Compare 'A Stench of Kerosene' by Amrita Pritam and 'The Withered Arm' by Thomas Hardy.

NAME: AL-AMIN CHOUDHURY CLASS: 10L ENGLISH COURSEWORK: TO COMPARE 'A STENCH OF KEROSENE' BY AMRITA PRITAM AND THE 'WITHERED ARM' BY THOMAS HARDY TUTOR: MISS COOM GCSE ASSIGNMENT Compare 'A Stench of Kerosene' by Amrita Pritam and 'The Withered Arm' by Thomas Hardy. The two stories 'The Withered Arm' and 'Stench of Kerosene' is set in different cultures and at different times which have some similarities. 'Withered Arm' was written by a man called Thomas Hardy in 1888, and is set in Wessex, England. While 'Stench of Kerosene' was written nearly 100 years later in the 1950s by a women called Amrita Pritam, which is set in rural India. The setting of the both stories took place in a simple farming village community. The culture and social context of 'Stench of Kerosene' is very similar to 'Withered Arm'. Although it happened in India, there are traditional different relationship which exist between the two sexes. Both stories looks at the tragedy of damaged relationships. The story of 'Stench of Kerosene' is about a women called Guleri, who lives with her husband Manak and her parent's in-laws, (Manak's mother is disappointed with Guleri for not having a grandchild, but she does not show Guleri that she is upset). Guleri and Manak have been married for seven years and have no children of their own, but there is a deep love between

  • Word count: 4812
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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What Impression Does Mortimer Give of his Relationship With his Father?

What Impression Does Mortimer Give of his Relationship With his Father? In this passage Mortimer describes his relationship with his father and how his opinion of his father changed as his life progressed. Mortimer goes through his feelings towards his father in three main stages in this passage: great respect before his father's blindness, embarrassment and anger after his father's blindness, and guilt after his father's death. At first it is obvious that Mortimer has a deep reverence for his father and begins this passage by stating that his father, 'was a very clean man,' this suggests that he is proud of his father's appearance. But this all changes after he realises that his father has gone blind. The god-like respect that he once had for him has faded and he can no longer see him as a protector or provider, but as an invalid, someone who he has to look after. It is also apparent that the respect that he had for his father's image has also gone as he describes him as having a hand that felt,' small, long-fingered and already ill-fitting, like a loose glove,' Mortimer is actually, 'Embarrassed by the blind man publicly attached to my (his) arm,' and wanted to, ' shake him off,' 'to allow him to wander off, hopelessly among the trams.' The previous quote also shows Mortimer feeling a great deal of anger at his father, the fact that he was even thinking about allowing

  • Word count: 633
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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An Essay comparing the way men and women are represented in

An Essay comparing the way men and women are represented in "the withered arm" and other stories by Thomas hardy with the way they are represented in "turned" by charlotte Perkins Gilman "The Withered Arm" and "Turned" are both focused on relationships between men and women. "The Withered Arm" was about the relationship between Rhoda Brook and Farmer Lodge and also who he married later on called Gertrude. "Turned" was about the relationship between Mr.Marroner and Mrs.Marion Marroner but Mr.Marroner also had an affair with his servant Gerta Peterson and made her pregnant. Thomas Hardy when writing his stories focuses mainly on tradition where as Charlotte Perkins being a woman herself has represented other women as being strong and independent. The men in Thomas Hardy's stories are represented in an extremely traditional way as they are being represented as powerful and emotional. In "The Withered Arm", Farmer Lodge is represented as strong, powerful, unemotional and degrading towards women. He somehow changes throughout the story. At the start of the story he had superficial feelings and also neglected his son as he was born through the affair with a low class woman. He then marries Gertrude as he wanted a young pretty wife. He therefore was represented there as being selfish because he never cared about other people's feelings except for his own. "O yes. You must expect

  • Word count: 1260
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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How are women portrayed in each of the short stories?

