Hardy focuses very much on creating visual description. "Pale silk dress", "Blue eyes peered cruelly" and "features shockingly distorted". This differs from 'Indian Camp' where Hemingway seems to use all the senses, including smell and hearing, as well as vision, "the room smelled very bad".
In 'Indian Camp' Hemingway has very few characters and only two of them play an active part. All the characters apart from Nick are two-dimensional. Nick is the only character, whose feelings, worries, doubts and thoughts we know. With Nick, the reader can get into his mind and imagine how he feels. In 'The Withered Arm' Hardy has many characters, most of which are background characters. They help progress the plot. The main characters are Rhoda Brook and Gertrude. The reader can create an image of both characters, knowing their feelings of insecurity, their looks, what they think and how they feel. The background characters are Conjourer Trendle, the son, the hangman and all the milkmaids at the dairy where Rhoda Brook works. All of these people are two-dimensional and are mainly used to advance the plot. For example, the hangman, serves as the link between Gertrude's salvation and despair when she is isolated. The milkmaids set the scene and their gossiping warns Rhoda of Gertrude, who is Farmer Lodge's new wife. A similarity between the characters in 'The Withered Arm' and 'Indian Camp' is the use of a boy and his parents. In both, the boy is a key person in the plot. Differences in the characters are 'Indian camp' includes mostly two-dimensional characters and 'The Withered Arm' includes many three-dimensional characters. In 'Indian Camp' the boy and the father have a good relationship. In 'The Withered Arm' the boy and father have no relationship. The boy in 'The Withered Arm' becomes a delinquent just before his death, and the boy in 'Indian Camp' becomes wiser. He seems to age through the birth and death, and becomes more mature.
The language Hemingway uses in 'Indian Camp' differs greatly to the language Hardy uses in his tale, reflecting the different ? ? ? ? ? that they were written. Hemingway's language is simple and direct, using only simple nouns such as "kettle" and "quilt". Hardy uses many adjectives and fewer verbs such as, "cruelly", "mockingly" and "distorted". Hemingway uses few adjectives but uses plenty of nouns, verbs and adverbs. These quotations justify this; "while his father washed his hands" and "he bent over the Indian woman". Hemingway's sentences are shorter and simpler than Hardy's, very few being longer than ten words. "It took a long time". This differs from Hardy, who uses very long sentences with lots of commas and punctuation. "But the atmosphere there about was full of the subject during the first days of Mrs. Lodge's arrival; and from her boys description and the casual words of the other milkers, Rhoda Brook could raise a mental image of the unconscious Miss. Lodge that was as realistic as a photograph". Hardy uses much unusual language in 'The Withered Arm'; he does not use plain nouns to name things, example "large, red, rectangular animals". This quotation describes a cow. Hardy frequently uses old-fashioned language, most of which is redundant today. It is reasonably hard to follow and is a very descriptive style. Hemingway's writing style is clear and easy to follow and is quite the opposite of Hardy's. Hemingway uses modern language, which makes it easier to follow and understand.
Hardy uses more descriptive writing than direct speech in 'The Withered Arm'. However, in 'Indian Camp', Hemingway uses direct speech to tell the reader most of the key points. Only the main characters in 'Indian Camp' speak, these are Nick and his father. Hemingway has used simple speech in 'Indian Camp' and Nick has very childlike speech, which reflects his age. Example "Oh, Daddy, can't you give her something to make her stop screaming?" The direct speech in 'Indian Camp' is written with Nick asking numerous questions which his father answers. In 'The Withered Arm', Hardy's direct speech is very realistic. Gertrude, who is middle class, uses Standard English, which indicates she was educated, "it is nothing serious, but I can not make it out". This quote clearly shows her education, compared to the local natives who used a Wessex accent and dialogue. "A was born before our Great Weir was built…" People in 'Indian Camp' speak in Standard English as well. In 'The Withered Arm' people have accents, in direct contrast to from 'Indian Camp', where there is no sense of accents or dialects. 'Indian Camp' has no sustained speech whereas in the 'The Withered Arm' the speech is more sustained. This is because it is reflective of the period that it was written in.
In 'Indian Camp', the main horrific moments are the labour and birth, and the suicide. In 'The Withered Arm', the main horrific moment is the dream of Rhoda's. However, others include the jail scene, touching the corpse and Gertrude's arm. In 'Indian Camp', Hemingway gives brief and powerful glimpses of horror. "His throat had been cut from ear to ear. The blood flowed down into a pool where his body sagged in the bunk." Once Hemingway has said this, he moves straight on, not dwelling on the gruesome scenes. The horror in 'Indian Camp' is based on the realism of the situation, rather than the superstition. This contrasts totally to Hardy. Hardy is extremely descriptive during the horrific moments and there is a strong emphasis placed on superstition rather than realism. The emphasis is placed on how the character feels. He wants you to know exactly what is happening, their feelings and how the character reacts in that situation.
