Men and Women in The Withered Arm and Other Stories by Thomas Hardy and Men and Women in Turned by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Men and Women in The Withered Arm and Other Stories by Thomas Hardy and Men and Women in Turned by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

"The Withered Arm" and "Turned" are both focused on relationships

between men and women. "The Withered Arm" was about the relationship

between Rhoda Brook and Farmer Lodge and also who he married later on

called Gertrude. "Turned" was about the relationship between

Mr.Marroner and Mrs.Marion Marroner but Mr.Marroner also had an affair

with his servant Gerta Peterson and made her pregnant. Thomas Hardy

when writing his stories focuses mainly on tradition where as

Charlotte Perkins being a woman herself has represented other women as

being strong and independent.

The men in Thomas Hardy's stories are represented in an extremely

traditional way as they are being represented as powerful and

emotional. In "The Withered Arm", Farmer Lodge is represented as

strong, powerful, unemotional and degrading towards women. He somehow

changes throughout the story. At the start of the story he had

superficial feelings and also neglected his son as he was born through

the affair with a low class woman. He then marries Gertrude as he

wanted a young pretty wife. He therefore was represented there as

being selfish because he never cared about other people's feelings

except for his own.

"O yes. You must expect to be stared at just at first, my pretty

Gertrude". (pg 5)

In the middle of the story, Gertrude's arm becomes more and more

disfigured which makes Farmer Lodge become more obsessed with the

women's appearance. He then starts neglecting her just like he did to

Rhoda Brook and all just because of her wither arm. But towards the

end of the story he eventually changes for the better and appeared as

a thoughtful and chastened man because after his wife Gertrude died,

he bequeathed the whole of his not inconsiderable property to a

reformatory for boys.

Other examples of characters like Farmer Lodge are Humphrey Gould in

"The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion" and Tony Kytes in "Tony