Hardy’s focus on female characters becomes apparent quite early on in most of his stories. He tends to begin a story by introducing the setting and then goes on to describe the female character, in great detail. He uses many different ways to express this throughout the dialogue. Hardy uses dialogue to develop the relationship of the characters, convey the characters personalities and carry the plot forward, using a third person narrative style as he does so. For example, the opening scene of The Withered Arm is set in a dairy where “a troop of milkers” talk about Farmer Lodge’s new marriage. These characters are only used to set the scene and then introduce Rhoda. They are unimportant to the story as Hardy felt it was more important to name one of the cows than to mention the names of the milkers. He then goes on to extensively describe Rhoda’s appearance, “The radiance lit her pale cheek, and made her dark eyes, that had once been handsome, seem handsome anew”. Also, he uses a conversation between Rhoda and her son, where Rhoda wishes to know what Gertrude looks like and Rhoda’s son describes her. He says, “her hair is lightish, and her face as comely as a live doll’s”. From these descriptions it allows us to construct a mental picture of both Gertrude and Rhoda.
Whereas, when we are introduced to the lead male character Farmer Lodge, there is a minimal amount of descriptive material said at the beginning of the story as part of a dialogue between the milkers. “How old do you call him, then, Thirty or so”. This puts a great distance between the reader and the character. As does Hardy referring to the lead male character as Farmer Lodge, while both the female characters of perhaps equal importance to the story are known by their Christian names. This makes the reader feel they have maybe a more personal relationship with the two female characters.
In contrast, the more light-hearted, comical affair Tony Kytes: the Arch Deceiver story, off all six characters the character we get to know best of all is Tony. Through his conversation with the girls, he reveals himself as being an indecisive, weak but well meaning character. He finds it difficult to refuse any of the women a lift, and seems beguiled by the beauty of each of them when the others were out of sight as when he says to Unity "I never knowed you was so pretty before!" The female characters are not very diverse, and they are described very superficially as stereotypes of manipulative females while as when Unity says "and-can you say I'm not pretty, Tony? Now look at me!"
Both pieces of writing use language that is highly appropriate for its purpose. In the Tony Kytes story the conversations paint vivid picture of the scene as when Hannah refuses to marry Tony ' "I have spirit and I do refuse him" and then "What you wont have me Hannah?" says Tony, his jaw hanging open like a dead man's.' The writer pokes gentle fun at the girls: "and away walks Unity Sallet, though she looked back when she'd gone some way to see if he was following her." The final sentence in the story is a good example of the gentle irony that runs through the piece: regarding the wedding between Tony and Milly, "everybody in Long Puddle was there almost" the obvious exceptions were Unity and Hannah!
Another feature of Hardy’s writing is the use of words that are not in common usage in the English language today, including local dialect. An example of this is when Gertrude offers money to Conjourer Trendle, “He would not take a farthing”, a notable feature of the short passage is the use of the use of the word farthing, being part of the currency abolished back in the 1970’s, this is a word which you would not expect to be used in current times. Also, he also uses words that were not being used even then. This could relate back to Hardy preferring the past style of life which he would have experienced in his younger years.
Both The Withered Arm and Tony Kytes: the Arch Deceiver show how young women can be misled by somewhat more experienced men. This is shown by their innocence and tendency to follow the male initiatives, to the extent that the young ladies in the Tony Kytes story are even willing to suspend common sense and ludicrously conceal themselves beneath tarpaulin. The differences between the two pieces of text lie inherently in the way they end, in that the consequences of the devotion of the Gertrude to her husband in The Withered Arm are devastating, whilst the girls in the Tony Kytes story merely suffer some injury to their dignity.
