Comparing the Ways in Which Susan Hill and Thomas Hardy Present the Woman in Black and the Withered Arm
Both the Woman in Black and the Withered Arm are well known pieces of
modern literature, and utilize both different and similar methods to
present a narrative of the supernatural. In this assessment of the two
books I will be considering the pace, tension, description, structure,
style, literature devices and the creative writing within the two
books. However throughout my evaluation of the two pieces I will take
into account the fact that although The Withered Arm and The Woman in
Black are both considered short stories rather than novels, their
lengths vary immensely. This may help account for some of the
differences but may also be a reflection of the author's preferred
style of writing, and therefore can be used to give us a better
insight into their reasons and motives behind every literal device.
Thomas Hardy, the author of The Withered Arm is probably one of the
most effective and to the point authors of his time. Every single
person, every single place and every single object in the book has a
point, whether it is an obvious point or a more vague and ambiguous
point. Therefore person, place and object create a very effective
example of the scenic code in The Withered Arm by Hardy. Hardy uses
his flair for being succinct and concise to not only decrease the
amount of words needed to tell the story, but to also increase the
amount of hidden and inconspicuous messages in the written and spoken
dialogue. This can explain the amount of detail in the book in
relation to the length of the story. The concealed details give
indic...
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marriage. Hill employs an original structure to her story where a
framing narrative precedes the main bulk of the story. This
Love plays a major part in the two books; it serves as a reason for
some of the events and gives motives for some people's actions. In the
withered arm, love could be considered the driving force behind
Rhoda's initial hate for Gertrude. It is Gertrude's deep desire to be
loved again that forces her to take such extreme measures. It is
Jennet Humphyre's love for her son that makes her become a
malevolently evil force.
In conclusion I think that Hardy's narrative of the supernatural is
superior to Hill's as although it is much shorter, using literary
analysis, I have discovered that it contains far more in terms of
detail, allusion, references, prophesies and obscurity and ambiguity.
In The Scarlet Letter, author Nathaniel Hawthorne efficiently conveys his purpose to the audience through the use of numerous rhetorical devices in his novel. Two such rhetorical strategies Hawthorne establishes to convey his purpose of informing the audience of valuable life lessons in The Scarlet Letter are characterization and the theme of duality.
At times, the film seems to reenact a modern love story to appease a modern audience. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel showed his readers love and sin can be one of the same. Each author wrote what they thought would suit their own personal or public preference. Joffe’s purpose in taking the chosen route was to give the characters an extended theme based on their original plot line. Neither story is “better”; one may be more entertaining while another is more informative.
“To Mr. Collins belongs the credit of having introduced into fiction those most mysterious of mysteries, the mysteries which are at our own doors.” So said Henry James in an unsigned review of another author’s work. But his view was certainly not shared by all those who cast their opinions into the fray. An unsigned review in the Saturday Review said of Collins’ work, “Estimated by the standard of great novels, the Woman in White is nowhere. Somewhere between these two points are friends and correspondents of Mr. Wilkie Collins. Novelist George Meredith wrote to Collins himself saying, “The tension of the W[oman] in W[hite] is not exactly pleasant, though cleverly produced. One wearies of it...” Charles Dickens was reserved in his opinion. He observed that, “There cannot be a doubt that it is a very great advance on all your former writing...” and also, “I seem to have noticed, here and there, that the great pains you take express themselves a trifle too much, and you know that I always contest your disposition to give an audience credit for nothing, which necessarily involves the forcing of points on their attention...” Considering all the material Wilkie Collins was either to be praised for inventing a new style, looked at in scorn for his lack of character development, or deemed the author of a work that “is an inferior metal altogether, though good and valuable of its kind,” as the Saturday Review critic stated.
... each other and ultimately determine the fate of the characters in the story, especially the fate of the Heroine.
Jane Eyre vs Mary Wollstonecraft There is no doubt that Charlotte Bronte knew the works of Mary Wollstonecraft, and she knew them well. Although Wollstonecraft's ideas were written a hundred years beforehand, many women did not read her work because it was not easily attainable. Many women were not educated to read this piece of literature, and many men deemed it unimportant to their education. Bronte's works were cleverly disguised in women's entertainment, the novel. The main themes both women discuss are education, love, and marriage.
Love is often misconstrued as an overwhelming force that characters have very little control over, but only because it is often mistaken for the sum of infatuation and greed. Love and greed tread a blurred line, with grey areas such as lust. In simplest terms, love is selfless and greed is selfish. From the agglomeration of mythological tales, people deduce that love overpowers characters, even that it drives them mad. However, they would be wrong as they would not have analyzed the instances in depth to discern whether or not the said instance revolves around true love. Alone, true love help characters to act with sound reasoning and logic, as shown by the tales of Zeus with his lovers Io and Europa in Edith Hamilton’s Mythology.
Agress, Lynne. The Feminine Irony: Women on Women in Early-Nineteenth-Century English Literature. London: Associated UP, 1978.
It is the aim of this piece to consider how two elements are developed in the opening chapters of three classic novels written by 19th century English women: Emma, Wuthering Heights, and Jane Eyre, respectively. The elements to be considered are a) character; and b) character relationships. Consideration will be given to see how each opening chapter develops these two aspects, and the various approaches will be compared and contrasted as well.
Although both novels show the conceptions of manhood differently, the style of narration play an important role in constructing...
again I'm used to it by now, if you can get used to folk talking the
In particular, two excerpts from Camus and Woolf offer a wealth of stylistic devices in connection with their intended themes. From The Stranger, the chosen passage tells of the main character's (Meursalt) confrontation with a threatening Arab and his resulting murder. The selection from To the Lighthouse describes the general passage of time, using a more poetic manner with its emphasis on description over plot.
These stories draw up on his experiences enabling him to write ‘Wessex Tales’. Among many pieces of work is ‘The Withered Arm’. ‘The Withered Arm’ is a well-crafted short story written in the prose format. The quote above portrays what pre-twentieth century literature should embrace; good literature should be insightable, realistic and significant to all people from any era. In this essay I am going to describe the ways in which Thomas Hardy has made his short story, ‘The Withered Arm’ interesting to the modern reader.
Apart from the device of the two narrators, there is another device used by Emily Bronte which deserves consideration. The novel begins not at the beginning of the story; it begins
seems to be dull and boring. She works as a milk maid, then when she
“He is a gentleman, and I am a gentleman 's daughter. So far we are equal” (Austen 51). Jane Austen was an acute observer of the Georgian era society that she lived in, through her observations, she began to notice many flaws, especially in the treatment of women. With her love of writing and social awareness, Austen decided to combine both together to create some of the most famous works of literature. As seen in Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice and others, Austen uses realism, an upper class voice, and an ironic tone to deliver her underlying message of feminism to the gentry of the Georgian era.