Both stories end with a death, but the difference between the two deaths is in 'The Withered Arm', a child dies, i.e. Rhoda's son, and in 'Indian camp' the man dies i.e. the parent of the newborn baby. Also, both texts end on a point of low tension, with tranquillity. Although they both end tranquilly, the moods have changed and are different. The mood at the end of 'The Withered Arm' is tragic and depressing. However, the mood at the end of 'Indian Camp' is very reassuring. "He felt sure he would never die". An obvious difference between the two endings is that Hemingway has only written two short, brief paragraphs as an ending, whereas Hardy has three very long, detailed, drawn out paragraphs to end 'The Withered Arm'. In Hardy's ending he has one paragraph for each of the characters explaining their fate. These characters are Rhoda Brook, Farmer Lodge and Gertrude. The boys in each story both play an important role in the endings. The boy in 'The Withered Arm' plays a passive role, and the boy in 'Indian Camp' plays and active role. Quotes to substantiate these are "the dead man was Rhoda's son" and "Nick trailed his hand in the water". A strong difference between the two endings is that at the end of 'The Withered Arm' all the characters are viewing their lives retrospectively, whereas at the end of 'Indian Camp', the characters are positive and optimistic. They are looking forward to the future. Both ending show the circle of life, with labour, birth and death. Both have a twist at the end i.e. in 'The Withered Arm' the corpse turns out to be Rhoda's And Farmer Lodge's son, and in 'Indian Camp' just as the baby is delivered the father of the baby, commits suicide. The ending of 'Indian Camp' focuses on Nick's reaction to the birth and death and how he handles it. There are many loose ends, as the reader does not know the fate of the woman and her baby or where Uncle George went. Hemingway's novel ends with an antithesis, where he tells you exactly what has happened to all the characters and there are no further questions. The ending of 'The Withered Arm' is cyclical, ending in the same way as it begun with Rhoda in the same dairy milking the cows.
The general content in 'Indian Camp', comprises less characters than in 'The Withered Arm'. It is a twentieth century tale and has a male emphasis. The general content in 'The Withered Arm' is it is a much longer story than in 'Indian Camp'. It is a pre-twentieth century and has a big emphasis placed on female characters. This story is divided into chapters whereas 'Indian Camp' was just a couple of pages and did not need chapters.
The themes in 'Indian Camp' are the circle of life because of the labour and birth, and the suicide/death. Also cowardice and bravery, as it could be said the man was cowardly to kill himself, and bravery as the doctor (Nick's father) was brave to perform the operation. Nick was also brave to stay and help and the woman was brave whilst having her baby with no anaesthetic. Love and respect is a theme shown by the love and respect that Nick shows his father. Grace under pressure is also a theme in 'Indian Camp' due to the way the doctor carries out the operation calmly. A further theme would be the way Nick grows, mentally. A main theme would be the way that the whole story comes down to fate. Fate plays a big part in both of the tales, especially in 'The Withered Arm'. Some other themes in 'The Withered Arm' are jealousy, hatred and supernatural. Love/hate and class distinctions are also themes. Jealousy is a theme used at the beginning, when Rhoda is so jealous of Gertrude that she becomes obsessed and starts dreaming about her. Hatred is also another theme that is used to show how much Rhoda really loathed Gertrude for taking her place. The supernatural theme is used in the horrific moments, so you are lead to believe that anything that happens without a reason is caused by the supernatural. Class distinctions are used throughout the novel and you can tell who is from which background and who has been educated.
As discussed thoroughly throughout this comparative essay, the two texts show many contrasts as well as similarities. The main contrasts are that Hardy is much more descriptive than Hemingway is and Hardy's novel has many characters and Hemingway's only has a few. Hemingway is much more to the point and has easy, clear, short words. This differs to Hardy, who uses long descriptive sentences and has lots of old fashioned language, that is more difficult to understand. The main similarities are that they are both said to be short stories. They are both based around a parent and a boy, and the boy is the key person in the plot. Both novels end with a death and both novels end on a low point of tension, with tranquillity.
In my opinion, 'The Withered Arm' was more interesting because it had much more description, and so it held the reader's attention.
