Thomas Hardy

What does Thomas Hardy tell us about the society in which he lived through his short stories? Thomas Hardy tells us many different things about the society in which he lived in through his short stories. Through these short stories, he tells us of the society in which he lived. The topics that he writes about come up in many of his short stories. This shows us that he felt very strongly about these themes. The short stories also tell us that the society that Thomas Hardy lived in was unfair. In Thomas Hardy's short stories there are many themes that come up in his short stories. The main ones were, Men being selfish (usually the higher class Men), Women being subservient to Men, Class structure in society, Religion and the Hypocrisy of the Church, Parental relationships with children, Forbidden love, Death and tragedy, Integrity-Selfishness, Selflessness, and Economic security. We find out that social class has a big impact on the society in which Thomas Hardy lived in. He shows this in short stories when in 'The Withered Arm' when Farmer Lodge has a child with Rhoda Brooks. He has a child with her but because she is a milkmaid and she is in a lower class, he doesn't marry her or stay with her because of her class. Another example of this is when in 'The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion' when Humphrey Gould asks Phyllis Grove to marry him. This was unusual in

  • Word count: 592
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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English - View Bridge

GCSE View from bridge The play "A View from the Bridge" written by Arthur Miller is a compelling play that explores ideas of manliness, hostility and aggression. Arthur Miller centers the play on a main character called Eddie. Eddie is represented throughout the play as a dominant masculine character; however, he may not always be in control. Eddie's relationship with his step daughter is very perplexing and eventually leads to his tragic death at the end. A View from the Bridge was written to be performed. The way the characters should behave can be read within the play, for example, the tone of voice that the characters may use. Additionally, the stage that was set out was precise and did not need to be changed, as Arthur Miller wanted the audience to focus more on the characters than on the stage. Throughout, the play Eddie is fixed on his beliefs about what a 'real man' should be and this can be seen through his repulsiveness towards Rodolpho. Rodolpho is a 'pretty boy' type of character who is an immigrant from Italy and arrived with his brother Marco. Eddies behavior towards the people in his house illustrates what characteristics he has. Eddie is very protective character; we can conclude this because of the way he talks to Catherine - his step daughter. Eddie tells Catherine that she is "Walkin, wavy" meaning that she is attracting attention to herself - this

  • Word count: 560
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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What is Hardy saying about the treatment of women by society through the medium of story telling?

"What is Hardy saying about the treatment of women by society through the medium of story telling?" The Wessex Tales are a collection of short stories that were written by Thomas Hardy between the 1874 and 1888 but were based in the 1800s. They were set in a small part of Southern England, which in the Anglo-Saxon times was named Wessex; Hardy uses this setting for this set of fictional tales. Wessex had many small communities and in his tales he captures the spirit of these small districts. Every rural community was very close; everyone knew one another and everyone earned their money through conventional means, for example farming or labouring. This was mainly because there were very few means of transport, as only the rich owned ponies and carts due to the high maintenance costs and therefore there was little movement between villages. Due the size of these small village communities there tended to be frequent gossip between the women of the area; any turn of events would soon be known by the majority of the township as gossip spread like wildfire. At the time the stories were set, to survive and buy food the lower class women worked, often in middle class houses as maids, or servants. There was no need for the middle class women to work and therefore they often had a great deal of spare time on their hands. Servants weren't generally treated very well, as they were

  • Word count: 1870
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Thomas Hardy Essay

Thomas Hardy Essay English novelist, short story writer and poet Thomas Hardy was born in 2nd June 1840 in Dorchester, England. His short stories included The Withered Arm and Tony Kytes, The Arch Deceiver. When Hardy is writing short stories, the technique he uses is called Suspense. Suspense is the tension of the story which is the interest about the outcome of certain actions often used in short stories, it creates a dramatic impact and a mood of tension encouraging the reader to engage with the text. Hardy has also deliberately used frequent omissions and the alternate use of long and short sentences to create drama and the effect of leaving the reader guessing. In his short story called The Withered Arm, Hardy creates the theme of suspense throughout the portrayal of one main character named Rhoda Brooks. He describes Rhoda as being lonely and apart from the others, as 'a thin and fading woman'. This creates immediate atmosphere of suspense making the reader draw into empathisement with her. It appears that Farmer Lodge and Rhoda have had a past relationship previously and resulting from the affair, the farmer had fathered Rhoda's son. This becomes part of the first impressions we receive from Rhoda. In the story, Rhoda sends her son to spy on Farmer Lodge's new bride named Gertrude which leads us to conclude that there is bitterness and resentment in Rhoda. Hardy

