Compare the ways in which the authors of ‘The Withered Arm’ and ‘The Rocking Horse Winner’ portray the emotion of loneliness in the two stories.
Comparing Texts
Task: Compare the ways in which the authors of 'The Withered Arm' and 'The Rocking Horse Winner' portray the emotion of loneliness in the two stories.
In the two stories 'The Withered Arm' and 'The Rocking Horse Winner' emotions play a central role in creating the effectiveness of the stories; with the feeling of loneliness through isolation being the main emotion. Each story portrays this same feeling in two differing ways using techniques and language within the period they were written; the 'The Withered Arm' being the slightly older of the two. The language is one of the most significant features of expressing loneliness; however just as relevant in both stories are the characters and how they are portrayed, setting and the style of the story.
'The Rocking Horse Winner' by D.H.Lawrence is written in a fairytale style: 'there was a woman who was beautiful' being the opening phrase. However in a fairytale there is usually a happy ending but D.H.Lawrence contradicts with this stereotype as in the last section of the story Paul dies. Paul's death emphasises his loneliness as it was unexpected, none of his family members had predicted it as they did not understand him. Throughout his life he was un loved, and this feeling of rejection and his desire for his mother to love him had driven him to his death.
'The Rocking Horse Winner' could also be seen as a fable as there is a clear moral in the story, being that money cannot solve problems. Even when Paul presented the money to his mother thinking that this would make things easier at home the voices in the house "screamed in a sort of ecstasy: 'there must be more money! Oh-h-h; there must be more money'".
The language in 'The Rocking Horse Winner' coincides with the fairytale style as it is simplistic and is easily understood. This style of language represents loneliness when Paul speaks as he tends to use monosyllables: 'Oh, let her have it then! We can get some more with the other'. These short, sharp words give a staccato effect, which enhances Paul's loneliness as even his words are detached like his detachment from the rest of his family.
D.H.Lawrence does not include many adjectives apart from the repetition of describing certain features. For example throughout the story Paul's eyes are described more than any of his other features. Each description indicates Paul's loneliness, for example; 'his eyes were like blue stones', blue is a very cold and icy colour enhancing Paul's isolation. His eyes are also described as being 'rather close set', 'blazing' and having 'a strange glare about them'. All these phrases lead the reader to believe that Paul is scary or angry. Throughout the story Paul's feelings are not described, external features, such as his eyes are described instead, meaning that the reader never gets a true idea of the way Paul is feeling, showing Paul's isolation as a character even from the reader. The same goes for his family, and the nurse, as they misjudge him on his external features and actions, again showing Paul's isolation from the rest of the family.
At the start of the story Paul's mother is described as being unable to love her children and that 'at the centre of her heart was a hard little place that could not feel love'. Then at the end she is described as being 'heart frozen' even when her son is dying. This emphasises Paul's isolation from his mother as she does not love him. Also, the fact that the mother's feelings only appear at the beginning and at the end of the story, show that no matter what Paul does this will never change.
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At the start of the story Paul's mother is described as being unable to love her children and that 'at the centre of her heart was a hard little place that could not feel love'. Then at the end she is described as being 'heart frozen' even when her son is dying. This emphasises Paul's isolation from his mother as she does not love him. Also, the fact that the mother's feelings only appear at the beginning and at the end of the story, show that no matter what Paul does this will never change.
The whole family seem trapped within their lives that they cannot get out of. Like Paul cannot change his mother love, he can neither change the money difficulties, or the house's whispering. No matter what happens nothing gets easier. The language emphasises this when describing the horse as it 'stood in an arrested prance'. Paul rides this horse, but never moves anywhere as it is stuck on its rocking base.
