The Withered Arm by Thomas Hardy and Farthing House by Susan Hill
I am going to be comparing two short stories; The withered arm by
Thomas Hardy, which was written before 1900 and Farthing house by
Susan Hill which was written more recently. The themes in each of the
two stories are quite similar. They are both based around women, their
needs and their wants and illegitimate children. Both stories have
obvious similarities especially with the types of women in the story.
'The withered arm' was a story written before 1900. At the time when
The Withered Arm was written, there was a very high child mortality
rate. Babies died at an early age due to poor health care and repeated
pregnancies. Many women died during childbirth. There were some forms
of birth control but they were condemned by the church.
Society believed that a woman's main purpose in life was marriage and
motherhood. For many, this was not possible. There was a high
mortality rate amongst male babies, early death amongst adult males
and emigration among marriageable young men.
There were hierarchies in society. Quite often, rich males would
commit adultery with poor, working females. Once the woman got
pregnant, she would be left on her own as marriage was not possible.
Single mothers would then become outcasts in society. Generally,
people knew what was happening. They were against sex outside marriage
but they did nothing to stop it.
Now in the 21st century, the roles of women have changed. They are no
longer expected to just get married and have children. There is more
equality in today's society. Although women still get married, they
are also allowed a career and life of their own. They have more
freedom and independence. There is better health care and birth
control but sex outside marriage still continues. Today, there are
many single mothers. Although they are no longer the outcasts they
once were, they still have not been entirely accepted by everyone and
are sometimes treated as inferiors and thought of as sluts.
In the Withered Arm, Rhoda Brook, a poor, once beautiful, milkmaid was
used by the rich farmer Lodge. After she became pregnant, she was
tossed aside like some used toy. Lodge wanted nothing to do with her.
He was rich, she was poor; there was no way they could marry. Rhoda
had a child without a husband. Everyone in their village knew about
the affair but did nothing to help. They knew that Rhoda had been used
and then discarded of but still continued to treat her as an outcast
in society. She was the thing to gossip about when there was nothing
After touring the Reynolda House and reviewing all the choices, two pieces really stood out to me. The Old Hunting Ground by Worthington Whittredge and Home in the Woods by Thomas Cole where those pieces. These paintings both have their similarities, but yet at the same time have their individual differences. The Old Hunting Ground was created in 1864, while Home in the Woods was composed in 1847. That is a difference of 17 years making Home in the Woods older obviously. Both of these paintings share the mediums of oil on canvas. The size of Home in the Woods for the frame is: 52 1/2 x 74 1/2 in. (133.4 x 189.2 cm), and the canvas: 44 3/8 x 66 1/8 in. (112.7 x 168 cm.) For The Old Hunting Ground the frame is : 50 1/2 x 41 1/4 x 5 in. (128.3 x 104.8 x 12.7 cm) and the canvas is: 36 1/4 x 27 1/8 in. (92.1 x 68.9 cm)
To understand the significant changes within the role of women, it’s important to look at the position women held in society prior to World War II. In a famously quoted ruling by the United States Supreme Court in a case denying a woman’s right to practice law, the following excerpt penned by the Honorable Joseph P. Bradley in 1873 sums up how women were perceived during that period of time by their male counterparts. Bradley declared, "The paramount destiny and mission of women are to fulfill the noble and benign offices of wife and mother -- this is the law of the Creator" . While many women may agree that the role of wife and mother is a noble one, most would certainly not agree this position would define their destiny.
Montresor in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” and the chambermaid in Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s “The Goose Girl” both personify the dark side of human nature. In “The Cask of Amontillado,” Montresor, the vile narrator, tells the story of how he ruthlessly murdered his victim, Fortunato, fifty years ago. In “The Goose Girl,” the treacherous chambermaid forces the princess to trade places with her in order to marry a prince from a distant land. Montresor uses manipulation to accomplish his revenge; unlike the chambermaid who primarily uses coercion and deception. Montresor was successful in committing the perfect revenge whereas the chambermaid was exposed and punished for her deception. Both stories use different methods to teach different lessons. It is through Montresor’s victim, Fortunato, whose weaknesses illustrate the dangers of addiction, pride, and insensitivity, whereas the chambermaid exemplifies the perils of deceitfulness. Even though Montresor and the chambermaid are distinct in many ways, both characters are opportunistic, deceitful, and sadistic in nature.
The King of the Castle by Susan Hill and The Half Brothers by Elizabeth Gaskell
Comparison between The Body Snatchers written by R.L Stevenson in 1884 and The Landlady written by Roald Dahl in 1960 In this assignment I am going to compare and contrast the way that Stevenson and Dahl create and maintain dramatic tension. Both of these texts contain many similarities as they both involve death and deceit, which is conveyed in the characters. In The Body Snatchers there are several people involved in the deceit, which encapsulates the relationship between the characters. The landlady is the only person involved in the murders, deceit and stuffing of the victims in The Landlady. This conveys loneliness and she seems to be withdrawn from society.
Bliss and Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield and Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin
call for help. In the mind of the reader, a scary place is created. We
Women had a specific role they had to fill. They had to look just so, act just so, raise the children in a certain way, and keep up the house in a perfect way. Many women tried to fill this position of the “perfect housewife”. They wore corsets that put about 22 pounds of pressure on their internal organs, which caused cracked ribs, displacement of the liver and uterine prolapsed and collapsed lungs, all just to look the way men wanted them to. Women balanced their ever so busy family lives as well as their social lives. They stayed home to take care of the kids, while taking a break to have friends over for tea or coffee. Women had to be the picture of perfection.
is quite a scary maybe a dark and cold place. The Signalman is set in a
Rhoda is curious about the new wife and sends her son of to "check her
Welcome to Gilead, here “women are tortured and killed for disobeying the law - a society where religious beliefs, the political structure, and the sexual identity are so intertwined as to justify and require the control of women’s freedom, the sexual victimization of women, and the torture and murder of women who do not comply” (Cameron 298). The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood plots the dystopian society of Gilead in which “all men are not created equal: some men are second-class citizens and all women are third class citizens” (Callaway 48). Because of this “women are seen as potentially threatening and subversive, and, therefore, require strict control” (Callaway 48). In order to maintain the control, Gilead families are torn apart,
In her novel, Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood conceives a dystopian society, set sixteen years from now, in which the United States has become the New Republic of Gilead. This version of the future takes root because of a nuclear and biological war that leaves many women unable to reproduce. Thus, those who are still fertile are treated as illicit liaisons for rich older couples who want a child but cannot. These fertile women are called “handmaids,” a term referring to a story in the Bible, where Rachel sends her handmaid to Jacob to bear him a child in her stead. Although it is arguable that Margaret Atwood fails to create a convincing dystopian society in her novel, it is plausible that today’s current events, laden with war, sexism, and
“Women’s roles were constantly changing and have not stopped still to this day.” In the early 1900s many people expected women to be stay at home moms and let the husbands support them. But this all changes in the 1920s, women got the right to vote and began working from the result of work they have done in the war. Altogether in the 1920s women's roles have changed drastically.
“The Signalman” by Dickens and “The Withered Arm” by Hardy The story of "The Signalman" opens with the words “Halloa! Below there”, this short, but effective line is very significant to the plot of the story. A questioning atmosphere is already created, as it is not clear to the reader as to who is speaking, or whom the anonymous figure is being shouted at? The opening paragraph of the "The Signalman" is unexplained, leaving the readers questioning.
warn the young man not to go in the room. Suspense is also created as