By marrying Mr Twycott she moves up the social ladder but also moves out of her familiar surroundings. She only married him because she couldn’t say ‘no’ and this was her biggest regret. Again goes back to the idea of fate. Hardy moved from working class to middle class but he moved up because he was a writer. The only way women could move up the social ladder was by marrying into one. Mr Twycott tried to make her a normal middle class lady. But it didn’t work, ‘her husband had taken much trouble over her education’. This makes you sympathise even more with Sophy as she’s being forced to be something she is not also that she’s in a forced relationship with someone she doesn’t really love. His ideas on society and social class are very strong and are being brought out in the story. He thinks the social ladder is a waste of time, and he thinks it makes people feel worse about themselves. He’s showed this in Sophy Twycotts life. This might have appealed to the Victorian readers about their views on society.
Her relationship with her son is one of the key ways Hardy tries to get sympathy for Sophy and I think very successfully. Very early on in the story you see the dominance of the son over his mother. Quotation, ‘Has, dear mother- not have!’ He corrects his mothers’ speech ‘with an impatient fastidiousness that was almost harsh’. At first you might see this as just an outburst which he doesn’t normally do. But when it says, ‘His mother hastily adopted the correction, and did not resent his making it’ says it’s a frequent occurrence, so you can already see the dominance of Randolph over his mother. Randolph because he’s a public school boy is very arrogant and rude towards his mother and thinks she is a common working class woman. He doesn’t feel he can be associated with her because she is lower than he is, even though she is his mother. It is almost like he is embarrassed of her being his mother. But during this time in history this would have been more normal and acceptable because women had no rights at all really men were by far dominating the home. All this harsh treatment would bring much sympathy Sophy
Hardy is trying to get across his own ideas about social class and the way women are treated. I think he is almost underlining and saying to the readers that social class isn’t making every one equal. By making Randolph have all the bad things of society in him Hardy can express his disgust for the destructive and divisional class system, also he is trying to get across that women are ill treated almost bullied by men. Thomas Hardy values love and acceptability more highly than social acceptability.
His intolerance of his mother and her lower class origins increases he becomes older and more educated. ‘He was reducing their compass to a few thousand people…he drifted further and further away from her. It is saying he’s getting sucked into the snobbery of the world and liking his mother less and less. It says that the only reason Sophy is living is to keep the house open for her son so he’s always got somewhere to go. This also makes you sympathise for Sophy greatly because she is living a horrible life for someone else. Deep down she still loves her son whereas Randolph regards her as ‘a mother who mistakes and origin it was a painful lot as a gentleman to blush for.’
The part, which I think, gets the most sympathy for Sophy is when Randolph forces her to swear in front of his little shrine for god to not marry Sam Hobson. ‘There bade her kneel, and swear that she would not wed Samuel Hobson’. His treatment towards his mother seems petty how he forces a lame woman to swear in front of his in little shrine. It is also cruel and inhumane. He forces her to sacrifice potential happiness so his place in society wont be ruined. It goes back to fate and destiny again and you know now she lives a very depressive unhappy life, this makes you extremely sympathetic. It is also ironic that behaves in this form is going to become a priest. It is almost a mockery of the church. He has done this I think because he used to be very religious and then lost it so he might be getting his own back on problems in his own life.
Sam Hobson is presented as an honest and loyal man. He knows that she is unhappy in her new class. The clever thing at the end, which Hardy does, is that when Sophy dies you hear that Sam is mourning for her, which gives much sympathy because if Sophy didn’t swear than there was a very good chance that Sam would marry. Again it’s all down to one evil twist of fate.
Hardy uses the language well to create different affects and also to create more sympathy such as ‘the feeble sun shining full upon her’ even the sun when shining on her is feeble which creates more sympathy because everything it shows nothing is going in her favour.
He also uses reoccurring themes to make his points bolder. He reputedly describes he physical handicap and the fact that she is very lonely and depressed, which increases the sympathy of the reader. Also he subtley does not give any views of the son so her views are heard and to create more sympathy.