In 'The Withered Arm' feelings are portrayed more directly using language techniques such as pathetic fallacy, metaphors and similes. The overall style and sentence structure is much more complicated than 'The Rocking Horse Winner'; with Hardy describing everything in large amounts of detail using many adjectives. This is shown right from the start as the opening sentence reads: 'It was an eight-cow dairy, and the troop of milkers, regular and supernumerary, were all at work; for, though the time of year was as yet early April, the feed lay entirely in water-meadow, and the cows were 'in full pail' '.
Unlike 'The Rocking Horse Winner' this story does not have a clear moral although one could say that a moral about jealousy is contained.
'The Rocking Horse Winner' was written in a fairytale style with simple language, however 'The Withered Arm' is written in a much more formal and detailed style. Pathetic Fallacy is used throughout the story and appears first when describing where Rhoda lives: 'there course lay apart from the rest to a lonely spot'. This instantly shows Rhoda's physical loneliness as she lives away from the others in a lonely spot. The heath surrounding where she lives also seems miserable as its 'dark countenance was visible in the distance'.
Pathetic Fallacy is used again in chapter 5 when Rhoda and Gertrude walk to see Conjuror Trendle. Their journey is described using phrasing that portray Rhoda's feelings: 'atmosphere dark', 'solemn country', 'the wind howled dismally'.
There was very little conversation during the journey with Rhoda answering Gertrude's questions with 'monosyllabic precaution', this shows loneliness as she answers with one word on its own, showing that even her words are detached and lonely just as she is. This was also used to the same effect in 'The Rocking Horse Winner'.
Rhoda and her son's house is described in detail with Hardy implying that it is an unhappy place to live. It says that it is 'built of mud walls' showing that they are not well off, with the walls having 'channels and depressions' in it. The use of the word 'depressions' implies that the house is depressing and miserable. 'and there in the thatch above a rafter shown like a bone protruding through the skin' is a simile and is used to give the impression of lack of money and also lack of attention. This lack of attention to the house shows that even it is un-cared for and must have a lonely feel about it.
In 'The Rocking Horse Winner' only one character is focused on by the author and that is the character of Paul. He is a very lonely character and throughout the story he is trying to establish a more loving relationship with his mother. Right from the beginning we are told that the mother 'felt they (her children) had been thrust upon her, and she could not feel love', so the reader is instantly drawn in to sympathise with the children. Paul decides that if he was more lucky his mother might love him and so he turns to horse racing in order to establish luck. However Paul gets so addicted to gambling he can no longer see that being lucky will not help him to win his mothers love. Paul's addiction to gambling is due to his loneliness and his quest to find love and a sense on belonging.
We hear little about Paul's father throughout the story and so assume he does not get involved in the parental side of his role within the family. The father only speaks once in the story replying 'I don't know', when the mother asks him a question about why Paul keeps repeating 'Malabar'. This shows that the father knows very little about his son; a good father should have realised something was wrong previously if he had had a good relationship with his son. Without the attention of either parent Paul is left very lonely within his home and family.
His isolation with the rest of the family is emphasised later in the story when you here that he is also detached from his sisters as they 'dared not speak to him'. Paul is very misunderstood as his sisters seem to be afraid of him when Paul is trying to search for love. The nurse 'gave him up. She could make nothing of him. Anyhow, he was growing beyond her'. Again this shows the lack of understanding people have for Paul, and the loneliness he must have felt at being un-cared for by the nurse who was paid to look after all the children.
Paul's loneliness is strangely enhanced when he becomes friends firstly with the gardener and later with his Uncle. This friendship is not strong enough to stop Paul feeling his loneliness as it is based purely on horse racing. The reader gets the opinion that the gardener and especially the uncle are using Paul for their own benefit as they also make money out of the horse Paul chooses. If they were true friends they would have realised before Paul's death that he was becoming too involved with the horses and that it was effecting his mental state.
In contrast to 'The Rocking Horse Winner', 'The Withered Arm' does not focus on the emotions of one character alone but concentrates on them all separately at different stages in the story. This constant change of focus makes the reader empathise with all the characters in the story thus making the reader think more and understand all of the characters. This makes the reader somewhat confused as to who in the story you should trust and rightly sympathise with.