GCSE English Coursework Oliver Maule - March 2002 How are women portrayed in each of the short stories? In this essay I am going to compare short stories and focus on describing the writer's portrayal of women. The stories that I will be comparing are "The Withered Arm", "Tony Kytes, The Arch Deceiver", "The Ice-Palace" and "Tickets, Please." The first two stories are pre twentieth century texts the second two are post 1914 and therefore have a different portrayal of woman. Hardy describes women by their appearance and physical characteristics. As soon as the story starts he is judging and describing women by physical characteristics. 'Whose face was buried in the flank of that motionless beast' Thomas Hardy's female characters, although confident and very strong willed, still give the impression that they are willing to put up with, what would be to a modern audience, unacceptable behaviour from a man, because at the time of securing a husband, it was also securing your future. An example would be Hardy's character Milly. She was engaged to Tony when he decided he wanted not one but two other girls in preference to her and yet she still consented to marry him in the end. He wrote 'Tony Kytes, the Arch - Deceiver' in 1894. Hardy makes women seem unimportant in the roles that they play but does make extremely detailed descriptions of their appearance. If they were not

  • Word count: 1823
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Hardy describes Wessex as "real" but also as "half dream". Explain the importance of dreams, superstitions and the macabre in Hardy's 'Wessex Tales', paying particular attention to the ways in which these elements

'Hardy describes Wessex as "real" but also as "half dream". Explain the importance of dreams, superstitions and the macabre in Hardy's 'Wessex Tales', paying particular attention to the ways in which these elements of his work help articulate his views on life. Thomas Hardy was born in a time of industrialisation and a time where social hierarchy was the means of order. Hardy sometimes opposed these ideas and so made his opinions through his literature. In 'The Withered Arm', 'The Superstitious Man's Story' and 'Barbara and The House of Grebe', realism is a common genre, he uses this to cast a 'real' place with real people in our minds, at the beginning of his books he has a put a map of Wessex County to make us familiar with the stories adding to the realism of his literature. As well as that he describes Wessex as 'half-dream'. We see this in his stories when he uses superstition, dreams and macabre to show that the stories are unreal yet they all have something significant that lets the readers feel the essence of the story - the morals that he sends us through his writing. In the 'Wessex Tales' he uses these factors to articulate his views on life. His stories that have a moral to them, usually show human folly in times of despair, in 'The Withered Arm' you should not let a physical abnormality take over your life. To survive and succeed in the nineteenth century,

  • Word count: 3637
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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English GCSE Coursework - Pre1914 Poetry

English GCSE Coursework - Pre1914 Poetry How does Hardy portray the themes of loss and loneliness in his poems? I am going to be comparing three of Thomas Hardy's poems. These poems are: Where The Picnic Was, The Voice and Neutral Tones. Hardy was writing in a time when women could not vote. Women were second-class citizens who mainly stayed in the home. During the time when Hardy was writing, it was very difficult for a woman to divorce a man. The only way the woman would be able to divorce the man was only if she could prove cruelty. However, unlike women, a man could divorce his wife just like that with a minor reason. Thomas Hardy himself believed in marriage but only if people had similar interests. If people grew apart, he believed that they should be allowed to divorce. Hardy married twice in his lifetime. In 1874, Hardy married Emma Lavinia Gifford. She convinced him to start writing. Emma Hardy could not have children but still, Hardy continued the marriage without divorcing. On November 27th 1912, Emma Hardy died after being married for 38 years. Two years later, Hardy married his secretary, Florence Emily Dugdale. She was 35 and he was 74. She acted as his companion and housekeeper. The poems I have chosen to compare were all written after Emma's death. Where The Picnic Was is basically talking about a picnic he had been on with Emma. He explains how it was in a

  • Word count: 1797
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Comparative Essay on Tony Kytes 'The Arch Deceiver' and 'Tickets Please', What do the authors show us about the relationship between men and women?

31st July 2002 Comparative Essay English and English Literature Tony Kytes 'The Arch Deceiver' and 'Tickets Please' What do the authors show us about the relationship between men and women? Tony Kytes is a serious-looking and handsome young man. He is very popular with the local girls and enjoys flirting with them. Tony gets engaged to Milly Richards. One day he is driving back to Longpuddle from market when a girl who used to be his sweetheart, Unity Sallet, stops him for a lift. As they travel on, Unity tries to persuade Tony that she would be a better wife than Milly. They see Milly up ahead and Tony persuades Unity to hide under a sheet in the back. Milly Richards who had been waiting for Tony climbs aboard the wagon. Soon he sees one of his very first girlfriends, Hannah Jolliver, looking out of the window. Tony persuades Milly to hide under some sacks at the front of the wagon saying that he does not want any trouble from Hannah if she sees them together. Hannah, like Milly, asks Tony to drive her home to Longpuddle. He tries to get out of it, but Hannah insists. Hannah joins Tony on the driving seat. Tony now has three female passengers on board his wagon. Unity Sallet, Milly Richards and Hannah Jolliver. Tony and Hannah enjoy riding together. They gaze into each other's eyes. Tony starts to wonder why he ever thought of proposing to Milly or Unity when Hannah is

