How and why does Hardy present Sophy and Sam as victims of circumstances in ‘The Son’s Veto’
How and why does Hardy present Sophy and Sam as victims of circumstances in 'The Son's Veto' The pre-twentieth century story, 'The Son's Veto' is set hundred years ago in the city of London and countryside of North Wessex. Thomas Hardy presents a story to its readers where in which the most sympathetic characters suffer from their environment. He indicates a conflict between what they feel is right and what they would like to do. The cause for this may be that they are victims of circumstances by reason of cruelty of others and also the pressure of social conventions that ruin their chance of happiness. Hardy is an omniscient narrator in this story. This is one of his techniques that show Sophy and Sam as victims of circumstances. He is out of the plot, but is knowledgeable about the characters and their thoughts and feelings, as he has the control of the story; the method he uses in one of the sections is to speak directly to the reader. Here is the example: "The next time we get a glimpse of her... " He speaks directly to the reader by using the word 'we'. The main reason why Hardy presents Sophy and Sam as victims of their circumstances in 'The Son's Veto' is, as he intends to stress his opinion about not having two different class systems but to live as a one whole society where wealth supports poverty. He explores the circumstances and the environment of
Discuss Hardy's Portrayal Of Women In "The Withered Arm"
Discuss Hardy's Portrayal Of Women In "The Withered Arm" "The withered arm is a short story about two women who live in the English countryside. The two main women in the text are portrayed negatively by the author, Thomas Hardy. The story was written in the 19th century and thus it was acceptable to portray women negatively in this patriarchal society. At the beginning of the text Hardy's attitude towards women is made clear. The women are only given low paid menial jobs such as milking cows. The milkmaids are all working under the control of the dairyman. The dairyman has to stop the women from gossiping when he says "get on with your work or 'twill be dark afore we have done". His authority over the women brought an end to their conversation. Rhoda is portrayed as jealous in the first part of the story. She is very curious about Farmer Lodge's new wife and gets her son to report back to her on Gertrude's appearance. She tells her son "you can give her a look, and tell me what she's like". The women talk with lower class, common dialect showing that they are less educated than Farmer Lodge who speaks standard English. Rhoda shown as poor in the description of her house: "It was built of mud walls. The surface of which had been washed by many rains." This contrasts Rhoda's poverty with Farmer Lodge's wealth, emphasising male dominance. Her appearance is described as
Extended commentary of Part II of 'The Pine Planters' by Thomas Hardy
Unseen Analysis Part II of ‘The Pine Planters’ by Thomas Hardy Hardy changes various elements of the poem to further explore either i) Marty’s predicament further or ii) to open an entirely new metaphoric realm! First Stanza Notes: Hardy open Part II with the same image with which he opened Part I; as a pine planter plants another tree. He sets “it to stand, here,/ Always to be.” Hardy is commenting upon the sudden fact that a tree can be rooted for eternity; the blasé manner by which a planter can root a living object in a fixed position – for better or worse – is accentuated by the understated contrast between the enormity of time (“Always to be”) which results. The aforementioned phrase itself is highly emphasized through its contraction. [Note the departure from Marty (in lines one and two) to the abstract ideas about the tree – which does, in some respects, represent Marty – as the tree has become the subject] Hardy then delivers another enormous chronological contrast; “When, in a second (2) As if from fear Of Life unreckoned Beginning here, It starts a sighing (3)” The very second in which the tree is planted – fated to suffer – it appears to awake (“While there lying/ ‘Twas voiceless quite.”) and become aware of its tragic fate. Consequently, it begins to ‘sigh’ – just like Marty, as previously detailed. Indeed,
Extended commentary of 'The Darkling Thrush' by Thomas Hardy
