Female Characters in The Withered Arm

Compare and contrast at least two of the female characters in two or

more of the female characters in two or more of the tales you have

studied.

Gertrude Lodge, Rhoda Brook and Phyllis Grove are all very different

women in different situations; however they all suffer an undeserved

fate. Gertrude, from The Withered Arm, loses her looks, the love of

her husband and her friendship with Rhoda, who in turn loses her only

friend, her son and must suffer the shame of an illegitimate child.

This was highly unacceptable at the time, especially as the father of

the child was of a higher class and people of different classes were

not expected to mix. Phyllis lived a reclusive life with her father

up until she met Matthäus Tina, the love of her life, whom she later

watched die after having to abandon him. All three protagonists are

united in the hardship they must each endure. Their suffering was

similar in the way that it was partly due to social principles of the

time, as women had no independence and were expected to be totally

subservient to their fathers and husbands, and this comes through in

Hardy’s short stories.

Gertrude Lodge is “years younger” than her new husband, Farmer Lodge,

and there are constant references to her beauty. She is described as

a “lady complete” which suggests her high class in society and her

respectable upbringing, now married to a suitable man. Her skin is

described as “soft and evanescent, like the light under a heap of rose

petals.” This beautiful image gives the reader an idea of purity and

naivety which also comes across in Gertrude’s personality. The focus

and detail on her beauty at the beginning of the tale also make the

loss of her looks more pointed later on during the...

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...emotive for the reader. Phyllis's love for

Matthaus is tragic - he was a true gentleman, who honestly loved her,

and her one chance at true love was snatched away.

I think these three protagonists of Hardy's short stories are all

similar in the way that they each experience short-lived happiness.

Gertrude spent a few months of love with Farmer Lodge, as did Rhoda

before her. They both shared an intimate friendship in which they

each had someone to confide in. Phyllis had a true love with Matthaus

for a short while, instead of a formal marriage with an appropriate

man. I sympathise with each woman at different times in the tales,

especially as their suffering was through no fault of their own, and

partly because of the cultural standards of the era. Although each

woman is very different, they are all united in their failure to find

love and friendship.