  • Word count: 2454
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Wessex Tales How the characters are effected

Wessex Tales This essay is about the times and the society of the 19th Century and how Thomas Hardy's characters were affected. The five stories I will be writing about are: . The Withered Arm 2. The Son's Veto 3. Tony Kytes the Arch Deceiver 4. Absent Mindedness in a parish choir 5. The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion In the 19th century there were a lot of divisions between people eg. Class. A girl from a high class could not marry a boy from the middle class. 'Not what you call a gentlemen' (The Son's Veto). Also it was like a sin if you married someone from a lower class than you. 'It was social suicide if a parson was to marry his maid' (The Son's Veto). They were also very superstitious in those days. A lot of people believe in witches and magic. 'Well-they say-they used to say he had powers other folks have not.' (The Withered Arm). They even believed in the devil 'it is as if some witch or the devil himself had taken hold of me there. (The Withered arm). Women did not have many rights. Also if they did not marry they would put shame on their family and were called names like spinsters and have no security in the future or any money, some women were seen as witches, so no one would want to marry them. Some women would do anything to get married like chase after their ex-boyfriend. 'I should have made 'ee a finer wife and a more loving one to' (Tony

  • Word count: 3775
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Hardy held strong views concerning the social and moral hypocrisy prevalent in the 19th century society. Explore how class distinction, snobbery and patriarchal dominance are represented in any two of his short stories.

Hardy held strong views concerning the social and moral hypocrisy prevalent in the 19th century society. Explore how class distinction, snobbery and patriarchal dominance are represented in any two of his short stories. In the two of Hardy's short stories which I read, 'The withered arm' and 'The sons veto' we are shown he holds and portrays a very bias opinion, in which he doesn't agree at all with the male dominance over women of that time. During the 19th century there was an extremely harsh line which was drawn between those working on the land as farmers and those working in a higher class than them. The males in the relationship were dominant as husbands and they acted more of the fatherly role towards their wives than a husband's role, acting as if they always new best and that the female's opinion doesn't count. Hardy strongly disagreed to this and did not think like this at all. Throughout 'The withered arm' we see how the farmer treats his son and the women with great disrespect and negligence. He abuses Rhodes working class status as he is able to abandon his lover and child, and make everybody blame her for the affair. And because of this, Rhodes has to spend most of her time in almost solitary confinement as no one except her son will speak to her. The father is so bothered about his status, that he shuts off all links with his son and denies his existence even

  • Word count: 789
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Kiss Miss Carol Farrukh Dhondy

Both the 'Son's Veto' and 'Kiss Miss Carol' examine the relationship between a child and its parent. Compare what Thomas Hardy and Farrukh Dhondy have to say about that relationship and show how the situation in each story is typical of its period and setting. 'Kiss Miss Carol'. Farrukh Dhondy: Farrukh Dhondy was born in 1944 in Bombay, India. After getting an engineering degree in Bombay he travelled to England. Here he achieved a BA and MA from the Cambridge and Leicester university. He became a full time author in 1980 before which he taught English in various schools in London. Most of his books were written for children, for example 'East End at your feet', and 'Poona Company'. He went on to write plays for stage and television. In ''Kiss Miss Carol'' Dhondy shows the problems children from ethnic minorities that live in Britain have to face. The struggle for their identity; adapting to western ways while respecting their parents and maintaining their cultures. Synopsis: 'Kiss Miss Carol' is the story of a young boy Jolil who comes from an eastern background and is living in a western society. When he is given the part of a cripple in his Christmas play he knows his father would disapprove as he would see the offer of the part as racism and prejudice. 'Kiss Miss Carol' follows the mental struggle Jolil must face in order to decide where his loyalties lie. In the

  • Word count: 5346
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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