However Phyllis still wants to run away with Mathias, a soldier from the York Hussar’s. At this point Dr Grove puts another obstacle in Phyllis’s way by saying that she is going to stay with her aunt who is supposed to be even worse than her father. This shows that Phyllis has no rights for as long as she lives with her father she cannot do as she pleases.
However on the night of Phyllis’s and Mathias’s Departure Phyllis sees Humphrey Gould in a coach driving towards her house. Phyllis thinks that Humphrey has come back to marry her however she still wants to go with Mathias. ‘Her promise must be kept, and esteem must take the place of love. She would preserve her self-respect. She would stay at home, and marry him, and suffer.’ This quotation shows that although Humphrey Gould has left her for so long she will marry to keep her self respect by keeping her promise to Humphrey and not disrespect herself or her family.
This sort of Social Hierarchy is also shown in ‘The Son’s Veto’. However it is a vicar, highly classed gentleman, who marries his parlour maid after he feels that it is his fault for her becoming crippled. Due to the vicar marrying his parlour maid he therefore commits ‘social suicide’ and so he moves to the town to get away from everyone who knows him. This makes Sophy sad as she misses the countryside and Sam. Sam was a gardener who was going to marry Sophy. When Mr Twycott died Sophy’s son was given everything and in the will Sophy was given a small house to live in.
One day when Sophy was sitting near the window during the early morning and she saw her old friend Sam going down the road to the market. The very next day she spots him again but this time she shouts for him and they start talking about the old country and then Sam starts talking about Sophy’s son and where he goes to school and then calls her a ‘Lady’ but she replies to him by saying 'No, I am not a lady,' she said sadly. 'I never shall be. But he's a gentleman, and that--makes it--O how difficult for me!' This shows that due to Sophy having been a parlour maid and marrying a vicar, gentleman, she has no I idea of how to act like a lady and so she believes she is bringing shame to her son.
As the relationship between Sam and Sophy develops Sam asks her to marry him. However Sophy must know whether her son will be happy about it. At first her son seems fine about her remarrying but when she tells him who she wants to marry, he starts to through insults at her for even thinking of marrying Sam he says to her; 'I am ashamed of you! It will ruin me! A miserable boor! A churl! A clown! It will degrade me in the eyes of all the gentlemen of England!' This shows that the son holds his place in society higher than that of his own mothers happiness and so his mother replies to him by saying; 'Say no more--perhaps I am wrong! I will struggle against it!' she cried miserably. This shows that Sophy will give up her happiness for her son and not go behind his back to disgrace him in any way although he feels that he is already disgraced by his mothers past life.
In ‘Tony Kytes The Arch Deceiver’ Tony is on his way to pick up his fiancé when on the way he meets his old girlfriend, Unity, who asks for a lift to her house however on the way he spots his fiancé, Millie, and so he asks her to hide in the back of the wagon. When he meets his fiancé they carry along on the road however on the way he spot another old girlfriend, Hannah and so he asks his fiancé politely to hide under the sacks in the back of the wagon and so when Tony starts to talk to Hannah talking about why he chose Millie instead of her Tony begins to think about it and doesn’t know why. This makes Millie quite aggravated and eventually all three women find each other and cause a great argument.
However after all of the argument everyone calms down and Tony goes to each of them and asks them whether they will marry them and both Hannah and Unity say no however look back to see if Tony asks them again and then they would say yes because marrying someone in Tony Kytes status would be a ‘great move’. After Tony asks Hannah and Unity he is eventually left with Millie. Even though Millie may think she was the last resort she does not argue or moan about the incident but just carries on like normal. This shows you how much women in the 18th century could put up with.
However in all of the above descriptions all of the women have been oppressed in ‘The Distracted Preacher’ it is the absolutely the opposite. This is because Lizzy is the ringleader of a smuggling ring of the village Nether-Moynton. Lizzy is absolutely different because she does not follow the rules of any man. Lizzy also dresses up as a man to perform the jobs. Mr Stockdale could not convert her to the side of ‘good’ while the jobs were going on but it was only when the village started to get into real trouble that she decided to marry Stockdale and become a proper vicar’s wife. However Hardy wanted to have another ending for his story but and the time the book was published it would have been unheared of and people would have been offended. What Thomas Hardy wanted Lizzy to do was marry her cousin and live in America where they lived life how they wanted.
