“ She had bought him no child,”
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Without a child Lodge’s reign over the valley could not continue. Throughout the story he feels guilty for mistreating the only possible heir to the business, Rhoda’s son.
For this Lodge “ feared that this might be a judgement from heaven upon him” because Lodge had finally run out of options. This demonstrates the way that most Victorian marriages disintegrated, most were loveless marriages because men felt that they had free choice on pretty women and their behaviour towards them.
Gertrude soon decides to take drastic action to rid herself of her imperfection, she decides to try Conjuror Trendle’s theory of touching a hanged man’s neck. When the story was written, superstition of witchcraft and devilry was rife. Hardy himself knew of men like Trendle and knew others that were frequent visitors. Instead of telling Lodge her plans, Gertrude deceived him, fearing his anger,
“ Smouldering village beliefs made him angry”
Gertrude didn’t want to upset her husband or give him any more reason not to love her. Even though in the past Lodge had said that her deformity looked like a witch had cursed her. To get to the jail to see the hanging Gertrude needed her husband’s help to “ Obtain admission” because in Victorian time it was very much a man’s world
It would have been easier to get admitted to the jail had it been the 1820s when then it was a common thing to do. But the tradition had started to die out by the 1830s. After trying to get admitted by herself, Gertrude accepted defeat and approached her husband but “ He was so uncommunicative, so much more than usually cold,” that she decided that whatever her decision she must do it alone.
On the day that she left to see the hanging, Gertrude deceived her husband once more. He was out on business. She was secretive and lied to the servants about where she was going,
“ Her cunning course at first was in precisely the opposite direction. As soon as she was out of sight, however, she turned to the left, by a road which led into Egdon.”
No women were meant to be as cunning as Gertrude was in the Victorian era, she was “pretty and palpitating “ Hardy criticises Lodge in the story for not protecting her like men were supposed to in those times.
Although Gertrude deceived Lodge, Lodge also deceived Gertrude, when he said that he was away on business, he was not, he was with Rhoda Brook, watching his son hang. Lodge felt hugely responsible for his son’s death, which is why I think that he turned up, to support Rhoda. In the past Lodge treated her like his accessory and then disowned her. As time past Lodge played a spectator watching Rhoda become embittered being a poverty-stricken single mum. Lodge once felt so guilty about abandoning his son that he once thought about adoption.
“ I once thought of adopting a boy but he is too old now”
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Lodge handled the situation very badly and struggled to contend with the guilt on his conscience that he now had to bear.
Soon after realising that the body Gertrude went to “visit” was Rhoda Brook’s son, Gertrude died of shock. Lodge felt even guiltier now for neglecting his wife, Lodge felt that had he tried to love her and be more understanding things might have been different. After everything that had happened Lodge was at first “burdened with moodiness and remorse” then he changed for the better “ and appeared as a chastened and thoughtful man.”
Lodge never reappeared in “Casterbridge” except once when he visited an “Anglebury” market. Lodge gave up the farms and moved away to “Port-Breedy” at the opposite end of the country “Living there in solitary lodgings”. Two years after Lodge’s move he died of a “painless decline” In his will he gave “a small annuity to Rhoda Brook” and “bequeathed the whole of his not inconsiderable property to a reformatory for boys.” Farmer Lodge died with a guilt that he was never rid of.
A similar short story by Hardy that we have studied is “ The Son’s Veto”. This story like “The Withered Arm” compares the relationships between men and women in Victorian times. Although the stories are alike the structures are very different. “The Son’s Veto” at the beginning shows flashbacks of one of the main characters life before she was married. It also tells of her life in the present time. However “The Withered Arm” is chronologically ordered.
Both “The Withered Arm” and “The Son’s Veto” concentrate on the relationships between men and women, the way that they acted and behaved during the Victorian era. “The Withered Arm” has two main female characters; Gertrude Lodge and Rhoda Brook who each share a very different relationship with the other main character Farmer Lodge. On the other hand “The Son’s Veto” has four main characters, Sam, Vicar Twycott his wife Sophy and their son Randolph.