The way Hardy chose to portray female characters in Tony Kytes: the Arch Deciver also gives us a good indication of how they felt about women and their role in society. Hardy uses quite a humorous way to show the misfortunes of his female characters. It’s like he is putting them down through the use of irony and comedy at their situation. The fact that Tony lives ‘happily ever after’ despite the fact he is unfaithful to not one, but three women, might anger some people, because in my opinion he didn’t deserve it. The Withered Arm on the other hand, uses very serious tomes in the story. The male lead in the story does not live ‘happily ever after’, as he ultimately causes the story to end in tragedy. This is could be due to his lack of responsibility. He does not even communicate with his own son and does not feel the need to tell Gertrude that he is his son. Through playing the part of an onlooker, he essentially causes his son to lead a life of crime, later ending in his death. This has negative effects on himself, Gertrude and Rhoda, also ending in Gertrude’s death, “Her delicate vitality collapsed under the double shock that followed the severe strain, physical and mental”.
Of course the other way in which the role of women is portrayed through these stories is through the way the female characters react to the situations they find themselves in. Unity and Hannah’s attitudes towards Tony are that he is a very eligible bachelor, despite his engagement to Milly. In fact when all three women find out about the fact that he is interested in all three of them, it is only Hannah’s ‘hurt pride’ and Unity’s temper that make them turn down Tony’s offers of marriage. In fact, it is almost as if they only blame each other, not Tony for the situation. The text even comments that Hannah walks away from Tony ‘thinking and hoping he would ask her [to marry him] again’, which shows the shallowness of the emotions shown by the women, and the pressure on them to marry.
Many of Hardy’s heroines develop to become stronger, less weak individuals. This is true to Gertrude in particular. When she is first introduced she is seems like pleasant young lady, and plays the typical role of a rich man’s wife. This becomes apparent when Rhoda’s son describes her as “A lady complete”. However, as the story progresses and the problems with her arm arise she is forced to take control over her life. “The once blithe hearted and enlightened Gertrude was changing into an irritable, superstitious woman”. This also makes the reader feel sympathy for her as she feels her husbands love towards her is changed by her ailment. “She was honestly attached to her husband, and was ever secretly hoping against hope to win back at least some of her personal beauty”, this makes Gertrude seem more credible as we can pity her. Also making her desires to seem more realistic as someone like Farmer Lodge would be expected to marry someone of the same class as himself, and not someone like Rhoda as during this time period it would be seen as ‘committing social suicide’.
These sudden changes in characteristics could be due to the context of the short story, unlike novels where the plot can unfold slowly and characters develop gradually a short story needs to make its effect briefly and swiftly. There is no room for side tracks, nor remarks which do not carry the action forward.
The Son’s Veto also contains a similar class related issue where Sophy is restricted by her own son, Randolph, to marry the gardener Sam due to class issues. Sophy is made to feel isolated and it is a situation that Hardy sympathizes with. Hardy may also have views about rejection. These settings are isolated like some of the characters. “Her lameness became more confirmed as the time went on, and she seldom or never left the house”, here we can tell that Sophy may have become very depressed and slipped into a reclusive state. Although Sam does realize this and tries to move into a higher class, he’s is never really accepted, “I am ashamed of you! It will ruin me! It will degrade me in the eyes of all the gentlemen in England!” , this tells us that Sam will never accept Sam to play a fatherly role in his life.
Sophy’s wheelchair could be seen as a symbolic feature. She is restricted to the wheelchair and it mirrors her class situation. It shows that she can never leave her class, and it will also be there to stop her doing what she may want to do, such as marrying Sam. Also, the wheels on the chair could represent the monotony of her life, as they have no other purpose than to go around in a circle, eventually becoming broken and unusable, this could be comparable to Sophy’s life where she supposedly dies from a ‘broken heart’.
Overall, the female characters do play a more important part than the male characters, which often makes the male characters slip into a spectator or onlooker role. However, I believe that such characters are essential to the story, as both male and female characters are used to convey Hardy’s feelings about certain issues, especially loneliness and isolation.
These stories are very good indicators of the change in the role of women between the times the stories were written and current day. You only have to look at difference between what happens to the unfaithful male characters to see this. Tony marries ‘a nice, light, small tender thing’, and Farmer Lodge is left to live his life alone again. The women in all of Hardy’s short stories appear at first to be from different worlds with nothing in common. However they are, in fact, united by their femaleness; by the vulnerability that they share simply by being women, trying to have a relationship with a man.
