With close reference to 5 Thomas Hardy short stories, compare his descriptions of the relationships between men and women. Pay particular attention to the language Hardy uses to convey situations and emotions.

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With close reference to 5 Thomas Hardy short stories, compare his descriptions of the relationships between men and women. Pay particular attention to the language Hardy uses to convey situations and emotions.

Thomas Hardy was born on June the 2nd, 1848, at Higher Brockhampton in Dorset, a little hamlet, a few miles from Dorchester. He soon moved to London to study architecture, writing poems and short stories in his spare time, eventually moving on to do full-time writing, abandoning architecture.

        Most of his stories are set in the imagined county of Wessex, which encompasses the counties, Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall. His novels and short stories all involved several issues; Victorian relationships and the dynamics of actual relationships between people and Wessex itself. In fact the details of relationships in his books help contemporary historians understand Victorian England.

        The five stories I have chosen to compare are: ‘The Withered Arm’, ‘Old Mrs. Chundle’, ‘Squire Petrick’s Lady’, ‘Superstitious Man’, and ‘Tony Kytes, The Arch Deceiver’.

        The first relationship I will work on will be Tony Kytes and Milly, Unity and Hanna from ‘Tony Kytes, The Arch Deceiver’. The first relationship described in the story is the relationship between Unity and Tony. By the point at which we first meet Unity we have already been told about Tony’s fiancé Milly. So from this we can gather already a few things about the characters because riding in a carriage with another woman than your wife, in Victorian times, would be most certainly frowned upon, so we can gather that Tony must be quite an impulsive fellow and she must like him a lot. We know also that in Victorian times women followed men not the other way so that is why I say she must like him.

        The conversation in the carriage is pretty much always revolving around Unity talking about Milly, she tries to get him to think again, like in this passage: ‘why did you desert me for that other one?’ This comment shows us she really likes Tony, because, to speak out like that is not very Victorian. In response Tony just seems to take the compliment (it goes to his head) and charmingly says: ‘…I never knowed you was so pretty before!’ The exclamation mark at the end emphasises the blunt and charming effect of what has just been said, it also leaves us as readers in a strange place as we cannot tell whether he is joking or being serious. However when she responds ‘prettier than she [referring to Milly]’ he has no response. So now the reader knows even more about the character of Tony; he wasn’t being serious before. It also shows us how shallow and desperate Unity is, as well as showing us Tony Kytes’ need for a beautiful woman, forgetting the ideas of love. The final part of this relationship, apparent in all his relationships is his manipulation and power over her; this is brilliantly shown in the part of the story where he sees his fiancé in the road ahead:

        ‘Unity…will ye lie down in the back part of the wagon and let me cover you over with the tarpaulin…Do! –And I’ll think over what we’ve said; and perhaps I shall put a loving question to you after all, instead of to Milly’.

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        This speech brings us to a number of conclusions about this relationship. We realise that Tony has a lot of power over Unity, as most men did in those days, and he manipulates her into doing what he want’s her to do. Having the exclamation mark next to do and then a dash shows us how frantic he is, and it is logical to assume that he only talks about ‘the loving question’, marriage, to get her to do what he wants.

        The relationship between Tony and Milly is very similar to the one with Tony and Unity. They are ...

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