The Withered Arm

Does Hardy portray a typical view of ghost stories with “The Withered Arm”? In my opinion I don’t think so. Let’s have a look at the comparisons. A typical ghost/supernatural story has usually three ghost sightings but in “The Withered Arm” it’s a different story. The ghost of a living person appears once in the form of a vision. This is very unlike the stereotypical ghost stories of today. I feel Thomas Hardy has uncovered a whole new type of ghost story. One of the messages the story conveys is ‘don’t wish bad on others or it will come back to haunt you’ Our story is set in the fictional region of South West England known as ‘Wessex’. There we meet our three main characters, Rhoda Brook, Farmer Lodge and Gertrude Lodge. Rhoda is a faded milkmaid and twelve years before the story is set Rhoda had an affair and fell pregnant with Farmer Lodge’s child. As he was of a higher class, Farmer Lodge soon abandoned Rhoda and his child. He is now newly wed to the more suited, Gertrude. Although Rhoda had never met the new bride, she carried a strong grudge against her. One night Rhoda had a supernatural vision of the young Mrs Lodge with “... features shockingly distorted... ” and “... wrinkled as by age... These are some of the phrases used to describe the vision. Also Gertrude flashes her new ring at Rhoda taunting her, “the figure thrust forward its left hand mockingly”. I feel this is the point in the story in which the reader is engaged. I do not feel this is typical of a ghost story, like I said previously; the vision was of a living person and not the undead. Setting doesn’t play a strong part in the story but it is still important. Take the description of Rhoda’s house for example; “a rafter showed like a bone protruding through the skin” This allows the reader to empathise with Rhoda’s situation. The description of her house then goes on to say the walls were made of mud, this shows the reader just how working class Rhoda is and how life must be a struggle for her and her son. Also the description of Egdon Heath and the atmosphere around it plays a significant role in the story. “... dark though it was as yet only early afternoon... ” “... the wind howled dismally... ” The language used describes the atmosphere of Egdon Heath as mysterious and quite frightening. This story is written in the third person so the reader can observe all the characters and also it makes the story unbiased. I don’t feel in some ways the characters are typical of a ghost story and in some ways are not. The number of characters, a small amount, is typical of a ghost story. Also there is a fortune teller, conjuror Trendle, like in many supernatural stories. There are no ‘ghost characters’ as such, making the story different to most other ghost/supernatural stories. Hardy uses chapters in his short story to create suspense and to break it down. The chapters often end on cliff hangers which hooks the reader in. The use of rhetorical questions proves a deal of suspense. “Could this be the explanation, and had such things as this ever happened before? Hardy leaves a lot to the imagination for example, the egg in the glass, you never see what Gertrude sees in the glass and you never hear what conjurer Trendle says to her. This is left to the reader’s imagination. It is obvious what Gertrude sees in the glass, yet Hardy does not tell us, making the reader question what they originally thought. The dream scene with Rhoda and Gertrude is an excellent example of how tension builds in the story. The imagery and use of emotive language helps portray the suspense and tension “the figure thrust forward its left hand mockingly” “... addened mentally and nearly suffocated by pressure... ” I think the ending of the story is very well done. For some the ending may seem rushed, but it is a short story and it delivers its message quickly but effectively. The twist in the story is that the young man being hanged was in fact Rhoda’s son and all three main characters are present for the first time. Hardy sums up at the end what happens after Gertrude’s death, following the hanging. This is important for the reader, as it ties together what happens with the characters later on in life. Hardy raises concerns about social class in “The Withered Arm” He feels that the working class were mistreated and shows this, in the description of Rhoda’s house, the fact that Rhoda’s son is so unimportant he doesn’t have a name and, because of his working class how he was hanged as an example to trouble makers, even though he was innocent. He wants the reader to share his views. Hardy’s own life was somewhat similar to the events that happened in “The Withered Arm” He was an outcast when it came to working in London, just like Rhoda in the dairy. His mother was of higher class than his father, like Rhoda, Farmer Lodge and the boy. This is significant to the story as it has some relation to Hardy’s personal life. Also he was a strong believer in the supernatural and supernatural forces and his mother would have known conjurors in the village he grew up in, people like conjuror Trendle. As a modern reader I feel that Hardy has succeeded in telling an effective tale as it scared me like it would have scared the readers in

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