Comparing The Withered Arm and An Imaginative Woman

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Recommended: thomas hardy as a writer of short stories with special reference to the withered arm project paper

Comparing The Withered Arm and An Imaginative Woman

I will be examining two novelettes by a single author, Thomas Hardy. "The Withered Arm" and "An Imaginative Woman". I will be highlighting the similarities and differences between them. Additionally I will be analyzing the content of each.

The first thing we notice about the two stories is that they are both written in third person narrative.

Another thing we notice about the style of writing in both is that it is very old fashioned, which tells us these novelettes must have been written some time in the 19th century.

The main characters in both stories are women. In "The Withered Arm" Gertrude is the main character, and in "An Imaginative Woman" Ella is the main character.

The main themes in both stories are fate and irony. This makes both stories very tragic, which intrigues the reader. This is why Thomas Hardy has chosen to write in this style.

Although the two stories are set around the same time, they are set in different regions. "An Imaginative Woman" is set in an urban environment and "The Withered Arm" is set in a more rural area. This shows us that Thomas Hardy does make variations in his writing.

Capital punishment plays a major part in "The Withered Arm", as Gertrude must place her damaged arm on the neck of a hung criminal, to cure it.

"The Withered Arm" also shows a lot of differentiation between the social classes. The reason why Farmer Lodge disowned his son is because Lodge was having an affair with Rhoda at the time, so he was bore of her. She is of a lower social class than he is so he doesn't want people to know he was involved with her.

There is much gender discrimination in "An Imaginative Woman". People would have not been generally interested in poetry by a women, so Ella uses a male name for the author of her poems. This makes more people read her work.

Incompatibility plays an important part in both stories, but more so in "An Imaginative Woman". Thomas Hardy explains:

Marchmill considered his

wife's likes and

fancies, those smallest

greatest particulars that

no common denominator

could be applied.

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