“The Son’s Veto” bases its theme around the fact that Sophy is uneducated, but her son is and, because of this, there is a growing divide that separates them. Likewise in “The Withered Arm“ there is a son that has been brought up in poverty by Rhoda Brook. The theme in “The Withered Arm” is the way that Farmer Lodge treats his wife, his ex-lover and his son.
In both “The Withered Arm” and “The Son’s Veto” there is a marriage. In “ The Withered Arm” the marriage is between Gertrude and Farmer Lodge, there is a large age gap between them. This is just like Sophy and Vicar Twycott in “ The Son’s Veto”.
Social class in both of the stories influences the relationships of the characters. In “ The Withered Arm” Rhoda Brook was a working class woman that was
taken advantage of by Lodge, a middle class proprietor. This happened often in the Victorian period. In “ The Son’s Veto” an uneducated working class woman, Sophy,
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married a widowed Vicar Twycott. They had a son and, because of the Vicar’s status in the world, the son had a chance to be educated, this created a social void between mother and son.
“ Wherein she, with her bad grammar and her ignorance, would be an encumbrance to him.”
Randolph (the son) was always embarrassed and ashamed of his mother so consequently, as he got older, the divide between them widened.
This is similar to what happened to the relationship between Gertrude and Farmer Lodge in “ The Withered Arm”. Due to Gertrude’s disfigurement and Lodge’s attitude to the “ perfect” woman, a distance always separated them.
Throughout Hardy’s short stories he uses several different structural techniques. At the beginning of the second part in “ The Son’s Veto” Hardy uses the third person,
“ The next time we get a glimpse of her”
Here Thomas Hardy either invites the audience to be part of the story or, invites himself to be a part of the audience.
During the second part of “ The Son’s Veto” more comparisons can be made between Sophy and Gertrude. In “ The Withered Arm” Gertrude could be described as being young, fragile and naïve. Sophy in “ The Son’s Veto” is described as being “ a child in nature” the words that are used suggest that even though she is an adult she can be very much considered to have some aspects of a child, like vulnerability. Before Twycott’s death he was anxious of this and left Sophy with “ no control over anything that had been her husband’s” This shows the dominance and control that in the Victorian times men had over women. Sophy was expected to wait for her son to grow old while she watched the world pass by.
At the end of section two an old flame relights itself between Sam and Sophy. Before Sophy married, Sam told her of his feelings towards her. Sam makes his feelings clear once more and wants Sophy to marry him as he did before Twycott came on the scene.
“ I knew you lived along here somewhere. I have often looked out for ‘ee.”
He had never stopped noticing Sophy or acknowledging her, this is similar to Lodge noticing his son’s presence in “ The Withered Arm” even if Lodge never treated his son well it didn’t mean he didn’t feel anything for him.
Section three of “ The Son’s Veto” shows Sophy and her son trying to carry on with their lives. Sophy isn’t a lady by birth she is a lady through marriage,., She feels that she doesn’t belong to either the middle class because she is uneducated, nor the working class because she doesn’t have to work and doesn’t live in poverty like she used to. Sophy feels sad and lonely where she is.
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“ Her sorrow was that she could not accompany her one old friend on foot a little way.”
Sam and Sophy used to be good friends but social class separated them for years and she now has the opportunity to catch up on all those years they missed because she was married. When the chance arose for Sophy to go to Covent Garden with Sam it
was the first time she had been truly happy in a long time, Sophy was so happy that “She trembled with excitement,”
This is compared to Rhoda and her son being neglected by Lodge in “ The Withered Arm” because of their social class being lower than his, Lodge didn’t want to marry Rhoda or be in any way directly associated with her.
Sophy talks to Sam on their way to Covent Garden freely, she opens up and tells Sam that, “ ‘I have a son… I almost fancy when I am miserable sometimes that he is not really mine, but one I hold in trust for my late husband.’ ” By this point in the story Sophy realises that the rift between her and her son has grown larger. This is because Randolph is so educated Sophy doesn’t “ feel dignified enough to be his mother”. Throughout Randolph’s life as he had grown up Randolph had controlled his mother and put her down because she would never be the mother that all his peers had, an educated one.
