An Insight into literary - Thomas Hardy - Tony kytes, Arch Deceiver and The Withered Arm

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An Insight into literaryCookie: ASP, Thomas Hardy -  ‘Tony kytes, Arch Deceiver’ and ‘The Withered Arm’

At the beginning of the 19th Century, Thomas Hardy, now seen as a master of literature, wrote a series of short stories designed to appeal to the general audience at the time, giving accounts about country life in the community of ‘Wessex’ (Hampshire, Dorset and Devon). These stories can be viewed today with a quiet distaste, if not because of Hardy’s style, which although fairly lightweight, is eminently readable, but rather the content of the pieces. The country environment which, almost two hundred years ago, formed the scene where Hardy wrote these pieces, was not quite so enlightened as many women would like to believe today’s society is, and Hardy discusses the expectations and beliefs of the close-knit community without a hint of the necessary political correctness needed today. Women in the 1820’s were not considered equals, and Hardy goes quite some way to explaining many grievances that women around the turn of the century fought against. It was, it seems from Hardy’s pieces, more than just the difference in voting rights that separated men and women. Hardy, in Tony Kytes, Arch Deceiver shows that many women’s pride is based upon their looks, hence Hannah refusing to marry Tony Kytes because he has caused her to be scratched by brambles, and the total acceptance of Gertrude Lodge that her husband no longer loves her because of the withered arm. In fact, she almost views it as her fault, and tries anything possible to have it corrected.

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Hardy’s use of the women’s personality in the stories, tends to be mainly to examine their different methods of pursuing men with, in both cases, fairly colourful pasts, Kytes described as “quite the woman’s favourite”, while farmer Lodge is the father of Rhoda Brookes child. Not only does Hardy show the various women pitting themselves against each other, competing for the affections of the men, indeed, the competition leads to the eventual downfall of all taking part in both stories. In all cases, the women’s personality is portrayed in the most parts to help the reader of the piece to ...

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