The Presentation of Female Characters in 3 Short Stories by Thomas Hardy

The Presentation of Female Characters in 3 Short Stories by Thomas Hardy

The purpose of this essay is to explore the way in which Tomas Hardy

portrayed women in his stories. And to see what this tells a modern

audience about society of the time and the role of women. I have

studied three of Thomas Hardys short stories; The Son Veto, The

Withered Arm and The Distracted Preacher. All these stories where set

in the rural county of Wessex. A county mad up by Thomas Hardy

himself. They all feature women as the pivotal characters i.e. the

catalyst of the story, the story wouldn't work if they weren't in it.

All three of the stories feature strong independent women that are

dominated by men. (Sophy Twycot, Rhoda Brook and Lizzie Newberry) this

fits strongly with the idea of the time that women should bow down to

men and do as they are instructed.

The Withered Arm

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One of the stories we studied is "The Withered Arm". This features

Rhoda Brook. A single mum living with her son as the pivotal

character. Rhoda son is from Farmer Lodge who Rhoda works for as a

milkmaid. From the very beginning you realise that Rhoda has been

rejected from the rest of the milkmaids and even the rest of the

villagers.

Rhoda and her son both live on Egdon Heath. A dark ghostly place,

which I think, is meant to reflect the personality of Rhoda. This is a

key point because many of the villagers think that Rhoda has

connections to witchcraft and superstitions.

Rhoda is a very proud woman who becomes obsessed with Gertrude Lodge.

The new bride of Farmer Lodge. Rhoda wants to know everything about

Gertrude and what she is like. She even gets her son to spy on her.

Although he doesn't think this is right he does it. This is important

because it shows that he respects his mother even though no one else

does. Rhoda starts to compare herself to Gertrude because she thinks

she is better than her.