Sam also thinks that because she is a lady that she could do as she pleased, but Victorian attitudes towards women and classes stated differently. Not only that but Sophy is insecure and scared of embarrassing her son.
In contrast to this, Gertrude in “ The Withered Arm” did exactly what she pleased and deceived her husband to do so. Although these are different situations it was still not the right thing for Gertrude or anyone to do in the Victorian era.
Hardy presents the class difference between people once more at the cricket event at Lord’s that Sophy and Randolph attended. Children at working class schools to weren’t there, it was for public school children and their mothers and fathers. Their children played “ while on the coaches sat the proud fathers and mothers; but never a poor mother like her.” Sophy felt quite excluded from the event even though she had a right to be there. It was here that Sophy was going to approach the subject of marrying Sam before she lost her confidence.
During “ The Withered Arm” class difference didn’t feature so heavily, it was there to see at certain times when the different qualities of life were being described but there was another theme too, the way in which women were treated.
In “ The Son’s Veto” when Sophy finally broaches the subject of marriage Randolph behaves like a spoilt child.
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“ 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 in England!’ “
Randolph puts his feeling first and not his mother’s happiness and Sophy is too gentle to fight with his selfish nature. Randolph insults Sam, and Sophy pleaded with her son for a further five years asking for him to give her his blessing, still the answer being no.
This is similar to Lodge’s attitude in “ The Withered Arm” Lodge doesn’t put his son’s interests and well being first, he puts his happiness first, He is selfish and, up until the day that his son died, he didn’t feel guilty at all.
Randolph in “The Son’s Veto” treats his mother’s pleas to marry Sam with indignation and anger,
“ He showed a more manly anger now, but would not agree.”
Randolph was so angry with his mother that he didn’t trust her not to marry and made her swear an oath to God that she wouldn’t wed without “his consent”. Although Randolph was a man of the church by making Sophy swear to this he showed her and the audience that he didn’t understand true Christian love,
“ His education had by this time, sufficiently ousted his humanity,”
Randolph had almost completed his education and still looked upon his mother the same way he did when he was growing up. It was Randolph’s selfish pride that stopped him allowing his mother the one thing that would make her happy.
However in “ The Withered Arm” pride wasn’t the issue it was rather a middle class man’s misinterpretation of the Victorian attitudes to women and the mistake that he made of not taking care of his son, one which he came to regret.
Right at the end of “ The Son’s Veto” Sophy died. She died sad and alone. During the tableau in the last paragraph, Sam is in the doorway of his shop mourning the woman that he loved and Randolph “ a young smooth-shaven in a high waistcoat looked black as a cloud at the shop-keeper standing there.” The words “high waistcoat” suggest that he felt superior looking at Sam. In this context smooth-shaven suggests a very sinister, cruel and a selfish man even though he is a priest.
As with “ The Son’s Veto”, in “ The Withered Arm” a woman also dies, Gertrude was too sad and in her heart alone when she met her death after too many shocks to her system. But whereas Farmer Lodge was overwhelmed with guilt, regrets and remorse, Randolph displayed no visible signs of this.
A different short story by Thomas Hardy that we have studied is “ Tony Kytes, The Arch Deceiver”. The story is a humorous tale of a man called Tony Kytes who cannot decide whom, out of three women; Unity Sallet, Milly Richards and Hannah Jolliver, he wants to marry. He took on board his wagon one woman at a time until he had them all hiding from one another. That is until they discovered each other, then Tony Kytes had to decide, without hurting any of them.
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“ Tony Kytes, The Arch Deceiver” is quite the opposite structurally as well as thematically of “ The Withered Arm” and “ The Son’s Veto”. “ Tony Kytes, The Arch Deceiver” is a comic tale told in the first person by the main character, Tony Kytes. Whereas “ The Withered Arm” and “ The Son’s Veto” aren’t humorous and are based on the way that Victorian people treated each other and the way that everyone looked on life. “ The Withered Arm” and “ The Son’s Veto” are in third person, opposite to “ Tony Kytes, The Arch Deceiver”.
