Comparing Rhoda Brook-"The Withered Arm" and Mary Maloney-"Lamb to the slaughter".

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Comparing Rhoda Brook-“The Withered Arm” and Mary Maloney-“Lamb to the slaughter”

Rhoda Brook and Mary Maloney are the central characters of two very differently ‘styled’ short stories. Thomas Hardy used Rhoda Brook to convey a short story which represented the rural aspect of Hardy’s world to a 19th century audience. Whereas, Roald Dahl has used the character of Mary Maloney to entertain in a humorous manner the audience of his day.

Rhoda – Rhoda Brook is a character of a low class who lives within an old-fashioned rural idyll. Rhoda is a ‘shamed’ milkmaid; she has an ‘illegitimate’ son given to her by her employer. Rhoda Brook is looked down upon by her peers as she is considered ‘unclean’ as she has had a son out of wedlock which is considered shameful in Hardy’s day and is also considered a sin in the eyes of the church. Rhoda is represented as a character in tune with nature and she even represents the supernatural, which is a key theme in the short story. Hardy’s story highlights the life of Rhoda as she falls to the act of revenge and then the tragic events of circumstance, and eventually the loss of the one thing she loved, her son.

Mary – Mary Maloney is a character of a higher class as her husband’s a policeman

Similarities – Both women have been slighted and rejected by men, they both have a fairly subservient social role, they both gain some sort of revenge for the rejection and they both make some sort of attempt to cover up their guilt. They both make use (or think about making use) of their children (born and unborn), they both show characteristics of obsession at different times.

Differences – Mary seems to feel far less guilt than Rhoda (what is the reason for this?), Mary is far more active, while Rhoda is passive and just lets things happen to her. Mary often responds to negative events with denial, Rhoda tends towards self-blame and superstition.

Genre - Comic

             Supernatural

Endings – Tragic for Rhoda, Mary Maloney in contrast seems to win, perhaps an expected consequence when given the characters class and status.

Conclusion – Rhoda is generally rejected and apart from the rest of society, whereas Mary is accepted (see the way the police treat her).

Lamb to the Slaughter was set in the early 1950's. The position of women in society by now was that they had the right to vote but they were still expected to get married and then to look after their husbands the best they could. Mary Maloney waits for her husband who's a policeman to come home from work. When he comes home from work one day he tells her some very bad news that suggests that he is breaking up with her for another woman. This is made worse by the fact that she is carrying his baby. She reacts by pretending that nothing has happened so she goes and makes him supper. She hits him over the head with a frozen leg of lamb because she realises that he is really going away from her because he says he was going out. Then she thinks up her alibi in order to tell the police when they arrive. Her plan is to go down the local green grocer and buy something for dessert and pretend as if nothing had happened. The plan went perfectly and she even managed to get rid of the evidence by persuading the police men to eat the leg of lamb.

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At the beginning of the story Mary Maloney was the typical 1950's house wife in the way in which she looked after the house and her husband. The room was described as being, "warm and clean, the curtains drawn, the two table lamps alight." She would spend her time sewing when she had time from cleaning and making him food.

The relationship between the police man and his wife is not very good in terms of equality, because she spends all of her time sitting around and waiting for him to come home from work. All she does is ...

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