The first main character to be introduced is Rhoda. The reader is instantly shown that Rhoda is physically lonely and an outcaste in her own town as 'she milked somewhat apart from the rest', and 'their course lay apart from the rest to a lonely spot'.
The other character introduced in the beginning of the story is Rhoda's son. The author refers to him throughout the storey as 'the boy' which instantly enhances his loneliness as he is classed as so unimportant that he does not need to be given a name, yet he turns out to be a key character to the stories ending. Even his mother Rhoda never refers to him by name thus showing no form of endearment towards her only child. His mother does not pay any attention to him while at home as he started 'cutting a notch with his pocket knife in the beech-backed chair'. This also shows that the boy has no respect for his home maybe showing that he dislikes his financial situation and wished for change. The boy's father is Farmer Lodge who at the beginning of the story gets married to Gertrude a young, pretty lady. The boy is isolated from his father as he pays no attention to his son preferring to imagine that he has no child: 'did he take no notice of you?', 'None'. This must be hard on the boy as he would feel unwanted and maybe also guilty for his mother's situation. Rhoda uses the boy to find out what Gertrude looks like, making him 'go to Holmstoke church' in order for her to know if Gertrude is taller than she. Rhoda then shows no appreciation for the boy doing as she asked, and also no sympathy when Farmer Lodge, his father, ignores him.
Gertrude could have been portrayed to have been the character who was to blame for the boy and Rhoda's loneliness, as she married Farmer Lodge. However, Hardy leads the reader to sympathise with her as she is also lonely even though she did get to marry Farmer Lodge. She is very different from the people living in the village due to her social class, she is not a mere worker on the farm. This causes her difficulties as she cannot make friends. Also as the story goes on you find that her marriage is not happy. Farmer Lodge 'was usually gloomy and silent' as he had only married Gertrude for her 'grace and beauty' not personality, and as Gertrude became deformed due to her left arm he found he no longer loved her. She had also not brought him the child that Farmer Lodge wanted desperatly. This left Gertrude searching tirelessly for a remedy for her arm in order to solve her marriage problems. Gertrude also became close with Rhoda, however this was likewise a false relationship, as Rhoda felt nothing but hate and guilt towards Gertrude.
After Gertrude's death Farmer Lodge moved to Port-Bredy, selling up his farms in the country that he had worked hard to maintain and lived 'in solitary lodgings till his death two years later'. This shows his loneliness as he died alone having never truly loved his wife and also never having the children that he had really wanted.
In conclusion both 'The Withered Arm' and 'The Rocking Horse Winner' are based on the theme of loneliness. However the emotion is presented in two differing ways due to the style and time in which they were written. In both stories the authors distinguish between physical and emotional isolation in order to enhance the feeling of loneliness. In 'The Rocking Horse Winner' Paul is physically isolated as the nurse and his sisters misunderstand him and therefore keep away from him. He is also emotionally isolated as neither of his parents love him. In 'The Withered Arm' physical isolation is shown for Rhoda as she milked 'somewhat apart from the rest', and also for Gertrude as she finds it difficult to make friends in the area due to her financial class. Emotional loneliness is also shown in this story as the boy gets ignored and used by his mother, and his father acts as if he does not even have a son. 'The rocking Horse Winner' is written in a simplistic, fairytale style in order for the ending to have more impact as it goes against a usual stereotypical ending for a fairytale. 'The Withered Arm' is written in much more detail using more language techniques such a similes and pathetic fallacy. This gives the story much imagery in order for the reader to fully appreciate the situations in the story. In 'The Rocking Horse Winner' the author concentrates on one character in order for the reader to fully empathise them; in contrast the author of 'The Withered Arm' continually changes the character focused on in order for the reader to empathise with all the character and thus get a better understanding of them, it also makes the reader think more into the character that they should rightly sympathise with.
