“In the Withered Arm, “Gertrude tells the hangman that she wants to touch the body to cure her arm.
He promises to help her if she pays him some money.
The next day, Gertrude waits at the small gate in prison wall. She is called into the prison and goes to where the body will be. She wears a veil so her face cannot be seen. She hears footsteps behind her and body is put on a table
The hangman takes her arm and puts it on the body of the hanged man”.
Both Lamb to Slaughter and Withered Arm, are concerned domestic problems.
This is because all the stories kind of talk about divorce, where by Patrick Maloney wants to leave Mary with an unborn child in Lamb to the Slaughter and Farm Lodge had already left Rhoda with an 11-year-old son and he brought in Gertrude to be his wife.
Lamb to the Slaughter and The Withered Arm are all narrative.
Both deaths were like punishments, “for example in the Withered Arm”, Rhoda Brook’s son was charged of starting a fire and was hanged and this to me looked like a punishment in Lamb to the Slaughter, Patrick Maloney was also killed by his wife due to his deeds and this means he was supposed to pay for what he had done.
Lamb to the Slaughter has few characters and it introduces them at the beginning unlike the Withered Arm, which has many characters and they evolve over long period of time.
Lamb to the Slaughter develops quickly to capture the reader’s interest.
Both Lamb to the Slaughter and Withered Arm are macabre, and contain love and relationships, revenge and justice.
In the Withered Arm the reason for the murder is given unlike in Lamb to the Slaughter we are uncertain why Mary commits the murder in other words the Withered Arm is more detailed than Lamb to the Slaughter.
I prefer the Withered Arm, because, Thomas Hardy uses 19-century short plot and characterisation develops quickly but the story evolves at a slower pace and over a long period. E.g. “ the story began in a diary farm where some people were milking cows.
They are talking about their master, Farmer Lodge and his new wife. They have not seen her as yet and they are interested in what she looks like.
We find one of the women at the farm
