The next day the two women meet each other for the first time as Gertrude brings the ‘son’ some boots. This is where you see that she is not the stereotyped wife in view of her position as she is modest and considerate. The two women become friends and Rhoda is so overwhelmed by the sweetness of the young woman that she wishes she could give the ‘innocent young thing….her blessing and not her curse’ This is when Gertrude reveals her arm which has mysterious marks on it. Gertrude ‘named the night and the hour of Rhoda’s spectral encounter.’ This makes the nightmare become more frightening as we learn that Rhoda did conjure up an incubus, but the two rivals have become friends.’ At this point the tension mounts and the idea of the malignant powers worries us further. This tension is maintained because the arm does not better and we wonder about the outcome of all this. Rhoda feels guilty. It was Rhoda’s obsession that is responsible for Gertrude’s affliction, which leads to paralysis as well as the loss of both her looks and her husbands love.
The developing relationship between the two women has elements of the macabre. Rhoda often asks to see the wound, and seems fascinated by the clear indication of the marks of four fingers which are increasingly visible. Gertrude relies on Rhoda for a sympathetic understanding of the growing estrangement between herself and her husband, who ‘knows the disfigurement is there’. The choice of the word ‘disfigurement’ reveals his attitude to appearances.
As the arm is getting worst and she has visited a doctor who cannot help her, she becomes increasing desperate for a cure as her husband is starting to love her less. She turns to Rhoda to take her to see Trendle; much to her dismay. Rhoda fears for the loss of a good friendship. Trendle is a witch doctor and has powers other people don’t, in the story many people believe in him, except Gertrude who says: ‘o, how could my people be so superstitious.’ She soon changes her mind and goes with Rhoda to visit him this is where it is revealed that Gertrude has an enemy: ‘medicine can’t cure it. Tis the work of an enemy.’ Tendle then reveals the face of her ‘attacker’ to her. Gertrude reacts calmly when she finds out who it is as she says she does not ‘care to speak of it.’ When she is talking to Rhoda and does not tell her what she saw. After this Rhoda and her son disappeared quietly.
Over the next six years, Gertrude’s arm continues to wither, and the fact that she had brought no children to her husband made her worry even more that Mr. Lodge would reject her.
Mr. Lodge has superficial love for Gertrude which was based on her beauty: ‘the woman whom he had wooed for her beauty.’ But as her arm is getting worst we see that he starts to disregard her. She starts to age beyond her years: ‘she was now five-and-twenty; but she seemed older’. She becomes desperate for a cure and tries all sorts of remedies. This makes us feel sympathetic towards her. As a last resort she visits Tremble and tries to take advantage of his ‘white magic’, this leads to fatal results and her superstition, combined with desperation, must be held accountable for this. He tells her she must ‘touch with the limb the neck of a man who’s been hanged.’ As time passed she considers this and wished: ‘o lord, hang some guilty or innocent person soon!’ This shows how desperate she was becoming. Gertrude’s meeting with the hangman reveals her obsession: she has in fact prayed each evening for some ‘guilty or innocent’ person to be hanged Rhoda and the hangman having a discussion in which she says: ‘o- a reprieve- I hope not!’ Here she is saying even if the person is innocent she hopes he will not be let off.
Through out the story it is full of irony- you have farmer Lodge marrying to have a son, even though he has one which he does not recognise. Hardy chose not to give the illegitimate son a name; this may be because Lodge failed to recognise him, even though he wishes for a son: ‘I once thought of adopting a boy!’ Gertrude befriends the boy but unknowingly wishes for his death, in which when she finds out the identity of the hanged man she dies from shock.
The denouement of the finial gruesome meeting between the two women brings all interaction to an end. The scene is highly dramatic and needs few words. This is where we learn that it is Rhoda’s son that has been hanged and due to this Gertrude’s ‘blood had been turned indeed- too far’.
In conclusion the withered arm is an effective story of the supernatural from the point of view from the reader. When it was written as people heavily believed in the supernatural and witch craft, this is another reason the story is effective. It differs from today’s horror stories as it is not full of blood and guts.
