Compare and Contrast 'The Withered Arm' by Thomas Hardy, And "The Call" by Robert Westall As Ghost Stories.

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Compare and Contrast

‘The Withered Arm’ by Thomas Hardy,

 And “The Call” by Robert Westall

 As Ghost Stories

‘The Withered Arm’, and ‘The Call’, are both ghost stories. ‘The Withered Arm’ was written in the 1800’s, but was set in 1819. ‘The Call’, by Robert Westall, is a much more modern story. The atmosphere in ‘The Withered Arm’ is also older than ‘The Call’, due to the social and historical background.

Women’s roles in 'The Withered Arm' were somewhat poor. They had husbands because it was good at the time for men to be seen with a woman at their arm. Often, the men did not love their partners, as they would frequently drop their current one for a newer model. At the time of the ‘Wessex Tales’, and 'The Withered Arm', people believed in ghosts and witchcraft, as there was no science to explain why things happened, that meant they relied on ghosts and the supernatural as a method of explaining things. At the time of 'The Call', less people believed in the supernatural, as they had science to explain things.

This means, Hardy, of ‘The Withered arm’, would have found it much easier to convince his audience of the ghost, as more people believed in the supernatural. Westall, of ‘The Call’ would not have found it very easy of the ghost in his story, as at the time it was written, there were very few people who believed in the supernatural and witchcraft.                                                                              

        ‘The Withered Arm’ is about a rich upper class woman, who is cursed by her new husband’s ex-lover. Rhoda (the ex-lover) did not know she had power to curse someone, until she had an apparition in a dream where Gertrude (the rich upper class woman), appears, and Rhoda grabs her by the arm. The next morning, Gertrude has a bruise on her arm, and over the next few days, the arm starts to wither. She then seeks help from a conjurer, who tells her that it is Rhoda who has cursed her. Conjurer Trendle, knows that Rhoda is a witch as other people, it appears, have gone to him before, after being overlooked by her. She only now realises her power, however. The conjurer tells Gertrude that the only way in which she can get rid of her ‘withered arm’ is to touch it onto a new corps. Or, in other words, touch her arm onto someone who has just been executed, by hanging. The fateful corps, turns out to be that of Rhodas’ son.

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        Meg and Geoff, in ‘The Call’, are Samaritans, who are working their shift on a Christmas Eve. Meg gets a call from a woman who says that her husband is going to kill her by pushing her into a canal. She says a lot of things, which all point to the fact (or so Geoff thinks) is a hoaxer. However, Meg does not believe that she is a hoaxer, and becomes entranced by her. Meg then leaves the office, and (being entranced) travels to where the caller is. Meg is then lead to her death across the canal by the ...

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