We also notice that as women, Rhoda, Gertrude and Sophy do not possess any real power to make decisions and are not left to manage their own lives:
‘The Withered Arm’,
“ Yes, mother, said the boy. “Is father married then?”
“Yes… you can give her a look, and tell me what she is like, if you do see her.”
Here Rhoda asks her son, how Farmer Lodge’s new wife looks like. She is undoubtedly jealous of her, but Rhoda seems to know and follow the non written laws of society and does not do anything to fight against the unfairness carried out against her due to her social position.
Asking her son to look at Gertrude and express his own comments back to her, we can understand that she personally does not feel equal to Gertrude even though she is a woman as well. The only thought that Gertrude would notice her and might know about the affair between she and Farmer Lodge, deeply embarrasses her.
The Son’s Veto
“ Ah, you don’t know! Sam, if I could I would marry you, someday. But you must wait a while, and let me think.”
Sophy uses the words ‘let me think’ to take time and to make Sam believe that she can decide for her self. But it is a lye. Even though she says this, she is conscious that it is up to her son Randolph to let her or not marry Sam.
Neither Rhoda nor Sophy, can marry the one they love due to, as I wrote before, the of the community at large, and in particular the men who control their lives. Hardy tells the tales as objectively as possible, yet it is presumable that the author is sympathetic towards the victims of these short stories, as he as well was of modest origins.
We can assume that Sophy (in “The Son’s Veto”) accepts Mr. Twycott’s wedding proposal mainly for economical security , in fact marrying him would have, almost certainly, led Sophy to a wealthy life.
The Son’s Veto
“Sophy did not exactly love him, but she had a respect for him that almost amounted to veneration. Even if she would have wished to get away from him she hardly dared refuse a personage so reverend and august in her eyes, and she assented forthwith to be his wife”.
It seems that she does not really love her husband but shows only respect towards him. Even after marrying him he remains her owner not her partner.
Mr. Twycott himself considers women to be of a class inferior to men. Thinking of Sophy, he refers to her as “a kitten-like, flexuous, tender creature” creature, not a woman.
The phrase: “Mr. Twycott knew perfectly well that he had committed suicide by this step...”shows us that Mr. Twycott, marrying Sophy, is disgracing himself in the eyes of his social peers. After all, he was a vicar, an honoured and respected man of the community, yet Sophy was a parlour made, a servant.
We understand in this story, that people (or at least women) who were in the working class, in those days were better off marrying someone whom maybe they did not love, but held a good, respectful and honoured name within the community.
In “The Son’s Veto” we have a clear example of how the personal image of an individual can be more important than anything else, even the love and respect of the son towards the mother. Randolph’s attitude towards his mother is, in my opinion, disgraceful.
He despises her cultural ignorance and when she asks him whether she can marry Sam he violently objects to the proposal and even starts crying at the thought that his mother could have had the preposterous idea of marrying such a low class individual.
Randolph “ I am ashamed of you! It will ruin me! A miserable boor! A Churl! A Clown! It will degrade me in the eyes of all the gentlemen of England”
Priests should be helpful and understanding however in this case Randolph appears as an egoist, egocentric and uncaring person.
There is another episode that demonstrates the prejudices between the social classes in The Withered Arm where Rhoda Brook and her son are extremely surprised by the friendly visit of Gertrude. Being Gertrude the wife of Farmer Lodge , a very honoured and important man, it was extremely unusual that rich people would even consider the working class. And yet, Gertrude, the wife of the most important and powerful man of the area paid a visit to a poor milkmaid and her son showing that not everyone was under that mentality, that some people used to also follow their heart.
‘The Withered Arm’ and ‘The Son’s Veto’ show clearly the world that surrounded Thomas Hardy, a world he so despised based on social prejudice and hypocrisy. In writing these stories, I feel that he wanted to record for future generations the faults of the past and by doing so hoped that he could better his own present society.
Marco Eman