  • Word count: 1878
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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The Son's Veto. How do you respond to Hardys depiction of the boy? Who eventually becomes the young smooth-shaven priest at the end of the story ?

Assessment 1 “How do you respond to Hardy’s depiction of the boy? Who eventually becomes the ‘young smooth-shaven priest’ at the end of the story ? Write an essay about 300-600 words “The Son’s Veto” basically revolves around the relationship between a mother and son. This short story offers us, the readers, a very insightful critique of the social class system in-place in England during the nineteenth century. The plot begins where the story introduced the protagonist, Sophy, who is a rather “humble” human from a rural English village; a fact that plays a major role in her unhappiness throughout the story. After she marries into a more “proper” existence, Sophy and her new husband, Mr Twycott, a preacher 20- years her elder, are socially forced to relocate because they had committed “social suicide” by combining two distinct classes. Randolph , the son of Sophy and Mr Twycott is refined by the high class of society he is involved in. He is proud, arrogant and believes himself to possess the qualities that were demanded in a gentleman’s society because of his father’s clerical position. This is obvious in him even as a young boy, in the way he carries himself- with all the polish of a public school student. He is very fastidious, impatient and sometimes very unfeeling; this is evident in the way he behaves towards his mother. For example :

  • Word count: 876
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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thomas hardy comparing women character

Compare and contrast the way in which Hardy presents the female characters from two of the tales in 'The Distracted Preachers and Other Tales'. 'The Distracted Preachers and Other Tales' are set in the 19th century, written by Thomas Hardy. He is one of England's most widely known novelists and poets from the Victorian era, who is at least as popular today among ordinary readers as during his own lifetime. He received a great deal of academic attention and acclaim, where the life and personality of Hardy have aroused fascinated interest. 'The Withered Arm' and 'The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion' from 'The Distracted Preachers and Other Tales' are both principally tales of love affairs of normal everyday country lives in the Victorian society, showing the interaction of love and suffering, and the consequences of suffering of the three women where Hardy writes through their eyes. Fate and destiny are often shown in his stories, where lives are altered in their courses. Fates are determined and plots resolved by chance, bad luck or, a malevolent fate. Rhoda Brook, Gertrude Lodge and Phyllis Grove are all women of this time where women had no freedom or liberty, showing a big contrast of beliefs, manners, habits and values between the past and present. Victorian women's lives were powerless and mundane. They were expected to be totally subservient and dependant

  • Word count: 4563
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Surprise and Tension In A Short Story - The Withered Arm

Surprise and Tension in a Short Story The Withered Arm In the opening chapters of The Withered Arm, Thomas Hardy tends to elicit sympathy for Rhoda Brook, rather than Farmer Lodge and his wife, who come into the story later. For example, even the title of chapter one suggests that Rhoda has been miserable. When we are introduced to the character of 'the boy' he is not a very bright and inspired child, after his rough upbringing it is not a pleasant sight to see when Rhoda is telling him to go and spy on his future stepmother. Rhoda has never fully gotten over her ex lover, when the boy does spy on Gertrude he begins to become her friend. Rhoda does not know about her son and Gertrude's relationship as friends, as they become friends a tragedy occurs. The first part begins at the dairy, and the milkmaids discuss Farmer Lodge and his recent marriage. At this point, we know nothing of the relationship between Rhoda and Farmer Lodge, the only hints we have are the occasional glances that the workers give to Rhoda. Our first impression of the maid is this: "..where a thin, fading woman of thirty milked somewhat apart from the rest" Hardy uses his language very carefully. He uses 'thin' and 'fading' and also explains that Rhoda milks her cows away from the rest; she is a very old and delicate woman. Rhoda has her moments in the story where she is seen as the fragile, innocent