“ Tony Kytes, The Arch Deceiver” also varies a lot in style, compared to “ The Withered Arm” and “ The Son’s Veto”. “ Tony Kytes and the Arch Deceiver” is
more colloquial and chatty. There are also lots of direct expressions like “ nunny-
wretch”, whereas the other stories use the typical nineteenth century complex sentences or a group of phrases together like “ A miserable boor! A Churl! A Clown!” This is used in “ The Son’s Veto”. Although there are some differences concerning the style, there are also some similarities. In “ Tony Kytes, The Arch Deceiver” there is a detailed description of Tony Kytes at the beginning. Part of this includes “ Twas a little, round, firm tight face.” This is similar to the beginning of “ The Son’s Veto” where Hardy included an intricate description of the back of Sophy’s head,
“The long locks, braided and twisted and coiled like the rushes of a basket,”
There is a comparison between “ The Son’s Veto” and “Tony Kytes, The Arch Deceiver” but not between them and “The Withered Arm”, In “The Withered Arm” there is no long-winded description of the main characters.
The one main contrast between the stories is that “ Tony Kytes, The Arch Deceiver” is humorous. Tony Kytes is comic, slapstick whereas the other two were serious. Although the circumstances are funny the idea behind it isn’t, it is still one man having to choose how to treat the women in his life.
In “ Tony Kytes, The Arch Deceiver” there is one man (Tony Kytes) and three women (Unity Sallet, Milly Richards and Hannah Jolliver) one of whom that Tony Kytes is engaged to. In “The Withered Arm” there one man and two women, Farmer Lodge, Gertrude and Rhoda Brook, Lodge’s wife and his ex-lover. In “ The Son’s Veto” there is one woman and three men, Sophy, her husband Vicar Twycott, their son Randolph and Sam a man from Sophy’s past. In the character set up aspect “ Tony Kytes, The Arch Deceiver” and “ The Withered Arm” are similar and “The Son’s Veto” is a reversal of the situation, it is different, but the characters still behave in a similar way.
During “Tony Kytes, The Arch Deceiver” Tony, the main male character behaves very irresponsibly towards the women, he tells each woman that he loves her and wants to marry her, and the woman that he is engaged to hears this,
“ At this there was a real squeak – an angry, spiteful squeak, and afterward a long moan, as if something had broke its heart,”
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Tony hurt all of those women because he couldn’t make a decision.
This is like “The Withered Arm”, Farmer Lodge hurt everyone around him because he was very irresponsible and treated his wife appallingly and his son and previous lover no better. “The Son’s Veto” is different because nobody behaved callously. However all three stories show men in a bad light.
“Tony Kytes, The Arch Deceiver” contrasts with “ The Withered Arm” and “ The Son’s Veto” because social class isn’t a focus for the story whereas in the other two it is a main theme.
At the end of “ Tony Kytes, The Arch Deceiver” there is a dissimilarity. In “ The Withered Arm” and “ The Son’s Veto” a female main character dies. In “ Tony Kytes, The Arch Deceiver” nobody dies, Tony Kytes just had to pick a wife. After the
wagon’s “accident” in the brambles all the women know exactly what has happened. This is one of the amusing parts because they all reject him except for is original fiancé.
“ ‘ I have spirit, and I do refuse him!’ says Hannah ‘ Take her leavings? Not I’ says Unity ‘ and what must be must be, I suppose. Hey Milly?’ If you like Tony’ “
Milly accepted the proposal even though she was asked last. The question is will the marriage last?
There are no questions asked at the end of the other stories it is just women in the men’s lives dying sad and alone. All of these stories that we have studied all show how women were treated in the Victorian era and all of the stories, no matter how each are portrayed, answer this.
I think that Hardy wants the audience to empathise with the female characters because of how they are treated. I also believe that the women in “ The Withered Arm” and “The Son’s Veto” especially were seen too much to be victims of naivety and vulnerability. However I think that it is impossible to pass a judgement on the women from “ Tony Kytes, The Arch Deceiver” because their persona was never properly learnt by the audience. The men in all of the stories passed as being uncaring to the women, whereas Tony Kytes in “ Tony Kytes, The Arch Deceiver” didn’t mean to be. In the other two stories I think the males mean to treat the women with disrespect because, generally, in the Victorian period, men did not know any better.