In the melancholy Hussar the setting is used once again purposefully to create sympathy for Phyllis Grove. In the short story the narrator claims the story was told to him by Phyllis herself this creates sympathy for her. Where she lives is a very secluded small village inn the middle of no where really. Because the village is so isolated for someone to visit the village was amazing for Phyllis. The isolated location of the village makes her ‘so shy that if she met a stranger anywhere in her short rambles she felt ashamed of her gaze’. This is because living with no one to talk to except for your Dad you are going to be shy. It says ‘Before the York Hussars came to the village ‘ scarcely a soul had been seen near her fathers’ house for weeks. That itself makes you sympathetic towards Phyllis because her life must have been so boring. It just shows how rubbish and boring her life is when it says ‘A noise like the brushing skirt of a visitor was
Heard on the doorstep it proved to be a scudding leaf’
To be alerted and to be so excited when you hear the brushing of a skirt you must be very lonely and deprived. Also to find it was only a leaf moving it shows how much she wants to see a visitor. Also a vivid sense of place is established at the beginning of the story evoking past times when the Hussars were camped there. In both the Sons Veto and the melancholy Hussar both characters are very isolated, and as a result of their isolation they‘re very bored.
She is inexperienced with her relationships and is shown throughout the story, which makes the reader sympathise with Phyllis. Her mother isn’t mentioned this causes sympathy as well because she doesn’t have a role model to base herself on. This makes her vulnerable to the false promises of Matthaus Tina and Humphery Gould. Her inexperience of relationships is proven when her view on Matthaus is ‘almost an ideal being’. Which he is not at all.
The plot plays a vital role in which Hardy gets sympathy for Phyllis. When Matthaus asks Phyllis to marry him. Phyllis is brought back to reality and has to make the biggest choice in her life. Again going back to fate and destiny which occurs as well in the Sons Veto with evil twists of fate. Really she’s not allowed to marry him because of the day and age. Also she doesn’t really want to run away to Germany. But when her father allows her to marry him it changes her mind. The reader will sympathise greatly with Phyllis because they know how hard her choice is. Quotation ‘Without him her life seemed dreary..yet the more she looked at his proposal the more she feared to accept it so wild it was’ and she had made a promise to Humphery Gould. She is tied between both men. The twists and turns of the plot makes you sympathise with Phyllis like when she’s just about to leave with Tina Humphery turns up. And from what she over hears he intends to marry her. So she decides to stay and marry him abandoning any hope of happiness. She decides to marry him because she thinks he’s upper class and she settle down whatever. But then she finds out the only reason Humphery is here is to beg her to break off the engagement. As he is already married. This is a cruel twist of fate leaving her depressed. One cruel piece of fate ruins the rest of her life. She is left regretting not going with Matthaus. All readers would feel extremely sympathetic towards Phyllis. Both Sophy Twycott and Phyllis make the wrong decision and have a very depressing life there after.
Humphery Gould has a huge affect in the plot even though he is not mentioned much. Phyllis’ relationship with Humphery is used to make you sympathetic towards her just like Mr Twycott was for Sophy Twycott. He was described as your average bachelor ‘neither good-looking nor positively plain. He is a fake who has no money but yet still manages to fool Phyllis to wanting to marry him which would make the reader sympathetic towards her because they know who he really is. When he does not return from Bath you sympathetic towards her because you think her love life is falling to pieces. In my opinion both Sophy and Phyllis are too honourable to their promises and that what made their downfall. When Humphery Gould makes his confession to Phyllis it is petty this gives even more sympathy. Throughout the character of Humphery Gould Thomas Hardy is criticising the lack of morals of the upper classes. Also in both female characters they don’t fit into the upper classes they’re both country girls
Also Matthaus Tina brings sympathy towards Phyllis Grove by wanting Phyllis Grove to make the biggest decision in her life to run away with him or not. This brings much Sympathy to Phyllis. This scheme she did not like ‘almost appalled her’. His death is very tragic and brings even more sympathy because she has just lost a loved one. Its almost showing how Hardy thinks society doesn’t accept dissent some one who is a bit different.
In both stories the female Characters end up with nothing in their lives. Both Phyllis and Sophy had very male dominated lives. In the last sentence of the Melancholy Hussar ‘still recollect where the soldiers lie, Phyllis lies near’. It adds a sense of finality and hopelessness and gives you the last bit of sympathy for Phyllis.
I conclude the many examples I have discussed and analysed above, in which Thomas Hardy has portrayed the female characters illustrates the effective way he has created sympathy for them in the mind of the reader.