  • Word count: 1471
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Comparison of Hardy's "Withered Arm Collection of Short Stories"

English Hardy Coursework Thomas Hardy was a British novelist and a poet who was born in 1840 during Queen Victoria's reign and died at the age of 88 in 1928. Most of Hardy's works are set in the countryside of Wessex. The three stories I will be looking, 'The Withered Arm', 'The Son's Veto' and 'The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion'; are all taken from the collection of stories called 'The Withered Arm and other Wessex Tales'. Hardy's characters were often portrayed as victims of a predestined fate and his stories usually end in awful tragedy. "The Withered Arm" is a tragedy of fate and is a story of two women linked to one man. The Man being Farmer Lodge in this story and the two women being Rhoda Brook, the lower in social class working as a milkmaid and Gertrude the higher in social class who is the clear choice for Farmer Lodge to marry. It is clear from the story that Farmer Lodge has had previous relations with Rhoda Brook and they have even had a child together but society has denied them to have public relationships because of there social status. Therefore only one is liable to be able to marry the Farmer in the eyes of society and that is Gertrude. This causes a subconscious jealousy from Rhoda towards Gertrude that is presented as a form of witchcraft that Rhoda unknowingly possesses. This witchcraft causes Gertrude to visit Rhoda in a dream and Rhoda to

  • Word count: 878
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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thomas hardy rural life and customs

The presentation of rural life and customs are a main part of "Wessex tales" as the customs are a main part of everyone's rural life. The very first line in "The Withered arm" describes the daily routine in the dairy. This gives us an idea straight away what everyday is like for the farm workers. Hardy describes this to us by saying " it was an eighty cow dairy and the troop of milkers, regular and supernumerary, were all at work;" that also gives us a sense everyone has strict orders as the farmer needs to meet his dead line so it's all hands on deck, with the regular workers and extra! In "The Distracted Preacher" however there is no mention of rural life until it gives us a short description of how the middle class live. The narrator tells us this by saying Stockdale "advanced to the parlour, as the front room was called, though it's stone floor was scarcely disguised by the carpet which only overlaid the trodden areas". This gives a nice and plain entrance to the house with the front room being kept for best occasions and the floor only partly being covered in carpet where it is used just to try and show you have money to spare. Then Hardy continues the paragraph carries on and says" but the room looked snug and cheerful. The fire shone brightly, trembling on the bulging mouldings of the table-legs, playing with brass knobs and handles, and lurking in great strength on

  • Word count: 903
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Discuss Thomas Hardy(TM)s Portrayal of Women

Discuss Thomas Hardy's Portrayal of Women Thomas Hardy's short story 'The Withered Arm' strongly illustrates how women were considered when he was growing up. He incorporates this into his stories and we are able to see how they were treated but we are able to enjoy it at the same time. The first comparison in the Withered Arm story is Gertrude's and Rhoda's physical appearance. Hardy's first presentation of Rhoda as a "thin fading woman of thirty, who milked somewhat apart from the rest", tells how Hardy wished us to picture her. As a lonely woman, the 'fading' suggests that she "once had been handsome". She is a tall woman with dark hair and pale skin. She seems to feel sad for her lost beauty and appears jealous of Farmer Lodge's new beautiful wife. As the story progresses she becomes thinner, more faded and clearly sadder looking. Also, Hardy describes Rhoda's house being built of "mud walls" which suggests that Rhoda and her son are living in poverty. In the beginning, Gertrude Lodge is portrayed as the opposite of Rhoda. She is beautiful, graceful and full of "youthful freshness". In contrast to Rhoda's worn-down features, Gertrude's "face was fresh in colour - soft and evanescent like the light under a heap of rose petals". But after Rhoda's 'vision' Gertrude's arm becomes more and more ugly and shrivelled, and her arm seems to be literally 'withering'. When

  • Word count: 1206
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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