The story doesn’t actually have a main plot. There are two main plots which are the dream and the scene at the end where Rhoda and Farmer Lodge are arguing and Rhoda throws Gertrude by the arm. This is the crucial moment which causes Gertrude to die. The main plot seems to following a path and ending up with a good and logical conclusion For example near the beginning of the story when Rhoda has a dream and hurts Gertrude’s arm in the dream, this then happens for real at the end of the story when Rhoda kills Gertrude by grabbing her arm and throwing her against her husband’s feet. This shows a logical progression from beginning to end.
Thomas Hardy keeps the story simple, first by just having four main characters. At different parts of the story, the characters seem to be very different. In the beginning of the story, Rhoda Brook was extremely jealous of Gertrude because she is married to her son’s father, Farmer Lodge. She is also jealous because she’s lonely and no-one really spoke to her when her son died. She tells her son to spy on her and go look at Gertrude. Her son would come home and his mother would interrogate him asking many questions about Gertrude’s looks and everything. Rhoda was obsessed with Gertrude. The way she looked, walked, eyes, hair, etc. Things then change when Rhoda has the dream about giving Gertrude the withered arm. Rhoda leaves the story and isn’t mentioned much after that. Gertrude is then focused on and ends up as the main character. Rhoda was the main character for the first three chapters and then leaves her own village. On the last chapter, Rhoda appears and when she swung Gertrude by the arm and killed her, Rhoda became the main character. In a way, we feel sorry for Gertrude since she didn’t do anything wrong.
Rhoda seems to be a very jealous and lonely character who wants her ex-lover to pay attention to her and her son. She is jealous of Gertrude, especially in the dream “the figure thrust forward, its left hand mockingly, so as to make the wedding ring it wore glow in Rhoda’s eyes.” She looks up at other people and is unhappy she is alone. Thomas Hardy put a lot of things that make Rhoda mad and jealous about Farmer Lodge and Gertrude’s marriage. This shows and creates a concentrated sense of the characters interaction. The kind of interaction between Rhoda to Gertrude is jealousy. The kind of interaction between the two women and Farmer Lodge is love. Rhoda still has feelings for her ex-lover.
Rhoda’s loneliness and emotional feelings only aid to her son. Hardy hasn’t really given her son a name. He is described as ‘Rhoda’s son’ or ‘poor boy.’ This could make readers feel even sadder for him. Thomas Hardy has made the readers feel very sorry for the son. He hasn’t done anything wrong and he isn’t mentioned much. He feels extremely lonely mainly because his mother treats him like a slave for example when she makes him spy at Gertrude. As soon as the boy came back, she would ask ‘Is she ladylike?’ ‘Is she young?’ Rhoda would ask her son about Gertrude and not about how her own son did well in school or anything. The boy was so depressed and just answered ‘yes mother’ or ‘no mother.’ He is also feeling lonely because his father has abandoned him and never talks to him. He takes no notice of him at all. He probably doesn’t know what he looks like or if he even exists. When Gertrude saw Rhoda’s son popping out the window, she asked Farmer Lodge where he lived. ‘He is one of the villages, I suppose? His father would then reply ‘One of the neighbourhoods. I think he lives with his mother a mile or two off.’ This tells us that the father of the son didn’t know ANYTHING about his son, as if he abandoned Rhoda without knowing she was pregnant. His mother and father have rejected him. This makes the son sad and lonely and also rejected. His father and mother don’t realize how frustrated the boy is inside. The novel ends with the death of the boy. As the author portrays the boy’s innocence, there was no-one to stand up for him. The boy dies a lonely death.
Another important character in the story is Gertrude. She conveys loneliness. Her arrival to Holmstoke in the beginning of the story seems to be normal. Her relationship with her husband is going well, she looks nice and beautiful like Rhoda’s son says and she is with someone. Farmer Lodge is extremely proud of his wife ‘my pretty Gertrude.’ When she has the withered arm, the whole life turns around. Her husband has not much interest in her anymore which infects their marriage ‘Mr and Mrs Lodge’s married experience sank into prosiness, and worse.’
Since she has the withered arm, her husband loses interest of her because he only wanted her because of her looks and that having no child makes him feel guilty. After the three chapters, Rhoda and her son leave the story and Gertrude becomes the main character. She never finds a cure to her arm and dies lonely. This character, like the boy, dies emotionally alone, as her husband stands with her ex husband.
The last character is Farmer Lodge. He only becomes lonely in the last chapter where his wife dies and he has no-one. Hardy makes the character suffer at the end by a way of punishment mainly for ignoring his son, stopped loving his wife and not helping his ex wife. Like Gertrude, he seems very proud at the beginning. His relationship with his wife then starts to go down. Farmer Lodge loses everything at the end and dies alone about 3 or 4 years later. ‘He took steps towards giving up the farms in Holmstoke.’ He leaves the reader to discover he has left his property to a reformatory for boys. This then shows that he must have had thoughts and feelings for his son when he died. He went from life in luxury to death in Port-Bredy. ‘He went away to Port-Bredy, at the other end of the country, living there in solitary lodgings till his death two years later of a painless decline.’
Hardys choice of words also makes a big impact on the atmosphere that the story creates. It he doesn’t describe the scenes well, readers don’t get interested. They need to imagine themselves as the characters. He uses adjectives and alliteration a lot. Good examples of adjectives are when he described Gertrude as ‘Soft and evanescent, like the light under a heap of rose petals, etc.’ A good example of alliteration is when he says fiend and friend. His language is very dense. The words ‘fiend’ and ‘friend’ are completely opposite. He uses ‘fiend’ because it is like friend but with nor ‘r’ which is pretty clever.
Hardy uses contrast a lot. Rhoda and Gertrude seem to be very different characters. Rhoda is described as a witch and an old maid, poor unlike Gertrude is described as young, beautiful and this creates a sense of intense characterisation because the characters are totally opposite. Why does Gertrude have everything and Rhoda has nothing? Rhoda has a son to support but the father of the child is with a more beautiful woman. This causes jealousy for Rhoda. Farmer Lodge is a character who likes his work and is very rich and wants a beautiful wife and that’s why he left Rhoda and went to Gertrude. Rhoda or her son doesn’t speak to Farmer Lodge much, nor is he mentioned enough in the story. Rhoda’s s son has not much connection with any of the characters. He is very lonely and dies half way through the story. We feel sorry for Gertrude and Rhoda’s son. They did nothing wrong.
