The Son's Veto.

THE SON’S VETO

Thomas Hardy was a novelist and a great poet. He was born into the working class until he married into the upper class, forgetting about his past because of the embarrassment it caused him. He was born in 1840 and died in 1928.

Sophy is an upper class woman with a lower class background who is used to working class expectations and ‘not up to the standard of the upper class’. Sophy had worked as a maid in the house of the reverend as a young girl and after his first wife died had stayed to look after the reverend. After an accident which left her partially lame, the reverend asked her to marry him. Her life would have been happier if she had married Sam instead. She would not have been caught between society’s boundaries.

An example of his embarrassment about his background is shown when he is alleged to have destroyed evidence of his past when working on his autobiography about him. He was reluctant for his upper class acquaintances to know about his poor past. Another example is the fact that he did not invite his family to his wedding. He was embarrassed about them and did not consider them good enough to mix with his new family. This is reflected in ‘The Son’s Veto when Mr Twycott ensured that the wedding was held in secret because it would destroy Mr Twycott’s reputation. In those days people from the two classes could never mix.

Another example is that Sophy and Rev Twycott gave up their home in Gaymead and went to live in a small ‘dusty house’ in London. ‘They were however away from everyone who had known her former position’. This is an example of Rev Twycott wanting to get away from observation and gossip. They were prepared to give up everything to avoid gossip and hide the shame of her poorer background. He knew that he had committed ‘social suicide’ in marrying Sophy.

After Rev Twycott’s death, Sophy spent two long lonely years until she met Sam Hobinson. When she ...

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After Rev Twycott’s death, Sophy spent two long lonely years until she met Sam Hobinson. When she joined Sam for a ride, she took drastic measures not to be seen ‘wrapping herself up in cloak and veil’, ‘not a soul was visible’. They met in secret as social expectations would not allow them to meet. Sophy asked her son Randolf if she could have a life with Sam, his reply was that he hoped his stepfather would be a gentleman. This ruled out any hope for Sophy as Sam clearly was from the working class.

Hardy depicts Sophy as a victim of society throughout the short story. The Victorian society is portrayed as rigid, judgemental and prejudiced against the working classes. However, Sophy’s character is shown as having certain weaknesses that can be said to have contributed to her tragic end.

Sophy is shown as a weak character with low self esteem. She also lacks the confidence to reprimand her own son when he rudely corrects her grammar ‘Sophy hastily adopted the correction’. The word ‘hastily’ shows how she readily pleased her son due to her low self esteem. ‘He seems to belong so little to me … I do not feel dignified enough to be his mother’. This implies how little confidence in herself Sophy feels. Also I think that if Sophy had a higher self esteem she would have invited her family to the wedding and not allowed Rev Twycott to marry her in secret.

Hardy also portrays Sophy as indecisive yet a person who can make rash decisions. This is shown when Sophy couldn’t bring herself to tell her son Randolph about her relationship with Sam, even when she had promised she would. The idea of his upper class mother marrying a lower class person would degrade him. When Sam asked her to marry him she replied ‘wait a while and let me think’. She was worried about her son’s reaction to the news.

Sophy is also shown as a person to be pitied. She is stuck in the upper class world and cannot cope with its expectations. She wishes to return to her working class roots ‘oh how gladly, even to work in the fields’ but her relationship with her dominant son would not allow this as shown by him forcing her to kneel before a cross and swear that she would never see Sam again. He denied her the chance to have a happy life even though he was grown up and leading his own life.

In Victorian times, society was judgemental and gossipy. The Vicar Mr Twycott knew he had committed social suicide when he married Sophy. Society would not accept a woman from the working class being married to an upper class man and so to avoid these problems they moved away. Sophy herself would not meet Sam in public, knowing that this would not be acceptable.

Sophy was a victim of society’s beliefs and rules. Also her new family did not help her in overcoming the problems. Rev Twycott knew that she could have difficulties in adjusting to her new position and had safeguarded her future after her death leaving her with little to do. Unfortunately by this time her son had grown old enough to realise the differences between his mother’s past and his father and she became – in her son’s eyes ‘a mother whose mistakes and origin it was his painful as a gentleman to blush for’. When Sophy died, she was buried in her home town and not with her husband in London. This shows that even at his mothers death he is still judgemental towards her.

Hardy’s comments on education were also portrayed when Sam asked Sophy where her son went to school. Sophy replied ‘oh no, not one of these wretched holes – at a public school one of the most distinguished in England’. Somewhere for the upper class people not a poor lower class school. This reveals that Sophy believes that an ordinary school can not give her son the education he deserved. However the education he received from the public school helped shape his views leading him to look down on his mother and other lower class people. He prevented her relationship with Sam, thus denying her any happiness and so contributed to her downfall.

The Son’s Veto is written in the third person. Hardy however, intrudes on the narration with his personal comments such as his comments on Sophy’s hairstyle and the amount of time and work she spent on it. She had done it all herself, poor thing. She had no maid and it was the only accomplishment she could boast of. Hardy evokes the readers sympathy for Sophy by giving her a hard life who never gets what she wants because of the restrictions of society.

Sophy had a number of weaknesses but I believe that the restrictions of society played a great part in her downfall. If she had married a working class person she would have had a far happier life. Generally, it is far easier today for the two social classes to mix, people are more tolerant about other people’s origins.

Alex Stavri 10W