace was very slow, losing the readers attention quite rapidly.

I feel that Hardy’s strengths was his ability to create gripping plots and his skilful technique to withhold information from the reader, leaving them wanting to know more about the characters situations, relationships, past and present feelings. An example of this is near the end of the story when the reader does not know whether Gertrude knows the truth or not because of Hardy’s narrative technique which forces the reader into Rhoda Brook’s shoes and limits the reader to only the same information that Rhoda has. Hardy focuses the reader’s attention in order to control the responses which I found remarkable. Hardy’s main weakness was that it was hard for the reader to relate to his characters as they did not seem real obviously because of the super natural element to his story. But I found this to be one of Lawrence’s strengths as his characters a lot more realistic as he used such descriptive language which makes the reader able to picture the setting and the characters distinctively. I thought that Lawrence’s weakness was that the plot was not very gripping, especially when compared to Hardy, and the story started to drag out because of the slow pace.