The main characters in the short story are Gertrude, Rhoda, Farmer Lodge and The Boy. Hardy cleverly employs these characters because their circumstances exist today, making the plot stimulating to read.
Rhoda is a ‘thin fading woman of thirty’ exploited by her lover, Farmer lodge. Thos cause Rhoda to live ‘apart from the others to a spot high above the water-meads.’ People choosing to live in isolation, especially women were often believed to be witches. Subsequently, Hardy uses fire to describe her, ‘…blowing at the red-hot ashes with her breath till the turves flamed. The radiance lit her pale cheeks and made her dark eyes…’ The fact that he uses the word ‘dark’, prepossess our thought of Rhoda being a witch. The reason why Rhoda is a little jealous of Gertrude is because Gertrude is the wife of her lover and Gertrude is everything that Rhoda is not. Rhoda is described as a ‘dark’, ‘thin fading’ woman, whereas Gertrude is ‘a lady complete.’
Gertrude is a young lady with ‘lightish’ hair ‘and her face as comely as a doll’s.’ Gertrude is a victim because her life is interwoven with the lies and secrets of Rhoda and Farmer Lodge. Hardy gives us the impression that Gertrude does not have anything but her beauty. As soon as her beauty fades away due to her ‘blasted’ arm, ‘the once blithe-hearted and enlightened Gertrude’ changes ‘into an irritable superstitious woman, whose time was given to experimenting upon ailments with every quack remedy she came across.’
Farmer Lodge is a wealthy man of ‘thirty or so’ and is the key figure in ‘The Withered Arm’. It is due to his actions that The boy feels neglected, Rhoda seeks revenge and is jealous of Gertrude and Gertrude feels ugly and insecure about herself; all of these characters are victims of his actions. Lodge is portrayed as a selfish man who does not like to deal with his problems, instead he runs away from them. Also, at the end of the story, Framer Lodge gives up the farms and goes to ‘Port-Bredy’ at the other end of the country.
The Boy is a victim. He is a constant reminder of the past of his parents and symbolises the pain punishment and retribution for other people. Again, he is a victim when he is hanged because he did not commit the crime. It is almost as if The Boy is carrying this baggage full of everyone’s problems, and it is too much for him.
Conjuror Trendle is a catalyst in the story. He is engaging to the reader, as people like him no longer prevail in society today. Although we do have wise, old people in our society that we go seek advice to, our modern society shares little belief in witchcraft and supernatural activity.
Hardy has made the setting of ‘The Withered Arm’ very significant to the reader as we can learn important pieces of the plot from it. He makes us comprehend the characters and the moods that they are in through pathetic fallacy; the description of the weather. For example, when Rhoda and Gertrude make their journey to Egdon Heath, ‘thick clouds made the atmosphere dark, though it was as yet only early afternoon; the wind howled dismally over the slopes of Egdon Heath.’ This description of the weather gives us a sense of how the characters are feeling; dreary, gloomy and dull. ‘Their course lay apart from that of the other, to a lonely spot high above the water-meads, and not far from the border of Egdon Heath, whose dark countenance was visible in the distance as they drew nigh to their home.’ In his description of the location of Rhoda’s home he uses words such as ‘dark and ‘apart’, illustrating her character as a dark and isolated woman.
Hardy uses the extended metaphor, ‘life is a burdened journey from the cradle to the grave. This portrays the lives of the characters passing from the innocence of Holmestolke Farm, through Egdon Heath, where the wise old man lives, right to the nemesis of Casterbridge, the place of punishment and retribution. I think that significance of Egdon Heath being set in the story is because this is the place where the witchcraft and supernatural things are introduced. Casterbridge is the nemesis of all the characters because Farmer Lodge’s wife dies without bringing him a son, and The Boy; Rhoda’s purpose in life is hanged for a crime that he did not commit.
Hardy has a formal style of writing. He employs a lot of archaic vocabulary. I think that this comes in the way of the reader fully interpreting the story but in my opinion it is good that he has used archaic vocabulary because we can appreciate how language has changed during the course of time. Hardy’s use of language is also a little antiqued and rooted back to early Victorian Dorset, which can be difficult to understand, but I think that that the antiqued language co-operates well with the dialogue, setting the scene. A perfect example is the gossiping conversation of the milkmaids. Verbose, detailed and descriptive sentences are typical of Hardy; ‘…and the long white riband of gravel that stretched before them was empty.’
One of the many positive aspects of Hardy’s literature is that he uses a range of techniques to narrate his stories. He uses pathetic fallacy to incorporate the mood of the characters, imagery, the use of fire to describe Rhoda and symbolism, the rope to incline the hanging that Gertrude is making her way to and to show us that she feels that her life is interwoven.
Hardy’s skilful narrative techniques are important for the plot and this make the story interesting to read as he does not give us information thorough just dialogue, but through other interesting and clever techniques. Hardy’s literature is fascinating to read, however, he constantly makes authorial comments such as the sentence of King Lea, I think that this just distract the reader, interrupt it a little and prevent the story from just flowing on.
The reason why ‘The Withered Arm’ is relative to a modern reader is because Hardy has chosen various themes that will hold relevance in any society of any generation. Hardy, like many other writers, uses his characters and circumstances to express his feelings and opinions.
The principle theme in ‘The Withered Arm’ is that you past can never be buried, as it will always rise to haunt you. He demonstrated this philosophy when the death of his wife, was the result of his affair with Rhoda and the knowledge that he had a son. When Gertrude finds out that her whole marriage has been a lie, she collapses and dies shortly after.
Hardy is a pessimist and often takes the gloomy view of things. He is a strong believer that people’s lives are intertwined, they are fated and their circumstances conspire them. Gertrude feels that her life is interwoven when she sees the rope on her way to Casterbridge. She feels a ‘curious creeping feeling’ and believes that the ‘wretch’s destiny was becoming interwoven with her own. Her life is fated as soon as she marries Farmer Lodge because she becomes a victim of Farmer Lodge and Rhoda’s past. The boy, like Gertrude has a fated life, from the moment he was born. He is fated to carry a baggage full of problems that belong to his parents and it is as if the bag gets too heavy for him and he can no longer carry it. He was destined to be punished for everyone else’ mistakes; he was hanging was a penalty for a crime that he did not commit.
The themes that are discussed in ‘The Withered Arm’ are realistic, but more importantly relative to people from any generations. We see themes in our everyday lives; in soaps, movies or maybe even in the life of a close friend or relative. Underlying in the themes are Hardy’s philosophies and thought about situations.
Despite the fact that ‘The Withered Arm’ is a outstanding tale, there are a few problem in Hardy’s literature that may stop the reader from fully appreciating the aspect of the story. Hardy’s style is very skilled and brings out the best in his stories, yet his language maybe a little hard to understand for a modern reader. I do not find the character in ‘The Withered Arm’ a problem at all because although some of those characters no longer exist, Rhoda, Conjuror Trendle, Hangman, it is still interesting to read about their daily lives and how things were for them; after all good literature should be giving the reader and insight on how things were. Even though the reader may not always agree to the philosophies hidden in his themes, it is captivating to imagine how a Victorian writer can relate to such things. I think that ‘The Withered Arm’ is a fantastic example of pre-twentieth century literature because not only is it interesting, but it gives us an insight on the different lives of the different characters and yet is still interesting to the modern reader.
