“We recognised the quick step…of Mrs Hanson’s shoes”
The word “recognised” reveals that the women already know of her vindictive ways and ruthless regime. Perhaps the writer is suggesting that the women have experienced such all-consuming fear in her presence, prior to this moment, and have been given reasons to dread her ominous approach from previous experiences.
Mrs Hanson’s cruel character is reinforced further in the reader’s mind, soon after her brusque entrance to the Oakum Room, when she instructs the female workers to:
“Put down your work.”
This short, blunt order vividly depicts her ability to instantly command the attention of the women without a single argument. It shows how much she has become used to the blind obedience of her employees, subsequently expecting total conformity to every command she throws at them. Along with the humiliation of each of her submissive workers, and the shadow of fear she casts over her employees, we quickly begin to realise the extent of the power she takes great pleasure in enforcing throughout the workhouse.
Another way in which Tomlinson creates such a strong feeling of compassion towards the female worker’s of the Oakum Room, is the small details and word choice she uses, to reveal to the reader how each of the women in the workhouse have been stripped of their individuality, in return for a shell of their original being. This is first shown by the large shapeless smocks with which they are issued on entrance. This ‘one size fits all’ attitude to their uniform metaphorically demonstrates Mrs Hanson’s lack of consideration to the fact that every woman that enters through the ‘archway of tears’ (the name given to the grand entrance of the workhouses) will need a different level of care and attention to the one next to her. Maybe the writer is trying to suggest that Mrs Hanson finds it easier to execute her sadistic violence, if she merely sees a crowd of nameless, faceless employees before her, rather than the vulnerable collection of human beings that they really are.
During the story, Tomlinson creates in us an intense feeling of disgust towards Mr. Jarrotson by her skilful choice of words and the stark contrast between his shameful, undignified behaviour and the women’s desperate - yet effective - attempt to escape his filthy clutches. We see this when the narrator says of Jarrotson:
“His cheeks [were] flushed with enjoyment at the task”
The way Susan describes his actions here, implies that he has no shame in the demeaning way in which he regards the women, treating them as if they are animals, lined up for him to inspect and make his selection, rejecting and humiliating the remainder without a backwards glance. The same degrading behaviour is displayed when Mrs Hanson lists the defect of the women, like they will not be hurt by her sadistic comments. It emphasizes the superiority that the workhouse’s “charitable benefactors” feel over the worker’s themselves, revealing the irony that shrouds the entire story: how can the “benefactors” be labelled “charitable” when all they do is make the women’s lives even more hellish? This deepens our sense of sympathy towards every woman that has passed through a workhouse, and shows the reader the extent of the harsh conditions they must have survived.
Another method in which Tomlinson intensifies our feeling of empathy, and creates an understanding between the women and the reader, is the confinement enforced by their “benefactors”, suppressing their entire lives. When Mrs. Hanson’s assistant, Jeevers, comes for Polly bearing a strait-jacket, we are shown a literal restriction imposed upon her as a punishment for her attack on Jarrotson. However, this constraint conveys a metaphorical lack of freedom to think, speak or act as a human being should, by the people who are meant to be looking after them. The “stark, tiled corridor” through which they “shuffled” back to the Oakum Room at the close of the story, is also extremely important, used to illustrate their dark, restricted lives, with no hope or light at the end.
Although Tomlinson uses many techniques to reflect back on the cruelty in Victorian workhouses, it is the enlightening message of the human spirit, and its ability to shine through the darkness, even in the most dreadful times in a person’s life. This message is clearly depicted when Susan says of Polly and herself:
“I can’t think how we’d have managed if we hadn’t had each other.”
By writing this, we are shown by Tomlinson, how even their horrific situation, or the dictatorship to which they grudgingly conform to, can suppress the sheer strength of the love which they feel for one another. This story conveys to us the importance of how goodness can always overpower evil, even in the worst of times when no-one can see that there is any goodness left.
