Adam Hancox 10C
“Compare and contrast the ways in which Dickens and Hardy use superstitious beliefs and supernatural elements to present and develop their main characters in their social settings and local environments”
Both of the short stories revolve around the supernatural and superstitious. Dickens and Hardy use these themes to help perceive and advance our understanding of the main characters and stimulate interest in the locations. They also these techniques to bring out the social settings and the local environments, portraying them in such a way that the reader feels as though they knows the places. They are also used to add to the setting and to help personify emotions and feelings of certain characters.
The characters of the story help influence the supernatural feel of each. In "The Signalman" there are two main characters, the narrator and the signalman. We know very little about the narrator as we are told little about him or his background, just his thoughts and feelings at the time, although this does create an air of mystery and suspense around him. The signalman is very supernatural in himself. Adjectives such as “dark” are repeated and also the narrator’s thoughts project the supernatural to the reader “there was something remarkable in his manner of doing so, though I could not have said for my life what”.
In "The Withered Arm" there are once again two main characters but there are many minor characters. Rhoda Brook is introduced to us as “A lorn milkmaid” and “a thin fading woman of thirty” from these you can gather her general appearance as a frail ageing woman. She is also isolated “somewhat apart from the rest” but unlike the signalman who is forcefully isolated she chooses to be. There is also Gertrude Lodge the farmer’s wife. She is much the opposite of Rhoda, in appearance at least. The gossiping milkmaids describe her as “rosy-cheeked titsy-totsy little body” in the first paragraph, as a rumour. But when her son in law sees her she is described as having a face “as comely as a dolls”. Over the years though Gertrude changes considerably into an “irritable, superstitious woman, whose whole time was given to experimenting upon her ailment with every quack remedy she came across” Rhoda and Gertrude’s relationship changes considerably through the play. At the start Rhoda feels great jealousy towards the woman who is her ‘replacement’ for Farmer Lodge. In her dream she sees her as a figure with “features shockingly distorted and wrinkled as by age” But then, the day after Rhoda is hampered by guilt and cannot help feeling overwhelmed by the kindness of Gertrude bringing her son new boots. She wishes she could give the “innocent young thing…her blessing and not her curse”. Slowly the two women appear to fade apart and the climax of this is that Gertrude uses Rhoda’s son to try and cure her ailment. Rhoda sees this and knocks her unconscious her feelings being shown by “This is the meaning of what Satan showed me in the vision! You are like her at last.” The talk of ‘Satan’ adds to the supernatural and hellish feel and conveys the emotion and deep hatred Rhoda is feeling towards Gertrude.