The Darkling Thrush On the title: A thrush is a bird; plump, soft-plumaged, small to medium-sized, often inhabiting wooded areas. They feed on the ground or eat small fruit – but aren’t famed for their songs. Examples include a robin. ‘Darkling’ is an archaic word for ‘a creature of darkness’ or ‘in the dark’. Hardy uses it in its latter sense – the bird appears in a very gloomy scene, at the end of the day, at the end of the year (and century, for that matter). It also has negative connotations as well, however – for obvious reasons. Potential other implications: ‘darkling’ is perhaps used to create a diminutive form of the thrush (like a ‘duckling’). Other critics have identified the title as explaining, or preparing the reader for the unexpected advent of the bird half way through the poem, appearing into the scene from nowhere. Perhaps Hardy was attempting to use an antiquitated word to further demonstrate the bird is bringing joy to a dark land, and that there exists an enormous time difference between the new century and the old? Overall Structure: Hardy uses four regular eight line iambic stanzas; in either ‘tetrameter’ or ‘trimeter’, depending on the length of the line. This meter creates a poetic lilt, with alternate stressed feet. It seems very out of place in such a depressing poem - we must question why this is. Does it
Isolation in Hardy's poems 'Nobody Comes' and 'The Darkling Thrush'
In the poems “The Darkling Thrush” [‘TDT’] and “Nobody Comes” [‘NC’], Hardy presents two similar images of isolation. In both poems, the personae are isolated from human company, whilst Hardy explores this using imagery of ghosts and the supernatural in both also. However, individually there are differences in tone; although NC ends upon as dire a note as it begins, Hardy engineers an optimistic outlook in TDT and suggests that the persona’s isolation may not Hardy ensures that the persona of ‘TDT’ is isolated from any other human presence or, until the poem’s third stanza, any living organism. Whilst leaning against “a coppice gate”, he notes that “all mankind... had sought their household fires”. Although this is an indication of the low temperature, it is noticeable that the rest of humanity are seeking light in an otherwise dark environment; reciprocally, the persona is deprived of both warmth and living company. To further this point, Hardy personifies non-human entities, such as frost and winter – “Winter’s dregs”, for example. In this way, Hardy makes the reader personal not with living creatures but with inanimate entities, isolating the animate persona even more. Indeed, Hardy makes such a division more striking by picturing the persona’s surroundings as very extreme. Surrounded by deathly imagery, the persona imagines the
Extended commentary of 'During Wind and Rain' by Thomas Hardy
During Wind and Rain “Et in Arcadia ego” – “Even in Arcadia, I am there” On the Title: An ambiguous and interesting choice of title, in that it is – as I will show – both incongruous with the tense (or time-scale) used in the poem and draws the reader’s attention to descriptions of the weather. The word “during” makes the weather conditions affect the present. However, the poem is mostly written in the historic present and many of the stanzas depict images of bright, pleasant days – not the “wind and rain” alluded to in the title. There is clearly an intentional discrepancy being orchestrated here by Hardy. Quote SLS: “Beware “during”, the incongruous preposition.” Overall Structure: Four stanzas of seven lines, with a very strange (but regular) rhyme scheme. Hardy uses a very odd structure indeed. The rhyme scheme utilised in the poem consists of: ABCBCDA. There are multiple effects of this: * The sixth line in the stanza breaks the poetic flow of the stanza, as it is the only line not to rhyme with another – hence acting like a mid-stanzaic volta. It draws attention to itself. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the sixth line of every stanza breaks away from the theme of familial happiness painted in the previous five lines, and turns the subject to the contrasting theme of death. Observe the refrains used! * The drawn
Tony Kytes and the seduction
Tony Kytes and the seduction Thomas Hardy wrote "Tony Kytes the arch deceiver" in 1984, the story is set in a village in the countryside next to wonderful farms and green fields. "The seduction" written by Eileen McCauley is a poem, which tells a story written around the 1980's in Liverpool, Birkenhead Docks. Birkenhead Docks is a dirty rundown and isolated place to go, the poem takes place in the nighttime. The poem gets its title because of the seduction of a young girl. The boy is described as using metaphors such as "sinister leather jacket" and "the scum on the water" he was brought up to have no respect for women. The boy is only young himself about 15-16, he also like's to look at young women in his magazines as he steals them and reads them under a bridge. The girl who is seduced is young so she doesn't know much about sex so the boy takes benefit of this; she ends up three months pregnant which ruins her youthful life she is subsequently called a "little slag" by the boy. His parents don't care what he does or where he goes, he is feeling alone and gloomy "The arch deceiver" is Tony Kytes skit name because he goes for one girl for another. Tony lives in the country the location is Wessex. In the 1980's men and women were supposed to get married and settle down. Tony is aged around his 20's and he is older than the women he goes for. He is very immature but comes