Hardy's Portrayal of Women in His Short Stories

Hardy's Portrayal of Women in His Short Stories

Thomas Hardy was a major novelist and poet of the late 19th and early

20th centuries. 'The Wessex tales' are a set of short stories, which

are based in the 1830's - 1840's although Hardy wrote them many years

later. They are very much based around where he grew up and the

society he lived in. Egdon Heath is a moor land where he grew up but

has been re-named, along with all the other areas mentioned, which are

based on real places.

The three stories that I am writing about are:

· 'The Withered Arm'

· 'The Distracted Preacher'

· 'The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion'

My essay will be based around the women in these stories, who are all

very different.

Lizzy Newberry, Rhoda Brook, Gertrude Lodge and Phyllis Grove, are all

young women whose lives are portrayed out in rural Wessex communities

in the 1830's to 1840's.

This was a society dominated by men and male values particularly with

regard to their relationships with women. In terms of where the power

lies within relationships and within this society the women are to

some degree powerless. There is a fatal inevitability to the way their

lives end. Whether in loss, love or death.

In these stories we see that money is a dominating factor, especially

with men. In one story 'The Withered Arm', farmer Lodge is a

prosperous and successful man, who fathers Rhoda Brook's child,

without being condemned by the local community. He can ignore Rhoda

for several years and bring a new wife Gertrude to Holmstoke.

Gertrude Lodge is des...

... middle of paper ...

...th no sense of honour or

responsibility.

Perhaps in some ways the most vulnerable and slightly ridiculous

figure is Stockdale. He is full of socially prescriptive ideas about

how Lizzy Newberry should be as a potential rector's wife. Her

determination and independence of spirit is simply something he can't

understand. It's interesting that when reviewing the story forty years

later, Hardy regretted the ending he gave at the time of writing. He

wished that he'd allowed Lizzy to go forth to America with Owlett,

rather than regretting her smuggling adventure for the community with

all the organisation and energy she showed. Hardy felt by this time

that it would have been a much better ending for Lizzy, than settling

as she does in the original story, for timid domesticity as the wife

of the 'The Distracted Preacher.