How does ‘Old Mrs. Chundle’ by Thomas Hardy, And ‘A visit of Charity’, by Eudora Welty reflect Changing attitudes towards old people?

Eudora Welty's short story, 'A visit Of Charity' is about a girl called Marian who is apart of the campfire girls. She goes to an old people's home to earn extra "Brownie" points. Marian ends up in a room with an old woman called Addie and another old woman whose name is not said. The old woman welcomes Marian though Addie, who is bed bound is very grumpy and does not speak very pleasantly at all. Throughout this story the two elderly women are moaning with each other pretty much continuously. Marian tries to leave the room as fast as she can and inevitably does not say goodbye to either of them. She rushes out the room. When she gets outside, she picks up an apple, which she had hidden behind a bush, and ran for the bus. The end of the story is her taking a bite out of the apple.

The way the old women are written about in the two stories tells the reader a lot about the attitudes towards the elderly. In 'Old Mrs. Chundle' she is I believe described as a stereotypical old woman who has bad hearing.

"A deaf old woman", the curate says when describing the woman. "She held her hand to her ear." This immediately shows you that the old woman is hard of hearing. This is stereotypically connected to old women as many of them are deaf.

"She hurried overmuch, and ran up the hill, which at her time of life she ought not to have done. It upset her heart..."

This also gives us a very stereotypical view of an old woman, we usually refer to old woman as people who cannot run and have medical problems.

In a 'Visit of Charity' there are two elderly ladies on call Addie and another old woman whose name is not said. We get a very stereotypical view of an old grumpy woman in Addie. She is thin and is very old. Her hands are filled with freckles and she has false teeth, she's bitter, takes medicine and is bed bound.

"The old woman in bed cleared her throat and spoke"

The phrase 'woman in bed' continuously tells us that Addie is bed bound.

The other old woman is briefly described throughout the story. We never find out much about her. We believe that she is quite friendly when she welcomes Marian.

"Did you come to be our little girl for a while." We find out as soon as we meet the other old woman that she has claw like fingers and a bony face, "Square smile stamped on her bony face"

We find out that the old woman likes flowers and she has no reminders of the outside world. She rocks on her chair while Marian is there. Both women in the story are stereotypical views of old women. We find out that they are bored and lonely. They spend a lot of their time in the old peoples home. This is how we would refer as an old woman in a stereotypical view.

Mrs. Chundle lives in a cottage. She lives on her own, which tells us she is an independent woman. It tells us in the text that she lived in a stone-built old cottage of respectable and substantial build. This tells us she's like a typical countrywoman with a dodgy accent. The two old women in 'A Visit Of Charity' live in bog standard living conditions.

Marian says,

"The tiny room had altogether too much furniture."

"Everything smelled wet-even the floor."

She also describes the tone of the room,

"How dark it was

"It was like being caught in a robbers cave, just before one was murdered."

The characters in the two stories are treated differently.

The curate cared for Mrs. Chundle as he wanted Mrs. Chundle to attend mass, as he felt sorry for her living on her own with no one to speak to. So he thought of the ideas of the trumpet and her position in the church.

"H'm- I'm sorry. There's one thing I could do, which I would with pleasure, if you'll use it. I could get you an ear trumpet. Will you use it?" This shows that the curate is treating the old lady kindly and knowing the fact that she can't hear properly being the reason why she can't go to mass.

In 'A visit of Charity', we are told that the old women were living in an old room. The room was cold, damp, dark and grim. This shows that the old women weren't treated properly.

Marian says,

"Her hands got colder and colder...How dark it was..." This shows that the nurses or the members of staff running the old peoples home do not care of the treatment of the ladies. 'Old Mrs. Chundle' is the most positive and realistic story about old people. The message the author is trying to tell us in the story is that we should respect the elderly as we will one day be old. We should give them all the respect the need and deserve. We should always treat them kindly, as we know their lives are soon going to come to an end so let them live in style or the best that the careers can. In 'Old Mrs. Chundle', the curate tried to discourage the old woman from going to mass on the last day of her life. The curate obviously must of felt guilty, as he should have let the old woman go to mass if it is what she wanted to do. However he thought differently, he wanted to get rid of her instantly. Mrs. Chundle loved the fact that she could go to mass so did the best she could to get there. The curate felt guilty as he was just going to discourage her from doing that. The author presented Mrs. Chundle the way he did to display an average old country woman living by herself. This made the story more original and believable as it was a common place for elderly ladies.

Matthew Brooke