Comparing Literary Styles of Dickens and Hardy

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Recommended: The theme of loneliness in literature

Comparing Literary Styles of Dickens and Hardy In order to compare the literary styles of Dickens and Hardy I will

use 'The Signalman´ by Charles Dickens and 'The Withering Arm´ by

Thomas Hardy. 'The Signalman´ features a lonely train signalman who

works in signal box by a railway cutting. He has been visited by a

"spectre" which appears just before a fatal accident takes place. The

other main character, who is also the narrator, meets the signalman

and is told of his sightings. They try to interpret the warnings of

the ghostly figure. As the two develop a friendship, the narrator

returns to the railway cutting to visit the signalman but finds that

he has been killed in an accident that the ghost had warned about.

'The Withered Arm´ features a milkmaid named Rhoda Brook whose

ex-husband, Mr Lodge, remarries a young lady called Gertrude. Even

before meeting Gertrude, Rhoda is jealous of her and begins to hate

her. Without seeing Gertrude, Rhoda dreams that Gertrude is sitting on

top of her, trying to suffocate her. Rhoda reaches out and grabs her

arm, pushing her to the floor. Rhoda wakes up but believes that her

encounter with Gertrude was too vivid and real to be a dream. She

meets Gertrude for the first time and she looks exactly the same in

person as she did in the dream. They become good friends and Gertrude

shows Rhoda the mark on her arm, it clearly resembles the hold that

Rhoda had on Gertrude´s arm and so Rhoda becomes worried that she was

the cause of Gertrude´s withered arm. Rhoda leaves the village as

gossip about the...

... middle of paper ...

...nd his opinions. He also

asks rhetorical questions. This involves us in the story as he

effectively asks us to answer the questions in our own head and think

about what we have read.

There are both similarities and differences between the literary

styles of Dickens and Hardy, but overall there are more differences

than similarities. The stories have similar themes and both authors

use characters to convey their feelings about certain issues,

especially loneliness and isolation. But, many differences between the

two stories and the two authors emerge and can be clearly identified.

Chiefly, Dickens and Hardy make use of characters, relationships,

dialogue, settings, time spans and narrative styles in very different

ways. They are different authors with similar morals and have their

own unique styles and techniques.

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