Then we have the second relationship of Rhoda, which is between Rhoda and Gertrude. Rhoda first heard about Gertrude Farmer Lodges new wife through her fellow “milkers” who were gossiping at work. When Rhoda heard this she was shocked. So for her selfish reasons she sends her son several times to go and “give her a look”. She was mainly interested in Gertrude’s looks; she was always trying to make herself look better than her, for example she sends The Boy to find out how tall Gertrude is Rhoda asks the boy “is she tall” The Boy replies “she is not tall” “aah, said the mother with satisfaction”. This shows us that Rhoda is jealous of Gertrude and becomes happy when she finds out that her taller than Gertrude.
Rhoda is jealous of Gertrude because she has taken Farmer Lodge away from her and because the boy gets to know and begins to like Gertrude, “Ah, she said she would come: exclaimed the boy, also observing her”. Rhoda’s reply to that was “I told you, said the mother flushing indignantly, never to talk to anyone in that household” this shows us that Rhoda is jealous of Gertrude.
After hating Gertrude for so long she becomes very good friends with Gertrude we know this because when Gertrude comes to visit Rhoda, Rhoda intends on hiding away but instead she stays and talks to her and is glad that she did not hide “she was truly glad that she had not hidden away in sheer aversion”. When we get deeper into the story Gertrude has an arm injury and takes Rhoda with her to get it seen, the only man known to cure such injuries is conjuror Trendle. When they get to the house of the conjuror Rhoda is told to stay outside whilst Gertrude goes in on her own. Gertrude then comes out after about ten minutes and for some odd reason her attitude towards Rhoda has changed she begins to ask her whose idea it was to go to implying that it was Rhoda’s idea “was it you who first proposed coming here? Mrs lodge suddenly inquired, after a long pause” this shows that the idea that Gertrude suggested has been blamed on Rhoda so we get the idea that Gertrude has seen something bad involving Rhoda, whilst getting her arm checked by the conjuror.
This is may be one of the reasons Gertrude’s attitudes to Rhoda. From this we gather that there is friendly love at the beginning of their relationship but towards the end all the love is gone.
Furthermore, we have the relationship of Rhoda Brook and the boy, her son, Rhoda does not have a very strong relationship with her son, they don’t talk much and Rhoda only talks to him when he needs him to do something for her; for example spying on Gertrude. So we can see from this relationship that Rhoda was not a very good mother to her own son.
Then we have farmer lodge he has many relationships in this story, but he is main is with Gertrude. Farmer Lodge left Rhoda and married a new wife who was ‘years younger than him’ named Gertrude. When farmer lodge turns up with his new wife he shows her much affection, the main reason for this is because of her young age and beauty, ‘my pretty Gertrude’. So again he is using Gertrude for her charming looks, like he did Rhoda, this shows that farmer Lodge’s love for Gertrude is not anything to do with her personality at all.
However, this all changes when Gertrude gets ‘a withered arm’, as when he sees it he say that it looks like, ‘the devil itself’; not taking it seriously unlike Gertrude who was very troubled by it. This shows how Gertrude knows that Farmer Lodge only likes her for her looks, and how much their relationship depends on it. Moving on deeper into the story Farmer Lodge begins to get disgusted with Gertrude’s arm, this makes Gertrude think that he dislikes her “I hadn’t a notion that it makes my husband-dislike me-no love me less”. We can see from this that Gertrude is beginning to get paranoid.
Farmer Lodge’s love for Gertrude was never real love it was just love for her appearance he was using her to make himself look good, it was also sexual love.
Farmer Lodge has a son but just does not have a very strong relationship with him. He left Rhoda to bring up their son alone, so this shows that Farmer Lodge has not got much love towards his son. Whenever he sees his son he avoids him” having taken no notice of the boy whatever”. He also seems to get annoyed when the boy keeps appearing wherever Farmer Lodge goes “the farmer, though he seemed annoyed at the boys persistent presence”. This shows us that there was no love between the boy and his father, until the boy was getting a death sentence for committing a crime (arson). This was the only time that we see the farmer pay any attention or have anything to do with the boy, when he was about to die. We gather from this that Farmer Lodge was not a good father and that there was no love between them both.
Then we have the relationships of the boy. He is not a very important character in this story but he has small relationships with all the other characters. The relationship in which he get most love, care and attention out of is his relationship with Gertrude, she brings him lots of thing e.g. shoes and cares for him. The boy’s relationship with his mother is not a very high-quality relationship, she just seems to use him for her selfish needs and pleasures. So we can tell that he suffers from neglect from his mother and his father.
Finally we have the relationships of Gertrude Lodge. Gertrude at the beginning of the story was a very kind and charitable person she was helping around the town giving and caring for the people in the town. But her attitude change towards the end of the story when conjuror Trendle says that the only way she can cure her “Withered Arm” is by touching a corpse, she then begins to pray that someone dies just so she can heal her arm Lord, hang some guilty or innocent person soon!” This shows us that she has changed her charitable love has gone she has become self-obsessed with her arm.
So we can see that the people that Gertrude loved and cared for are no longer loved and that she has changed the way she acts and thinks to heal her arm. She has love for Farmer Lodge at the beginning of the story but then that love turns into obsessive love.
In conclusion to this, I have decided that some of the relationships are functional to a certain extent and that at the end of the story all the relationships fall apart and all the relationships become dysfunctional. Rhoda being jealous, feeling cheated. Farmer Lodge: selfish, unfaithful. Gertrude: self obsessive, old and the boy unloved and neglect.
WORDCOUNT: 1,436.
